Snow Mountain Ranch

The day after Christmas, our little family packed up and headed to the mountains to spend three days at Snow Mountain Ranch. We went last year after Christmas when my siblings and their families were in town, and had so much fun that we thought it would be a good, quick getaway again.

I will admit it was definitely different without any other adult reinforcements or cousins to play with, but we had some good quality time as a family and ended up having a lot of fun again! The kids were especially excited, and when we arrived at our lodge, Sydney declared out of giddiness from the backseat, "I just feel like screaming!"

We spent the next three days tubing, swimming, roller skating, playing basketball, Foosball, ping pong, watching movies, napping, and more. On our second night, we went out to eat in nearby Fraser, which is known as "The Icebox of the Nation." On our way back from eating, our van was registering the temperature as negative 18 degrees. An icebox indeed! It was cold during our three days there, but with the Colorado sun shining each day, we were able to be outside (and bundled up) quite a bit.

Myles the mountain-man thought he could climb every snow pile. This one was actually really high and steep.

 Eating s'mores!

 Ryker fell asleep in minutes on a pool bench waiting for the rest of us to get ready. Our exhausted kids slept the whole ride home.

Gilby and I did look at each other multiple times wondering why we put ourselves through all the work that it takes to simply be gone for a few days. Sharing a room, waking up multiple times a night, switching beds, putting on snow gear, taking it off, putting it on again, packing, unpacking, dealing with a few meltdowns - it can be a lot. But then I came home and found this picture of all of us tubing together, and the joy on Ryker's face reminded me of why we choose to put in some extra work to provide our family with time and experiences together, that make for lasting memories of more fun and less work.