Colorado Family

If you don't know, my husband runs a family camp in Colorado. Every summer we move up to a little camp in the mountains and we fall in love with the staff and families we get to work with all summer. That's kind of what we're up to (other than the baby building of course).

Figured we'd show off our staff, like they were our very own family. Well, because they kind of are...

This is the Family Camp family. They work with Kyle all summer, we're falling in love with them. I think they like us too.

This is the Wilderness family. They're hard core. They live in the wilderness for days at a time... I can't say I'd survive that.

Then my hubby and his boss up here at the Ute Trail. Don't they both look so happy? Colorado men have beards, it's just a fact.

Then our Sigma family. They're the 'cool' ones on camp. 17 year olds think they're amazing, and they are... but 17 year olds don't think I'm as cool for some reason...

This is the Base Camp family. These are my peeps. They make things happen: like food, fun, and functionality. All things necessary.

Then Skeet and his lovely daughter who's one of my peeps. Isn't that family love for ya?

And then all of us. We're going to have a great summer :)

Are they not wonderful? I love them, and they make me laugh, and I have weird crazy "there's not enough oxygen up here" dreams about them during the summer, and they call me Mama Hess, they call Kyle Papa Hess.

And I kind of love it.

Colorado-bound!

Yep, it's time.

Roommate is in place, bags are packed, husband is waiting for me in our cutest ever cabin, the counselors are on their way, and that jetplane is not leaving without me!

I'm blessed more than ever to spend most of my summer in Colorado this year working alongside by hubby. Since the recent job change, working with the school district has this thing called SUMMER BREAK! Can you tell I'm excited out it??

What that means is this summer there's way less back and forth, much less watching sappy romantic movies because I miss my husband 100 states away, and tons less riding of airplanes (that I'll kind of miss). And there will be way more Colorado time, husband time, camp time! I'm thrilled.

But being in Colorado posed a bit of difficulty for a little amateur little blogger like me. Our internet at camp comes through a satellite, it's quite limited, and uploading cute pictures of the blog isn't exactly 'camp business.'

So this summer you may see a little dip in posts. I'm trying to write a little ahead of time and we still have some super big projects we'll be working on even in Colorado. So don't go too far. I'm going to try to still get three posts a week up (Monday, Wednesday & Friday), but just in case it looks more like one post on Monday some weeks, you'll know why. And you'll forgive me right?

We'll see.

Right now I'm preparing to breathe at 9000 feet and wake up everyday to work in an office that looks like this...

Tough life, right? We are truly, truly blessed.

Love you guys, hope you all have super plans for the summer too. If not, at least it's the weekend, and anyone can make fabulous weekend plans! Happy Friday!

Weekend Adventures: The Bull Wedding

So these weekend we hit up our good friend Tommy's wedding reception. He and his lovely bride Wendee got married up in Delaware about two weeks ago. But Delaware's far away from Texas where Tommy's family and a lot of Tommy and Wendee's friend live. So they threw two parties for their one marriage... genius idea.

We had the pleasure to attend, and Kyle was actually the DJ. He's multi-talented like that. 

I figured if my dance partner was going to be tied up playing the latest jams, that I better bring my fancy camera and take some pictures instead of awkwardly standing on the side of the dance floor, right?  And I got to pretend like I was a professional, walking around getting pictures of everyone. Except that there was a real professional there too. And I forgot to get a picture of the bride and groom... actually no pictures of the bride at all. The professional lady was following her around and I didn't want to look like a creeper... 

Note: If you are at a wedding taking pictures, be a sweetheart and don't use a flash. The flash can actually mess up the real photographer's pictures, especially during the ceremony!

It was a great celebration. See the groom worked with us up in Colorado for two summers and down here at camp in Texas the year in between. He has lots of camp friends. Then he brought Wendee up to Colorado last summer and proposed in front of the most beautiful mountains ever... we fell in love with Wendee that week...

So here are the pic, of the celebration, of our friends, of lots of dancing.

Some of the sweet ladies who were interns with Tommy down here in Texas. Aren't they beautiful?

