Our family took a little getaway up to Vail for a long weekend with another family and I wanted to share some of the fun with you!
Our goal for this weekend was a relaxing weekend away. We have small children and the family that joined us also has small children, so we were going for low key and didn’t overplan our time.
We drove up on a Friday afternoon, luckily with snow only starting as we arrived in Vail. The other mom and I split the meal prep and each prepared one dinner for our weekend, and I was up the first night. I didn’t want to be slaving in the kitchen all night so I picked a super easy crock pot recipe for Chili Mac. I had prepped everything before we left so I just had to dump everything in the crock pot when we arrived, it was so easy!
The next morning we took the kids sledding. We had talked about taking the kids tubing, but with four adults and five kids we knew a tubing hill was going to be pricey. So we searched out a fun sledding hill in Vail, and the kids loved it. The park we went to was Ellefson Park and it had a great hill that the kids could take it easy on or be daredevils.
After sledding we wanted somewhere easy and family friendly for lunch (without kids we would have headed into Vail Village, no question, but they make dining a little more difficult) so we headed to our favorite breakfast place, Westside Café and Market, which is on the north side of I-70 and has parking out front (although it does get pretty busy at breakfast and lunch times). They’re quick and have delicious food, the girls especially enjoyed the hot chocolates!
That afternoon we went back to the townhouse where we were staying to have some downtime with the kids. The other mom had made sugar cookies before leaving home and had brought all kinds of fun sugar cookie decorating stuff. That kept the kids busy for a while and then we settled into the living room to watch Moana.
The two oldest girls, both five year olds, were begging us to take them ice skating, so we headed into Beaver Creek. Sadly they had a private event at the ice skating rink that afternoon so we couldn’t skate, but we decided to head over to Vail instead. (We were pleased to see that parking was free for the first hour at Beaver Creek though, and it was only $10 to rent skates and use the rink, would have been great if we could have skated!).
We arrived in Vail, got both girls into ice skates and on the rink. Neither had skated before and it was pretty fun to watch them learn and become more courageous! The rink had a great two-tiered railing for them to hold onto, which they held onto tightly the first lap or two. But after an hour both were skating into the middle and trying to spin in a circle. Vail had free parking in their garage in the evening too, so that worked out well for us!
Back at the townhouse we had a delicious dinner prepared by the other family, settled the kids into bed, and then enjoyed some cards and wine with a warm fire.
The next morning our family had to head out pretty early, but we enjoyed some overnight oatmeal from the crockpot, packed up everything and headed back into Thornton.
One of the best parts of our weekend, other than the company of the other family, was the townhouse we stayed in. It was located in Eagle/Vail, right off of I-70 and super convenient. It had four bedrooms, two upstairs (one with bunk beds) and two downstairs, and three bathrooms, two upstairs and one downstairs. It was perfect for travelling with another family! The kitchen was fully stocked, they even had a crock pot and Keurig for us to use. The dining room table sat eight people and the couches in the family room were comfy for watching a movie all together. It had a beautiful view, we didn’t use the patio much because it was snowing, but I can imagine it would be lovely during the summer, especially in the evenings after the kids are asleep. (I can’t recommend this place highly enough, if you’re taking a trip to the mountains, make this your home base!)
- If you’re going somewhere that you’ll be cooking, prep as much at home as you can. I even prepped all my salad fixings so I could just dump it in a bowl for dinner and mix it up! Then you don’t have to be a slave in the kitchen and can enjoy yourself like everyone else.
- If you’re with another family, separate the meal duties. Each of you can do a breakfast and dinner, then make lunch super easy. Either go out or bring sandwich fixings
- Try to do bigger activities with the kids in the morning, especially if you have smaller kids. Then use the afternoon for some down time. Being in a townhome like we were was really conducive to this and made it easy for the kids to play with toys or games and be pretty relaxed.
Pack a few small tubs of toys for the kids to stay busy. You can enjoy some adult conversation while they’re playing!Stay somewhere that you can live in like a house! After you put the kids to sleep you can still enjoy your evening, instead of whispering to each other in a corner of the hotel room. You can spread out in the kitchen, enjoy the patio and have a much more enjoyable time!
Links from our trip:
- Townhouse where we stayed: https://www.vrbo.com/979543
- Ellefson Park: https://everythingvailvalley.com/vail/listings/ellefson-park
- Skating at Beaver Creek: http://www.beavercreek.com/events-and-activities/ice-skating.aspx?page=viewall
- Vail Ice Skating Rink: http://www.uncovercolorado.com/ice-skating/vail-square-ice-rink/
- Chili Mac: http://damndelicious.net/2014/03/15/one-pot-chili-mac-cheese/
- Westside Café and Market: https://westsidecafe.net/
