Family Vacation at Trail West

This past week, was packed full of adventures, and fun times.  We left from church on Sunday and drove two hours into the mountains to Trail West for a week of family fun.  When we arrived at the camp, we followed riders on horses down to the camp, where all the summer staff were waiting and clapping for us.  They had us get out of our cars, and they put on a little skit, and took our picture in this old carriage.  While they were doing this they took everything out of our car, and put it in our room, and parked our car for us.

We went to a family briefing where they gave us schedules and explained the activities.  We had a yummy dinner, and then had club, where we sang songs, and put on hilarious skits and shows,  they also called us up to play Giant Jenga as a family, competing against another family.  We had a lot of fun doing that, and won.  Since we won the jenga game, they gave us $10 to spend at the snack shop the next day.  Then they took the younger kids out for kids club, while they talked with the adults, about something spiritual.  Then the kids came back in and brought us each an ice cream sundae.  Each child brought us at least one ice cream sundae, so we ended up with way too many ice creams, and had to send the kids off to give them to other people, but they loved bringing us ice cream and sharing it with us.  Our room was right by the pool and hot tub

 Monday morning we went to a rodeo, it was a lot of fun.  Travis and all the kids except Caleb participated in a race.  Austin got to ride a horse for the first time.  And had to put a spoon in her mouth and hold an egg on it without dropping it as part of a relay race.  She did great and never dropped the egg.  She loved riding a real horse.

 Caleb loved playing in the dirt.  I also grabbed Travis' hat for him instead of his, so it was really big.  But he is super afraid of getting a sunburn, so he always wears his hat.  But he had a great time watching the rodeo and playing by the fence in the dirt.

 Travis' relay race, involved running to a wooden horse and placing his head on the stick end, and spinning around seven times and then running back.  He was super speedy and didn't even look that dizzy, several other guys fell over while running back they were so dizzy.

 Joseph loved climbing on the fence and watching the rodeo

 Betsy loved watching from her perch on the fence as well

 For Samuel's relay race, he had to ride this wooden horse, and carry a bucket of water to a barrel and help to fill it up.  He did a great job, and didn't spill any water.

 Joseph and Betsy did an egg toss, they did pretty good for a while, but then the egg dropped and broke.  But they still had fun doing it.

 Our other big event on Monday was going horseback riding.  After lunch Samuel and Caleb went to kid's club and the rest of us went horseback riding on a trail for about an hour and a half.  We all got on our horses, and started walking.  Travis, Joseph and I were all at the front of the line of horses, so I didn't see much of what happened with Betsy and Austin.  But apparently Austin was so careful with steering her horse away from every rock and stick, that she didn't notice a tree, and ran right into it.  Her race and arms got scratched up, and she had a little melt down, but the guide near her, was able to help her calm down and keep her going.  She didn't let that ruin her experience, she now loves to ride horses, and wants to keep doing it.  Betsy on the other hand, had a very spirited horse, and it kept scaring  her, so she ended up crying and getting off and walking the rest of the way, and never wants to ride a horse again.  Travis, Joseph, and I all enjoyed the experience, but unfortunately for me, I started getting pretty sore afterwards, and it only got worse.  I guess the baby didn't like all that movement after all, and my muscles got so sore, I could barely walk.  We ended up skipping the evening festivities, and I just laid in bed.  Tuesday morning we had our wrangler breakfast, so we got up about 5:30 in the morning and Travis, Joseph, and Austin, went down to ride horses to our breakfast destination, and Betsy (who didn't want to ride a horse anymore), Samuel, Caleb, and I rode in the back of a red truck, with blankets down to get breakfast.  We all made it down, it was basically a camping site, and breakfast was made on coals, and fire.  They wranglers made french toast, and had the kids all catching their french toast with a plate, while they threw it to them.  They thought that was pretty fun.  All the kids caught their french toast on the first try, except Betsy, she went through 4 french toasts before she caught hers.  It was a fun breakfast.  Travis and the older kids rode their horses back, and we drove back to the lodge.  Travis had taken some benadryl, because yesterday after riding horses his eyes and skin was all itchy.  So he was super tired, and took a nap, when we got back from breakfast.  I took the kids down to the "fort", it was an awesome play area for kids.  I got some pictures of them playing on the horses, swings, and the tee pee.

