Family Camp in Review

 Last summer our family attended Aspen Grove Family Camp in Provo Canyon located in Utah.  We had so much fun that I thought I would share our experience with you.

What is family camp?  It's summer camp for the entire family.  There are several throughout the country so if you can't make it to Utah check out which ones are in your area.

Honestly this was one of my very favorite vacations EVER!  Why?  Because I, yes me the mom, actually got a vacation!  That's right, I got to relax...on vacation!  You moms know what I'm talking about.  Vacations always seem like so much fun until you have to do all the packing, the prep work, plan all the activities to keep the kids happy, more packing...you get the idea!  Sometimes it's not much of a vacation.

At family camp, everything is already planned for you.  At Aspen Grove, the children are divided into age groups with young adults as group leaders.  They even had daycare for the baby!  Each day after breakfast the kids head off with their group to participate in tons of fun kids activities.  They go swimming, hiking, do arts and crafts, you know all that fun summer camp type of stuff.  You meet up with them for lunch and then they head off again.  In the late afternoon there were family activities such as ropes course, water games, and such to do as a family and then after dinner there were camp fire activities or shows.

As you can see my kids LOVED their group leaders!!

For the adults there were all sorts of workshops and activities.  There were spiritual seminars, as this camp is run by the BYU Alumni Association, as well as parenting and marriage workshops.  There were also activities such as pottery, crafts, pen turning, ropes course, and a shooting range.

Here's Todd enjoying his pen turning class.  He looks pretty cute in those safety goggles!

The lodging was really nice.  Aspen Grove has a few choices as far as lodging goes.  They have rustic cabins with a bath house.  I didn't actually go and check those out but judging by the rest of the camp I bet they were nice and clean.  We stayed in the Beckham Lodge.  It was like a little apartment but with no kitchen.  The lodge did have a shared kitchen on each floor so we had access to a refrigerator and oven.  So take lots of snacks and drinks!  ( I didn't and was sorry when we got there!!)  Our 'room' had a master bedroom that led out to a shared porch with an incredible view of the mountains, a room with bunk beds for the kids, a living room with pull out couch and a bathroom.  The best part....NO TV!  That's right, no TV at summer camp!!  There was also a laundry room on each floor of the lodge.

The other lodging option is a family lodge.  You have to have a group of at least 26 to book a family lodge.

Here are the kids on their bunk bed.  The middle one is showing the ceramic skull she made at arts and crafts.

At night after all the kids were put to bed the parents would hang out in the lounge playing games and chatting.  (Bring you baby monitors! It comes in really handy!)  The kids were so tired from all their fun activities they went right to sleep.  And when I say right to sleep I mean right to sleep!  They were so exhausted they were asleep before their heads hit the pillow!  Another bonus to camp!

This is our little group staying up late playing some games.

Now, lets talk about food!  I DIDN'T HAVE TO COOK ANYTHING FOR A WEEK!!  Ahhh, I love this part about camp!  We had 3 meals a day and I didn't have to cook or clean ANY of it!  The food at Aspen Grove is cafeteria style but it was delicious!  They had a good variety of foods that were well prepared.  And for an added bonus...they had a kids bar!  It was full of baby food and all that food kids love to eat.  They had chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, PB&J, you get the idea.  So if the kids didn't like what they were serving on the adult bar they could just go over to the kids bar and find something there.  We ate well!  I would recommend taking lots of snacks and something for the kids to munch at night.  There were no food options after the dinner meal and my kids are used to having some sort of bedtime snack.  Let's face it, so am I!

Wednesday at Aspen Grove is hiking day!  The true hikers go and hike Mt. Timpanogas.  It's a grueling 14 miles round trip.  The camp packs you a lunch and most are back in time for dinner.  If not, they have 'to go' boxes for dinner.  All of the kids groups go on a hike that day.  The kids loved it and felt a sense of accomplishment when they got back.

Todd and our oldest son were brave enough to hike Mt. Timpanogas!  I think they had a pretty good time but they were pretty exhausted by the time they got back!

The Summit!

Did I forget anything?

The entire camp staff, from the director all the way down to the cleaning lady who came to clean up after our daughter got sick in her bed, were terrific!  They were all wonderful and all seemed happy to be there doing what they were doing!

We hope to go back sometime soon.  The kids still ask about it and of course, so do I.  Who can resist a vacation where I don't have to cook, clean, or plan any activities?!?  Aspen Grove....here we come!