YMCA of the Rockies — Snow Mountain Ranch Archives

Happy Monday, friends! My girls are … back in school tomorrow!

Say what?!

This summer was INSANE. We did so friggin much (please see Portugal, Spain, Venice, Dolomites, driving from Dolomites to Paris, France, Bruge, Amsterdam, Ireland, and New York for reference). Then, because we hadn’t done enough, we closed out the final weeks of summer with two weeks of camp, a visit from our favorite New York people AND one final trip to the mountains.

Tired. I’m oh-so-verily tired.

But I’m also pumped! We definitely made the most of our summer, this is going to be a fantastic school year for the girls (a mother just knows these things) AND Emilia is finally is school full-time.

Holy hell.

Here’s what we got up to the final few weeks of summer before we are in the back-to-school-grind tomorrow!

My littlest baby turned nine. Insert sob face here.

She’s a nature lover, so she requested a day at the aquarium. We happily obliged.

The big girls loved their two weeks at Majestic View Nature Center camp! They went on hikes, learned about bugs, went bird watching, built tunnels, did crafts. Heaven in a nature center.

Loves grasshoppers. Even though this is a caterpillar.

We had the best time showing them some of our favorite spots. Including, of course, the zoo!

These cuties got to spend some quality time together while Lotte and Grace finished out camp the Friday they arrived. I like to think it helped bring them a little bit closer <3

These two, obviously, are too much cute to handle.

Here’s a hack if you have littles who blast through the aquarium and make you feel like it’s not worth the price tag: Book lunch reservations at the aquarium restaurant! They have a super cool tank with all the best fish and it’s just as good as the aquarium if, like us, you run through it in about five minutes flat.

We even made it to the Frisco Bay Marina one day!

The kids had the best time building sandcastles and splashing around in the water.

We had lunch and drinks at Outer Range Brewing, right down the street from the Marina.

We even managed a very amateur photo shoot at Standley Lake <3

We had the best, most chaotic time. Love this crew so much.

We spent the last weekend before school started on a press trip at the YMCA of the Rockies — Snow Mountain Ranch. Since it was a press trip I can’t share a ton here. What I will say is that it was a delightful way to spend the final few days before the chaos of the 2025-26 school year descends.

Look at this cutie little cabin! Rose was my Grandma’s name, so we saw it as a sign that it was going to be a great weekend.

As if a cabin named after my Grams wasn’t enough, the rainbow on the way to dinner was ANOTHER sign.

We spent Saturday morning hanging out with some of the same sled dogs that drove our sled when we came to visit Snow Mountain two years ago in the winter!

We went tubing! So wild and fun and NOT AT ALL CALMING!

We visited Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday morning, since it was only 30 minutes away.

We didn’t spot any moose, but we sure had a lot of fun trying!

It was a delightful final summer weekend spent in nature.

We definitely don’t take for granted that we live in a gorgeous place in the world. We’re so grateful for trips like the YMCA of the Rockies and visitors like my sis and her crew, all of which help remind us that to be out in this beautiful world is to be reminded what it’s all about.

We’re small, my friends. And we’re here for a short time. Leave some big (but environmentally friendly!) footsteps 😉

Until next time … bis bald, friends! Welcome to the school year!

Edit Note: I wrote this post the Monday after we made our actual visit, but had to wait until the story was actually live. You can find the complete Good Housekeeping 2023 Family Travel Rewards story here!

Happy Thanksgiving week, my friends! We have been battling all the illnesses over here lately (just like literally everyone else in the world, I know), but we did manage to pull it together this past weekend for a quick press trip out to YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO.

As you’ll recall, we are already big fans of Granby, but the YMCA property took that love to a whole other level. I won’t go into a ton of detail here (because all of that is covered in the actual story that the press trip was for, which you can find here), but I’ll just say, this is the best, most upgraded camp experience you could ever have, dropped right in the middle of the most majestic mountain setting.

Some of our activities included: