Anderson Family: aspen grove

6 days after we got home from hawaii, we left again for utah for two weeks! it's been a crazy summer, but i have loved traveling so much with our family. this time it was my family's vacation. my parents get everyone together every summer and we love it!

this year we went to aspen grove. i absolutely love this place. growing up we went for ten years straight (we would go with like 5 other families from vegas). i had my first kiss here and i think i had so many crushes on different counselors. going back as an adult i understand why parents liked it so much. its up in the mountains, just past sundance. it was so nice to be in the cool mountains for a change. aspen grove is a family camp. they split all the kids up according to age and place them in groups. during the day the kids go with their groups after breakfast, then come back for lunch, then they go back to their groups until dinner. in their groups they go swimming, play all sorts of games in the different centers they have around the camp, do arts and crafts, rock climbing and hiking. they also learn a song throughout the week for the program on the last night. while the kids are in their groups during the day the adults can do whatever they want! they even take jane and put her down for a nap in the afternoon. it is absolutely wonderful. so, while the kids were in their groups my brothers and sisters (and their spouses) did things like, the ropes course (which was always my favorite), paintball, shot air rifles, took naps, just hung out and signed up for many tournaments (you play against other adults in camp). my brothers signed up for basketball and won, ryan and i did doubles tennis and won, ryan did racquetball and all the adults did sand volleyball and won that!

they also have family activities. the nice thing was that they kept jane in her group so ryan and i could do the activities with the older kids. they have an aspen follies. each family basically does different relays against each other. i loved this as a kid and it was still fun. the cooper family got 3rd place! then they have water frolics (they kept jane again!), which are different water relay games. they have a pioneer night with a train ride, snow cones and tons of pioneer games. that was another fun night. the last night they have a program and a family dance and then a teen dance. one night they play a movie outside which the kids enjoyed.

we will definitely be back. you go from saturday to friday and you don't have to cook which is a big plus. when the kids weren't in groups, we hung out in the main area. you can rent all sorts of board games to play or equipment for bad mitten, shuffleboard, fishing, and other things. the have a store where my dad got candy cards for each kid. so the kids could go and buy ice cream or candy whenever they wanted. it was such a fun week!!

after aspen grove was done our little family headed down to orem to stay with ryan's family. cohen went to byu sports camp the following week with cousins and the kids and i went to thanksgiving point, the dinosaur museum in salt lake, ate lunch with grandma colleen, went to the duck pond and just played with our anderson cousins! i love spending time in utah during the summer, but after 2 weeks we were ready to come home and get ready for school!!