 After lunch, Travis took all the kids on our whitewater rafting trip.  I was still too sore from horseback riding, and they wouldn't let me go on the trip unless I had a doctor's note, so I stayed behind with Caleb and we hung out and played the rest the day.  Travis and the kids seemed to have a good time whitewater rafting.  Samuel was concerned about getting splashed so he just ducked down in the front of the boat most of the time.  Travis also said Austin was grumpy about having to wear the wet suit clothes, but other than that they all had fun.  At club that night, there were lots more hilarious skits, and Joseph was called up to participate in a game.  He had to race other kids, and bring back belts, socks, and chewed gum from the audience to the guys running the game.  He had fun, and tried hard, but lost after the second round and had to sit down.  On Wednesday after breakfast, we hiked a mile up to an old silver mine.  It even snowed on our hike.

 Caleb fell asleep on Travis back shortly after our hike began, and slept on him almost the whole way up.

 We passed a rock formation on the way up, called "whale rock".  Joseph liked climbing to the top of it.

 We got a nice family picture of us in the mouth of the whale.

 Here is our family picture at the top of the mountain.  It was sure hard for me, I was huffing and puffing.  We got to 10,500 ft. elevation, and I was holding Samuel and Betsy's hands on the way up, helping them.  Toward the top, they had to help me.

 After we got back we had lunch, then dropped off Caleb at kid's club, and went down for our turn at the ropes course.  As soon as we got down there, Samuel told me his tooth was super loose, and about to fall out.  He opened his mouth, and I pushed on the tooth to see how loose it was, and it just popped out.  Samuel was so happy, he just lost his first tooth.  I stuck it in my pocket, and gave him a drink of water, then we got him all harnessed up for the ropes course.  Samuel and Austin went to together across the ropes course.  It is 30 ft. off the ground.

 Here Samuel and Austin are starting across the second half, where you are walking across a wire, with a rope danging down every four feet or so

 Samuel fell off the wire, and immediately started laughing

 He grabbed the rope with his hands and started pulling himself across the wire

 He is still laughing and pulling himself across with his hands.   The staff helping at the ropes course, were shocked at Samuel's reaction.  They said they had never seen anyone react to falling off like that ever before, not even close.

 Samuel finally makes it to the end (still laughing) and the worker helps pull him in.

 Travis tried to climb the hard wall.  Apparently hardly anyone makes it to the top.

 Travis kept climbing and falling, and trying again, and got up almost 3/4 of the way, before giving up. He did really good.

 Joseph got his turn to go across the ropes course

 Austin and Samuel went down the zip line.  I wasn't allowed to do any of these things, because the harness would squish my baby belly.  But Travis told me, that this zip line, was a huge adrenaline rush.

 Betsy climbing the wall

 Samuel climbing up the easy wall

 Austin climbing up the medium wall

 Betsy on the zip line

 Austin did so well on the medium wall, she tried the hard wall too.  She made it about as high as Travis and then gave up.

 Travis and Joseph going down the zip line.

 After we were done the kids played in the pool.  We played in the pool at least once a day the whole week.  They love the water.

 The kids had their own special dinner, and the parents had a special dinner as well.  It was nice to have a fancy dinner, without the kids.  Then afterwards the kids got to go panning for gold in the creek, and lots of other fun activities.  Joseph's group did live angry birds, where they stacked things in the fort, and shot stuffed angry birds from a sling shot.  While the kids were having fun, Travis and I got alone time, which was really nice.  Thursday after breakfast there was a family challenge.  We had to race around as a family and complete different activities, ranging from making a human pyramid, to singing the national anthem in opera voices.  We had a great time, and completed 32 activities.  Thursday afternoon we had our jeep tour.  Everyone could go on the tour, so that was fun.  Travis, Austin, Betsy, Caleb, and I were in one jeep, and Joseph and Samuel rode in the lead jeep with the wrangler.  There were no windows in their jeep, so they huddled under the blanket mostly for warmth.  We drove up to a st. elmo ghost town (about 45 min-1 hour drive) with a little off roading along the way.  Caleb managed to sleep through most of the bumps.  At the ghost town, it was an old mining town.  We had fun looking at all the old stuff, and feeding chipmunks.  Caleb loved it, and kept saying chipmunk over and over again, and trying to catch them.( see pictures below)

 Caleb found a jeep he wanted to ride.  My pictures got a little mixed up.  Friday afternoon we did the ropes course again.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but Travis was trying again to get up the hard climbing wall.  He ended up grabbing onto the big lot next to the climbing wall, and started to climb up the log.

