Trail West Family Camp

We have been looking forward to going back with older kids ever since we left and it was finally time to go! Our only criteria was that kids had to travel well in the car and they must be potty trained- check and check because Beau didn't count in my book. : ) Let me first begin by explaining what Trail West is: it is Young Life's family camp in Buena Vista, CO where ~35-40 families come together and get to go to camp together! We made our first trip in 2011 and I think it will be an every 3 year trip for us. So, I have to start with a few pre-trip pictures because there was no way I could have gotten all of us packed so easily without some help from Tori & my mom who took the kids a day early. Packing for 4 kids is hard enough, but add in western wear, cold weather clothes, swimming gear, plus just our regular clothes for 10 days! So just for documenting sake here was a little what packing looked like:

On Friday afternoon we drove up to my parent's place & got some energy out at Splash Kingdom and

fueled up with a family dinner. Thanks to Uncle Rob & Uncle Andrew for handling this little fire ball. 

We woke up on Saturday at 2 a.m. and hit the road. Driving through the night was something we tried last time and was key for the long drive. The kids slept till 8:30! This was at a park we discovered last time in Trinidad where we stopped to play & have lunch.

Saturday afternoon we arrived at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO for some light hiking and sight seeing. 

I always love pictures with all four kids (and in case you are wondering I am behind Beau holding him up).

 Sunday was a trip up a cog railroad to the top of Pike's Peak before our drive over to Trail West.

 

Arrival at Trail West & the Carnival

Official Camp Photo 

 

Getting settled in our room. 

I have to say that sharing a room went better than expected! Luke & I were on a queen bed and the older 3 were on 3 Murphy bunk beds with Beau in a pack in play under a bunk bed. Close quarters for sure! I actually think the kids loved it and Blair was able to nap everyday with us just going about our business once she was asleep. It was actually really nice to just have what we needed and very minimal toys. 

 

Late night view of the mountains

 Our first club and skit.

 

The Carnival

This was a really sweet time where the others were asleep and we got some Bailey time. 

 

 

Monday- The Rodeo & Horse Rides

Check out this cute cowboy!

 A very early adventure to visit the ponies. The ponies were Bailey's favorite part of camp.

I wish I could gotten a better one of this cowgirl, but she was a busy, busy. 

My other cute cowboy!

So, the kids didn't want to do the rodeo : (. This made me a little sad, but I learned last time to not push things, so we just headed over to play at Fort Chisolm with some other families of young kids. This fort is huge & awesome! (Awesome, awesome! Hit 'em over the head with a big fat possum! Eww, ah, ah, Eww, Eww, ah, ah. Psh.- sorry, still in camp mode where you would repeat this when the speaker said awesome.)

 

Next it was time for Luke and I to head over to Rancho Caballo for our Trail ride. We got to leave all the kids in the loving hands of the Kid's Wrangler. Ahh. Not that I don't love me kids, but I do love kid-free time with Luke too!

Here is a throw back to when I was here in 2000 doing the same trail ride. 

At kid's klub Bailey met Reese and a fast friendship was forged! I wish we could transport her to Austin, but maybe these girls can meet up at A&M some day. (Her parents were class of '96 and '97 at A&M)

Reese was a favorite of all Mezger kids and so was Jenna, but more on that later.

 Tuedsay- Hiking & Rafting

That morning we attempted a hike to an old mine, but cutting our loses was a good call- we were out of water, snacks, and morale was getting low by the half-way point.

The big activity that day was rafting! Luke took Bailey and they had the time of their lives. Luke said it was his favorite thing of the trip. Bailey's hands and feet got cold, but besides that she enjoyed it too! They are front right.

 One funny story is that while I was watching the other 3 while Luke & Bailey were rafting, Blair changed my watch by 2 hours. I remember her messing with it, but didn't think anything of it, so when Luke got home at 5:45 I thought it was 3:45 and was telling him to be quiet and let everyone nap. He thought I was crazy because I never would say that at 5:45, so he ask "what time do you think it is?" and I said "3:45" and he said "Ohhhh, Mel it's 5:45". Everything made sense because that was probably the longest day of my life otherwise. I just kept looking at my watch at one point and thinking how slow time was going. Is it naptime yet?

 

Wednesday- Hiking & Sledding at the Continental Divide and Ropes Course/Kid's Klub at TW

This was "big Bailey" and she along with our server Madison loved on us well all week with smiling faces.

So, this was Canadian Sergeant Lester Fizlit- the bad guy this year and he wanted to take over Trail West to make it a syrup factory!?!?!

These two cowboys- Murl & Ditty were our only hope of stopping Sergeant Fizlit. Bailey got SOOOO into it and every morning would stand right here and listen to the morning report. Y'all it was heart breaking and precious at the same time.

This was Ditty. Bailey's favorite cowboy and this was right before he let Bailey down by giving the key to Trail West away to Sergant Fizlit, which broke Bailey heart. There were tears and more tears and more tears and then Bailey was on a mission to save Trail West. She literally rallied everyone to help her and at one point even told a table near us to "grab their forks and knives for battle". Stay tuned to find out what happened!

Pre- hike

So, if you can't see snow in Texas in winter, what do you do? Go to Colorado during the summer. 

 

This is Jenna. She offered to carry Blair for the hike, so that Luke and I could just hang out. We can just refer to her as St. Jenna from now on. She was pretty awesome (awesome, awesome! Hit 'em over the head with a big fat possum! ... : ))

This girl might have been smiling here, but let me assure you she was a hand-full on the trip and St. Jenna handle her with kindness & grace.

