Troyer Party of 9: The Moss Stone Retreat in Caldera

Planning your only family vacation of the summer the same weekend as the State Tournament is not advised. However when you're 1 family of 7 sometimes that's the only week that works so you try to make the best of it and honestly who are we kidding we can't remember the last time a family vacation was relaxing anyway. One of the things that does not come with having 7 children is much free time and the little bit that can be found usually comes by sticking to a good routine which vacation is not conducive to. So typically we come home exhausted from managing our chaos on vacation and this year was really no different. This time we were just tired from so much driving and long days in the sun and packing and repacking instead.

This said the memories are always worth it. We love watching the kids make memories with their cousins, the laughter, the bonding with Aunts and Uncles over silly stories like Sadie's friend "George" at the pool or the infamous Aquaphor stick. We love playing games at night and watching movies. We love the way the family looks out for one another swapping around kids for walks or swimming or the park. We love the shared meals and the late night chats with siblings. All this is what we missed the most while we were absolutely loving cheering our boys on in State. We didn't get to be a part of most of those stories this year but we're thankful for all the extra everyone else did so that Sadie and Hazel and Evie could be in Caldera all week and we're thankful that we got to be there for a day on each end as well.

DAY 1: We squeezed in all the things twice on Day 1. Biking, swimming, paddle boarding, canoeing, the park, the pool, movies, treats, yes please!!!

Bubble Braids by Auntie Kendy

Stopping to pick the flowers with sweet Miss Hadley

Cousins

Evie and Ellie-Jo

Aubrey

Maddie

DAY 2: We headed to Sherwood but the 5 girls stayed to play for most of the day before the twins headed back home with Uncle Robert.

So Sassy!!!

DAY 3: The oldest 3 girls had more fun swimming and hanging out with cousins, Grammy watched a lot of baseball as the games were being live streamed which was fun and apparently as the tournament went on more and more people joined in to watch which was fun for us to hear.

DAY 4: Word on the street was Payton and Sadie really missed the boys. Apparently Wyatt's on the go always needing to be doing something is appreciated to a point and they get a little bored without him. That said Sadie helped a lot with the girls and with Tommy and Hadley while we were away which was much appreciated and the were all up to welcome us back when we rolled back in 10 p.m. Sunday night.

DAY 5: We crammed as many things as we could into our last day and although I was hoping to squeeze one more day in at the pool, it turned out that half of the group was checking out this night and once most of the cousins were gone the kids were ready to go too. I think the boys and the twins could have done another day if we'd pushed it, but girls were partied out and we were all tired so until next year that's a wrap.