 After he got almost all the way to the top by using the log, he moved back over to the wall, and finished the climb.

 There he is, ringing the bell at the top, and coming down.  The belayer said he'd never seen anyone try that before.  Joseph loved calling Travis a cheater after that.

 Samuel loved climbing the wall

 This is at the mining ghost town

 Here is a hummingbird we saw at the general store

 Here is Austin feeding the chipmunks

 Travis feeding the chipmunks

 Friday we had an awesome brunch that was so delicious.  Then more swimming.  and playing at the fort area.

 Here is Samuel at his pony ride on Friday.

 Here is Caleb at his pony ride, he was a little nervous, but then said "giddy-up horsie"

 Everyone wanted to make sure Caleb was safe on his pony ride.

 Caleb jumped into my arms after his pony ride

 Samuel had a sliver in his wrist from rock climbing, and it was infected.  While I was using a needle to get out the sliver, Samuel who was watching me, all the sudden said "mom, it's blurry" and fell to the floor under the sink.  I was so shocked at first I thought he was joking, but when I saw how pale he was, I realized my rough and tough 6 year old boy just fainted.  He opened his eyes, and said his stomach hurt, so we laid him down on his bed and let him rest for a while.  I was able to get out the rest of his slivers, he just didn't watch me this time.

 Caleb was trying to lay on the floor just like Samuel, so I would fix his shoes too.

 Travis threw Joseph's shoes at him while he was reading, and Joseph was quite shocked, but of course quickly threw the shoes back at Travis.  

 Caleb got really dirty from playing outside, and had rubbed dirt all over his face, then ran away laughing every time we tried to catch him to clean him off.

 Caleb's still dirty face.

 Friday night, they had a special show for the last night of camp, it was awesome, they also had square dancing, and lots of other dancing on the basketball court, everybody had a lot of fun.   It was cold, and Caleb was really tired, so he wouldn't let me put him down.  After holding and dancing with him for an hour and a half, I carried him up the stairs to our room, to put him to bed.  But, of course, once we got to our room, he perked up and ran around and played for another hour before I could get him to bed.  All the kids were pulling out there best dance moves, and had a great time, and came back exhausted and fell right to sleep.  Here is a picture of Samuel, Betsy, Austin, and Caleb with our server Bradie.  She was awesome, serving our meals all week long, and getting Samuel all of his special diet things, and hot chocolate and juices and all sorts of things.

 Here is Travis, Joseph, Austin, Betsy, and Samuel with Willly, Billy, and Philly the three guys who put on all the skits and shows.

 Here is Caleb and I cuddling

 This is at Club, where we watch all the shows and listen to the messages.  Joseph would always listen very intently, I couldn't believe he listened so well, I was very impressed.

 Here is Betsy sitting on the floor at club

 Here is Caleb and another little girl, scooting back and forth on the stage.

We, packed up and left Saturday morning, and drove over to the christian camp we were at last week, to get in some kayaking before we went home.  We had a great time, and Travis fell in the pond, and made all the kids laugh at him, and he kept trying to chase me and hug me.  I finally got him to go change.  When we got back to the car, Travis told me my kindle was broken.  Sure enough, the screen was completely cracked all over, but it still worked.  I guess it got a packed in too tightly in the back, I should have kept it with me in the front.  I am getting a new one this week, since it is difficult to see with all the cracks.  We stopped at Costco on the way home, and stocked up on groceries, then went home and did laundry, and helped Joseph, Austin, and Betsy pack for their next camp.  Sunday, we left from church, and drove Joseph, Austin, and Betsy to camp eagle lake, an hour away, and dropped them off.  The house is much quieter with only Samuel and Caleb at home with us.  We had a wonderful family vacation, and I really enjoyed not having to cook or clean for a whole week!  I'm very grateful we could make so many memories together before Travis leaves next month.