Snow Mountain Ranch - an Alpine Valley School Weekend Family Retreat

Every year most of the families from Alpine Valley School (where the kids go to school and the DH works) go on a weekend long retreat at Snow Mountain Ranch:YMCA Camp of the Rockies up near Winter Park. We used to stay in the dorms and eat in the cafeteria. That was easy and fun. Last year we missed the mark to get into the dorms and had to rent a reunion cabin. Now that we have had that experience we will never go back to the dorms. We stayed in the Legacy Reunion cabin. It has a wonderful double kitchen with two of every appliance. Enough tables and chairs for about 40 people to sit at one time. There is a large living room with many comfie counches and chairs, a loft of the same, only a bit cozier and many bedrooms.


This year it was cold and rainy most of the time. Part of what is fun is that the kids can go and do so many things without the adults having to tag along. There is the Kiva center where you can roller skate, play ball, rock climb, etc. Next to it is the pool. There is a great craft center and an old ghost town, not to mention the outdoors full of fields, forests and places to ride a bike. If you like you can go on a horseback ride, though none of us did that this trip. The kids went out and about. The adults enjoyed each other's company. We bring food to grill, to eat and to share. And we bring games - tons of them. It started off with a few simple card games and a single box of Apples to Apples. It grew into a pile of around 15 games.

The most popular one this year was "The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow."

It was so fun that we played it five times in a row and most likely would have kept playing if it had not gotten near midnight. It is a card game with a narrator. Most of the people are villiagers. A few turn to werewolves at night. Each "night" a villiager is eaten. Each "day" a person is lynched for suspecting to be a werewolf. Various villiagers have more detailed idenities such as a witch who has the power to bring people back to life, a curious little girl who can see what is going on but cannot talk about it, and a few others. It takes at least 10 people to play. It is a lot more fun than I am making it sound.

Another one that many people played was "Ticket to Ride." I could play that one over and over. A number of people liked this card game. I don't know the name of it. It drew crowds once people understood the aim of it.


Some people elected to read, do puzzles (several of thos going) or write. A number of people in our little community are creative, thoughtful writers.

Friday and Sunday I chatted, watched and played. I was worn out from a hard day at work and was feeling a bit exhausted.

Saturday morning I felt a bit more refreshed. I had visions of making a batch of home made cinnamon rolls, the cabin filled with the sweet scent of fresh bread. When Laura and I went to the store to get what I needed we were enticed with a diversion in the form of a home decor store. That led to an Alpaca fiber farm and mill. But, that is a story for tomorrow. People were disappointed that I did not make the cinnamon rolls. I thought they would not really care. I guess we all learned a bit of a lesson from that.

Saturday evening we usually have a big fire where we sing, roast marshmallows and tell stories. The constant rain made that idea uninviting. However, Ethan was dedicated to the tradition and tried his best to make it happen.

I was both proud of him and a bit sad for him as he and Kennedy tried in vain to get a fire going in the downpouring rain. I love that focus and dedication my boy has. In the end he came in and became the sherif for the werewolf game, that is until he was eaten one night. He would have loved to do the fire, but he enjoyed the game, too.



Sunday we had a lovely breakfast, hung out at the craft center and then headed down the mountain to Beau Joe's for mountain pie pizza.