 

This is Claire. She was in charge of Beau, so I could be off duty. Can you tell I was well-loved on by the kid's wranglers???

 

So Luke & I hiked up with Blake, which was SO nice.

 After the hike was sledding. This was Bailey & Reese.

And later was Luke with Blair & Blake.

 

The only sad part is that the snow is cold. Imagine that, so there were some tears afterwards from Blake who fell and got cold. 

A family picture!!!

I won't lie- this was not a resting kind of trip or for the inflexible, because as soon as we got back and ate lunch it was time for the ropes course. Naps would have to wait.

Bailey & Blake were old enough to do it this time!!!

Everything was going good for Bailey until 

this point. My fearless little monkey got scared. : ( She literally refused to come down until Luke went and got her. 

I was a little nervous that she was going to panic on the ropes course/zip-line and she did, but it started out great. See- all smiles. 

more smiles

and more smiles.

 I am not sure if you can see her face, but this is when things started to go south. She has literally been talking about this since we were last here and how much she wanted to do the zip-line, so Luke and I made the executive decision to push her off because the longer she sat there more scared she got and the farther she got from the drop off point. 

Thankfully, she was glad she went and even did it again later in the week, although she got a little scared again.

 

This little guy surprised me. He was fearless and loved it! "Big Blake" had shared his nametag. : )

No pushing needed here.

Blair so badly wanted to go and wore the helmet while she watched with St Jenna. 

Long days = Good naps.
This picture is SO Blair to me- a collection of things all over the bed with feet in her book box. Silly, silly girl! I am actually surprised she is on the pillow and in a normal sleeping position.

While she napped I got to have my quiet time with this view. 

Later that night Luke & I got to have an adult dinner without kids and these were a few of the activites that night at kid's klub and they even gave us these pictures!

Panning for gold.

Little Jeep Rides. 

Thursday- Jeep Tour, Swimming at Frontier, Pony Rides for the kids, and the Square Dancing

Blair, Beau, and I ended up not going so we could sleep in and have a slower morning since this started at 6:45 a.m., but Bailey, Blake and Luke were up for it! It was a good call for everyone.

The highlight for the Jeep crew was feeding the chipmunks at St .Elmo.  Check out these smiles!

Luke & the older two met us at Frontier ready to swim!

Another throw back to when Tara and I did Frontier work week in either 2000 or 2001 and hiked up to that cross. 

 So while the high school campers were doing their rafting day we got to take over camp. Check out this slide!

There's Blair- "Ms. My-do-it-myself"

And Blake and daddy.

Beau and I stayed dry to take a few pictures before getting in.

 

Little Debbie made an appearance passing out her little debbie cakes to the campers. 

The Mezgers loving on and riding Cheese the pony.

 

The Square Dance always begins with a show where we find out the fate of Trail West.

Thanks to cousin Colt, Beau had some cowboy clothes.

And here's Blair.

Bailey had just spotted Sergant Fizlit spying on us!?!?!

And Blakers.

Murl talking to the kids.

Will Murl forgive his brother for giving away the key to camp?

Can Ditty ever be trusted again?
Will Bailey need do battle with forks & knives to "get" Sergeant Fizlit?

Will Trail West become a syrup factory?

What does Little Debbie have to do with any of this?

Let's find out:

First we need the help of the super kids

and also Little Debbie and things will turn out okay.

How? Well, Sergeant Fizlit's syrup accidently spills on one of Little Debbie's cakes that she can't quite get right when she suddenly realizes that viola! it's perfect. Sergeant Fizlit decides to help Little Debbie make the new McFizlit's (Little Debbie's new cake) instead of making a syrup factory. Whew!

Blair is often referred to as our cleaner upper when it comes to food and we caught her sneaking off to try the McFizlit .

And after a week of heart ache these two became friends.

He even danced with her.

This is her looking at Sergeant Fizlit. We might be in trouble if he wasn't married in real life to Little Debbie.

Meanwhile, Little Debbie danced with this one.

And Blake got his daddy one-on-one.

Bailey has some crazy dance moves.

So, after awhile we let St. Claire take over, so Luke and I could dance. We had some big thank yous at the end of the week and even some tears (atleast by me) because we were so unselfishly loved on. St. Claire was actually off-duty that night and just took Beau and Blair because of the goodness in her heart. Not every college girl would give up off-time at a dance party to watch kids just because.

Friday- Wrangler Breakfast, Family Challenge, & Family Photobooth

Where you find out about how to catch flying french toast.

  

 

Beau with Betsy, another camper.

 

Sweet guy went back for seconds for me.

Who knew that we also had the professional pancake flipper at camp with us to flip this pancake!

Award ceremony for the kids

 Family Challenge: we did not win, but we sure could pretend to be dogs. : )

And we made a good pyramid!

Family Photos

 Luke was working in case you were wondering, which if you are taking off for 10 days is just a reality.

 

So literally I looked at Luke that night and said "Is camp really over?". The week flew by and I was so sad. Yes, I was missing life at home, but there was also something magical about being in the mountains and having the burdens of day-to-day life lifted. I mean I didn't cook or clean or run errands or plan anything for a week and I also purposefully unplugged, which was AMAZING and refreshing! I will have a follow-up post on that.

Saturday morning was the grand finale- think Les Miserables.

 

And Sergant Fizlit serving his maple syrup & the McFizlit for one last breakfast.

 

So, that was one week at camp. I think last time I ended with this, but I am serious- 

who wants to go back with us in 3 years???