Fall Break 2017

Each year in mid-October our elementary schools have a 4-day weekend.  The Wednesday before the break has evening parent teacher conference times and then the Thursday school is out and the day is reserved for conferences.  Friday all schools in the district are closed.  So, this year I scheduled our conferences for first thing Thursday morning so that we could take advantage of the 4-day weekend and go on a little trip.  We've been going to the YMCA for several years in a row now and Reid likes the tradition so we wanted to get in a trip.  We decided to try the YMCA at Snow Mountain Ranch instead of Estes Park just to see what we thought.  I will admit--this YMCA was out in the middle of NO WHERE.  Seriously, no where.  I knew going into it that it was a smaller YMCA and that there were going to be fewer activities but I had a hard time when we first pulled up.  I was very nervous we were going to have nothing to do and no where to eat.  There is a cafeteria on the grounds but prices are always super high and food is questionable.  The nearest anything is 20 minutes away on a state highway with maybe one street light between the YMCA and a Wendy's and a few other stores.  We ate at that Wendy's several times.  Good thing my kids love Wendys!  Anyway, here are some of the details of our trip.

Our room was really nice.  It was actually nicer than the lodge room we got at Estes Park the one year we did that.  So that was a pleasant surprise.  Unfortunately we were on the 2nd floor and the people on the first floor and one room over were grumpy pants.  There was one night we came in about 9pm from dinner and the kids had to go potty and brush their teeth before climbing in bed.  It took us about 20 minutes to get everyone settled and in those 20 minutes the people below got up and banged on the ceiling (our floor) about 4 times.  Reid thought it was the sound of the door to the bathroom closing that was bothering them.  I'm not really sure.  We weren't being super loud and we were well within the range of normal hours (posted quiet hours were from 11pm to 7am).  And honestly, it was just the normal sounds of 3 kids in a hotel room getting ready for bed.  The next morning the grumpy people left their room quite early (about 6:45).  How do I know?  Because they intentionally slammed their door as loud as the could in an attempt to wake us up.  They did it once and then opened it up and did it again for good measure.  Seriously!  They must have been having a really rough weekend.  Anyway, that was a long side story.

Because of the season and location, the mornings were often a bit chilly and so we used that time to go to the craft cabin and let the kids work on a craft.  Kai chose this wooden snake and he worked hard on getting the right colors and making sure it was well done.  He did a great job and it looks fantastic.  It took him several paint sessions over the weekend to get it done.

Bree chose to color this stuffed turtle with fabric markers.

Finn opted for a wooden alligator.  He also took a great deal of time to get the details just right.

As the day finally started to warm up we headed on a hike to a waterfall.  When we got to the parking lot we were only the 2nd car there.  After we finished our hike we returned to a completely full parking lot.  It was a good easy hike with beautiful scenery and we went at just the right time.

The destination of our hike.  I like the juxtaposition of the water, the snow, and the green moss.  It was beautiful.

Kai was helping Bree out a bit.  She's still working on her hiking endurance.

The next morning we went to a presentation about sled dogs.  It was really interesting.  These dogs are alaskan huskies and are used in Iditarod-types of competitions.  The man who gave the presentation has been racing for many years and had trained under some fairly well known sled dog racers.  These dogs work at the YMCA during the winter giving sled rides to guests and they also live right near by.  It was interesting to hear about the races, but also about the dogs.  They live outside and aren't housebroken (because they are racing dogs and have thick coats).  The weight between 30-40 pounds and have a tough training schedule that involves pulling a trainer on a snowmobile for miles and miles at a time.  Kai in particular was fascinated by the dogs.  His favorite was one named Moose and despite that fact that it was utterly freezing outside, Kai kept going back to the dogs.

The kids all got to do a sled dog craft.

I took this picture from the safety of the cabin where the presentation was given.  Kai had wandered back outside again to be with the dogs.

And then Bree and Finn followed.

Lunch at Wendy's

That afternoon we signed the boys up for some archery time and rock wall time.  They started getting decent after an hour of this mostly by themselves.

Bree and I had to sit and watch as she was too young to participate.

Rock walk climbing.  Finn made it to the top while Kai is still working on his fear of his feet getting too far from the ground.

Reid gave it a go as well.

Finn is in the blue helmet and Kai is in the red.

One thing we don't have pictures of (only video) is the rest of the inside of this particular building.  It is the activity center and one of the main areas is a roller skating rink.  My kids begged to go roller skating every time I turned around.  If you may remember, we'd tried roller skating once before and it didn't end well.  But with not much else to do, I caved and let them try.  Finn actually got to be decent, Kai was doing ok, and even Bree was making progress.  We skated all three days we were there.  On our Friday night there was a movie and popcorn night and they showed the movie Up.  The kids liked staying up late to do that.  The last night we were there Kai and Bree wanted to go swimming so we went to check out the indoor pool while Finn and Reid headed to the activity center. They did a bit of skating and then played some ping pong.  It turns out Finn was doing pretty well with that, too.  He also did a short tennis class one day (despite it being horribly windy).  Finn's definitely athletically inclined and he'd love to get back to tennis.  The problem for him is trying to decide what one sport he wants to do at any given time because he has so many interests.

Overall, our 3 days were fun.  I can't say that we won't go back again but there are definitely things we really like and missed about the Estes Park Center in comparison to the Snow Mountain Ranch center.  It really wouldn't be fair to try to direct compare the two because the feel of them are both so different.  This year we'll head to Estes Park.  If we do decide to do Snow Mountain Ranch again, it'd probably be in the summer when the tubing hill, canoeing, and other outdoor recreation is open.  We were definitely there in the off-season and there wasn't as much to do.  But we had a good break and it was nice to get away for a bit and see some new areas of Colorado.