Say Yes to the Yurt

When we moved to Golden, we were lucky to be welcomed by a big group of families who made us feel included and supported.  We were invited to their annual Memorial Day "yurt weekend" at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch property in Granby, and we were so excited!  But then Covid happened.  So the 2020 yurt weekend was cancelled.  And then Covid continued.  So the 2021 yurt weekend was cancelled.  And we got Covid.  So we had to miss the 2022 yurt weekend.

In the meantime, these families who initially invited us as a gesture of kindness became close and fast friends, so the thought of getting to spend a weekend "yurting" together got more and more compelling.  So you can imagine how excited when we were when we finally got to attend yurt weekend 2023.  And it did not disappoint! What an amazing time with amazing people in an amazing place!

We kicked off the weekend with a group kickball game, organized beautifully by our very own Chris Broyles.  To make things fun (and fair), adults were handicapped with an eye patch and could only catch pop flies with one hand.  Arrrrr matey!

After kickball, it was choose-your-own-adventure for the rest of the weekend.  There were tons of activities to choose from, including horseback riding, summer "tubing", hikes, crafts, biking...you name it.

There was plenty of downtime too.  We sat around the fire, swapped stories, made s'mores, took it slow, and enjoyed the view while the dogs and kids ran feral. 

The low point of the weekend was an incident in the woods, when the kids' self-made fort collapsed.  It was pretty scary actually.  One kiddo needed stitches and another fractured a bone.  Thankfully, we had a doctor in our group who took charge and, while both kids had to go to the nearest ER, they also both opted to come back and finish out the weekend at the yurts.  New rule for yurt weekend 2024: all forts must be constructed at ground-level.

The high point, on the other hand, was probably our meals together.  Because our crew was so big, we got catered dinners through the YMCA and our chefs were pretty great.  It also made our evenings fun and stress-free because we could focus on connecting and eating, rather than cooking!

We've already pre-booked the yurts for 2024 so we get to do it again next year.  So grateful for this group of families and for this awesome tradition!