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Family-friendly activities, festivals, and adventures to take your family in Colorado.
Winter Park is one of our favorite mountain getaways. Living in Denver makes it easy to escape to the mountains. Don’t get me wrong, I love a beach vacation, but sometimes the mountains are calling and we don’t need to get on a plane to have some good old fashion family fun.
We are a family of cross crounty skiers, it’s fun and it’s mostly flat. Maybe my kids will one day take a ski lift but for now, we like to cross country ski and to go tubing.
Every summer I have a calendar where I write all the dates of classes, camps, events, and vacations. I love to keep organized and when I sign up for something, I don’t forget because it’s on the calendar.
My name is Christine and I am a planner. I love to search for events, happenings, and festivals around Denver and enjoy them with my kiddos.
We have 18 summers with our kids, it makes me sad, but it’s true. So every year, around this time, I gather the kids and we talk about our summer plans. What are the must-dos, sort of a wish list if you will?
Our Summer Bucket List 2022
Do you plan out your summer with your kids, or are you a take-it as it comes type of mama?
Needs help with your summer plans? Click here to get started with your vacation planning!
As summer 2021 approaches, it reminds of me how we survived the summer of 2020.
Our family coined it “The Summer of The Outdoors”.
We hiked every weekend. We are lucky to live in beautiful Colorado where we have many hiking trails within minutes of our home. We go up early to beat the heat and walked our little hearts out.
Another great sport we tried this summer was horseback riding. The kids have always wanted to take some lessons and they absolutely loved it. There were great options all over town and I must say the kids enjoyed this the most.
We were still under strict restrictions so we thought archery was another good option to social distance. The kids enjoyed going to their archery lessons each week. We had done a little archery while visiting the YMCA in summers past.
Our neighborhood has a pool where we didn’t have to make reservations to swim, so many days we headed over to the pool to cool off.
The summer of 2020 was not a normal one for us, but it allowed us to branch out and try new sports and activities we normally wouldn’t have even tried. So in a way it was a blessing for us to branch out of our normal summer activities.
I have to say I am looking forward to museum trips again, Denver has some great museums, zoo, an aquarium that we are used to visiting regularly, so the summer of 2021, you will probably find us there.
School has ended and I have the “Well, now what?” sort of mentality. Our state has turned to a safer at home but normal summer activities are limited and/or closed. Our library is closed but is open for a drive-thru pick up, so we are hitting our summer reading lists hard.
We are lucky to love near so much designated Open Space, so we are exploring in our own backyard. Most of our hikes have been within 20 minutes of our home. It gets hot pretty quick so you need to make sure you hit the trails early.
Some ways we have found to keep the kids interested is go on a stick hunt. My son loves to find a good walking stick. We also found some online scavenger hunts that you can print and attach a clipboard and pencil.
My five year old enjoyed being the line leader and that seemed to buy us some more time. It ‘s tricky hiking with children. For the most part, my older girls seem to do fine as long as they are not too hot. And don’t forget to bring water bottles. The kids enjoy a good water break every so often,.We sometimes bride them with a treat after the walk, like a stop at the local donut shop.
The pools have not opened and we are not sure when they will, hopefully, July 1, but until them, it’s water fun in our backyard. Water balloon, spray guns, water slides, if it gets them wet, they love it.
We are still doing a bit summer school so we don’t suffer from the summer slide too much.
You definitely have to be creative this summer, it will be an outside the box summer. Every day, I’m looking for creative things to do, places we can go that are open and safe.
Happy National Donut Day! Did you that June 5th is National Donut Day? Today, many donut chains are offering free donuts, some with no purchase necessary. Check around your town to see where you can cash in with your free donut.
What a great chance to visit a local donut house in your area, maybe buy some other samplings to support small businesses while discovering a great new place close to your home.
Growing up on Long Island, we have Munchkins all the time for celebrations. Birthdays, holidays, or whenever you went over someone’s house, there were always Muchnkins involved. So donuts always remind me of a celebration.
Another great idea is to make some homemade donuts with your kids. We’ve done a super tasty recipe air fryer donut recipe using canned biscuit dough, so easy and you don’t have turn on the oven. Check out the recipe we use here.
Check out my Pinterest page for some more great donut recipes here.
Enjoy those donuts, friends!!
Fall break didn’t go as planned, I got a terrible sinus infection and ended up on the couch basically the entire time. Two rounds of antibiotics,, and two weeks of rest, finally did the trick.
The kids slept over my mom’s house one day and had a fun day of shopping with her.
Towards the end of the week I had to work at church and the kids came with me and hung out for most of the time and played with friends. I’m so thankful my job allows that.
I had serious momguilt so I took them to Sky Zone on Friday so they could burn off some energy. It was crazy busy during Fall break but they jumped for 2 hours and had a blast.
And Sunday after church, we went to the Museum of Nature and Science. We closed it down at 5PM and my oldest was in such a hurry to leave, she was terrified we would be locked inside the museum, like in the movie Night in the Museum, so funny!
Overall, not what I had planned but sometime, slowing down and resting is what you need.
And guess what, the kids enjoyed their break. I need to remind myself that sometimes, its OK to not be going here and there and just being together is enough.
With the cooler temperatures hitting Denver and the fall colors in full force we decided to hit up some local trails.
We headed to Golden and walked about 2 miles on one of their family friendly trails.
It was the perfect length for our family. We made sure to hit the restroom before we started.
The perfect fall Saturday outing, nature, exercise and family bonding.
