Family Reunion

I just realized that I never shared pictures or stories from our family reunion in Colorado. So, here goes. We met up at a place called Peaceful Valley Ranch up in the mountains of Colorado, not too far from Estes Park. It was beautiful up there! This is the family on my father's side, which has never been super close, so the fact that we had a reunion is a big deal. It was soo great to meet family members I'd never met and see ones I hadn't seen in forever. The ranch had lots of fun things to do, like fish, hike, a playground for the kids, a pool, a "petting zoo" that consisted of baby goats, a calf, some chickens and a few adult goats (Kera loved this!) and of course, riding horses.

The first night we had dinner outside, then a hayride (which was actually more of a wagon ride sans hay) and then a campfire with s'mores.

My big nephew, Lindz & Erik on the hayride

Kera and my Lil' nephew on the hayride

Sissy eating a s'more.

The next day we had breakfast and then got the kids going in their ways. Lindz wanted to do a trail ride on a horse so badly, but seeing as she'd only ever been on a horse one other time, Erik and I decided she'd just do a "pony ride". She was not happy and thought everyone would think her a baby for doing the pony ride. But, actually, the pony ride was on a full sized horse, but instead of going out on the trail they were led around the ranch, (not in a circle) so it was actually pretty cool. We promised her that we'd look into horse riding so she could get some practice for another such occasion.

Big Nephew headed out on a trail ride.

'Lil nephew on the horse ride

Kera on the horse ride. She was tickled pink! And her boots kept slipping down as she rode!

At the end of her ride, Lindz finally smiled.

The girls playing around on an old wagon that the kids could play on.

Now, there is a small story involved in this reunion. When we arrived, we found that we were staying in a larger cabin with a common room and then various bedrooms, one for our family, one for my folks, one for my sister and one for my brother had he come. It wasn't the best looking cabin, but I figured it was rustic and that was how it was. But after the first night when we all got to comparing stories, we discovered that it wasn't just rustic, it was in total disrepair and not even close to state it should've been in for the nightly rates we were paying. So, Erik and my folks went down to the office to talk to the lady in charge of reunions to ask for a new room or refund so we could go stay elsewhere. They didn't get all mad or loud, just took her aside very calmly and explained the state of our cabin. Erik even took some pictures and showed her. She was in shock and immediately made arrangements for us to get a new room and promised to comp our first night's stay. Well, our new rooms were wonderful--so clean and taken care of and rustic, so I was thinking our first cabin is just in need of some major remodeling. It was nice to have a nice room for our last night, even if we didnt' have a common room to hang out in as an extended family.

Here we are outside our second cabin. Check out the expression on Lindz's face and my Lil' Nephew looking at her!

So, the kicker to this story? When we went to check out the next morning, Erik discovered that not just our first night had been comped, but the whole entire weekend. The rooms, food, drinks, horse rides--everything. And that would've been quite the price tag, too, had we paid. So, even though our first rooms were dingy (to say the least) I was seriously impressed with how the manager went above and beyond to  make sure we were happy.

Remember we had a Karaoke night? Well, they had this box of all sorts of  wigs, hats, blow up guitars and such that the kids had a ball playing with while the rest of us sang.

The J/H Family Reunion 2010 -- Peaceful Valley Ranch, CO

We are a rather small family, but I love us just the same!