Snow Mountain Ranch

We had a three day Brooks family reunion at the YMCA’s Snow Mountain Ranch. We were all there and it was a so much fun. I really appreciate all the planning my mom did to make it such a success. My mom did an excellent job of providing the cousins with the all the best elements of our childhood Lake Powell trips. The 4 oldest kids bunked together in one room and it reminded me of sleeping on top of the houseboat at Lake Powell. At one point Norah and Evelyn were telling Louis and Alice to be quiet when they wanted to sleep – as one of the younger cousins it just really resonated with me. Ok – here is a sampling of photos from the trip

The cousins in birth order: Evelyn, Norah, Louis, Alice, Andrew, Freya. Seeing them hang out at the table waiting for food also brought back memories of Lake Powell meals with my cousins The kids went on hour long pony rides and loved it so much we did it again the next day. These ponies were named Spirit and Utah Louis and Alice – photo courtesy of Matt or AshelyEvelyn and Norah on Spirit and Jet – I just asked Norah what the ponies were named and she described each one to me Freya was too little to ride but she enjoyed getting to the know the ponies from the safety of Grandma Lorraine’s arms We celebrated Ashley’s birthdayWe cooked meals together, stayed up late talking and let the kids run around wild There were lots of fun activities to keep us busy at Snow Mountain Ranch. We played Hungry Hungry Hippos with laundry baskets and scooters. It was hilarious. Here is Evelyn getting ready to catch some balls We went canoeing The Watts crew We went tubing! This was so much fun. I was sooooo scared that I tried to get out of it by offering to stay home with Drew and Freya but my mom made me go. I’m so glad she did because it was my favorite activity. It was also Louis’s favorite activity. He told us so many many times.We also played mini golf and did some climbing  Another highlight was an impromptu hike we took. We felt we hadn’t sufficiently exhausted the kids so we decided to take them for a walk – Matt was just in flip flops – it ended up being a hike. Some of the little ones struggled a bit but we all made it to see these pretty falls. The rest of these photos are courtesy of Matt I think Ashley snapped this picture of Freya asleep in Mom’s arms. Last year when we were at YMCA of the Rockies I took a similar picture of Drew asleep in her arms