Some more of our summer camp friends of the past and present...

Isn't this one great. Mostly because I love this picture and all the craziness in these people. Even though I know Madison (right) will hate it...

This would be some of our new favorite lovebirds. I just love how Emma's face lights up when she's dancing with Lloyd.

Isn't this one funny? Tommy, the groom, is the one in the middle of all the craziness... 

And then this one of some great Colorado ladies with the groom.

Then Madison and I just had to take a picture together... and the professional photographer photo bombed our picture. Which cracked me up... because I bet she gets photo bombed a whole, whole lot.

So we had a re-do.

Then I saw an opportunity to snap a classy pic of the groom. This one's for Wendee. Who doesn't want a classy, swag picture of their groom to look at all day?

It was a great night. Congratulations to Tommy and Wendee. Oh they are so fun, can't wait to see what adventures life brings them. 

And kudos to my sweetheart of a husband, who really is the very best wedding/barn dance DJ I ever met, and who surprised me with a fancy hotel room that night so we didn't have to make the late drive home that night. He's the best...

Any wedding parties in your weekend plans? Any pretend-to-be-a-photographer picture taking?

Ute Trail Ski Trip 2013

As I massage my sore calves from the skiing, I'll share with you the pictures of beautiful snow and Colorado mountains...We were up in Colorado for the annual Ute Trail ski trip hanging with a few of our favorite camp people. A little skiing, a little snow, and a whole lot of board games :)

Day one we were getting everyone in their cabins and relaxing around the lodge. Fire building, piano playing, board games...

This is what it looks like when you don't win at Farkle... right Lanie?

Day two we were busy making breakfast, getting out lunch packing supplies, and cooking up a big ole pot of Dad's recipe chili. I apparently didn't take any pictures...

Day three we went skiing! We headed to Monark Mountain and had some great snow to work with. Nice powder, no ice, and a lot of locals. It had been a few years since I had skied, but I warmed up pretty fast... and I didn't even stop any of the lifts this year...

Look at me and Kyle at the top of the highest mountain! It's right on the contenintal divide and it was beautiful.

This was a better picture of the view. And sorry about the huge hood in my face, it was COLD out and I was making sure my head didn't freeze...

And then after the day of skiing. We don't look too bad, we said we 'stopped skiing before skiing stopped us.'

And then day four was adventures out in the snow around camp and Lake City. It was also a time I decided to get out my camera and snap a few pictures of camp covered in snow. And test out my new 50mm lens outdoors; all of these pictures were taken with the 50mm with various settings of course.

This one's our Colorado home, our little cabin for the summers: Powderhorn. I made Kyle carry me over the threshold when we first moved there a week after we were married. It was our first home together...

Camp's old barn. It's got a museum inside. I'll be glad to give you a tour, really, just ask...

This one's the home of some of our favorite friends on camp. I didn't know if they had a good picture of their home yet. They live here all year, snow and everything!

Then I headed over to catch the boys playing football in the snow (great time to test out action shots)...

My favorite snow football player... yep, he had an interception, and he made someone bleed... :)

Sean the new intern...

Max...

Mitch...

The star of the game... the football of course. Isn't that a fun shot?

Will...

The other new photographer in town, the cutest snow football photographer... Mrs. McGuire.

 After the boys (halfway) recovered from the football game we all headed into town to go tubing. I jumped on a tube and popped it (which made me wish I had more New Year's Resolutions). Then rode down a few times. Best thing were these two pictures... which unfortunatley I can't say I took. But this is a picture of a few of our Ute Trail staff from last summer.

And then someone said 'make a pyramid!'

Anyone recognize the lake?? This is Lake San Cristobal that we canoe and kayak on in the summer, completely FROZEN!

We walked on it. Cracks and all... can you see the crack in the ice between Jill's feet?

It was a wonderful trip, so good to be back 'home' in Colorado with so many of our Colorado and Texas friends. A little cooking, a little dish, a lot of family :) This was most of our Ute staff there right before we said goodbye... may have teared up multiple times during the trip recounting memories of the summer staff...

Oh Colorado...