Everyone in their Covid Camp No Camp shirts

Every summer the Dahlens come out to Colorado for a week. And during that week the kids usually do camp at Keystone Science School. But this year we decided against it due to covid and instead we came up with the idea of doing our own “camp” which we called Covid Camp No Camp (CCNC). Anna made t-shirts for everyone to celebrate this unique year.

Playing by the river and trying to catch some fish

We had a full week of activities here at CCNC. It started off with the kids doing some exploring in the wetlands around the condo. We had a bike ride down to Lake Dillon and on several evenings we played golf at the River Course. Anna, Jude and Chloe were the keen ones here although Ella came along for the ride one day. There was a lot of time spent by the river with Olive who just loves the water and plenty of hiking too.

Anna teeing off on the signature 7th hole at the River Course as the sun sets

One day we decided to head down to Buena Vista for some white water rafting. All the kids had been rafting before and loved it so we thought it be a fun activity for us all to do together. With nine people we thought we would be split into two boats but they gave us their largest boat which just fit us all. We got lucky with the weather as it threatened to rain the whole time and it wasn’t as cold as we expected. We all had a blast with several of the kids saying it was the highlight of the entire week.

Enjoying the rapids on the Arkansas River outside Buena Vista

We had a hiking day where several of us drove past Breckenridge to do a beautiful hike to some lakes. Anna and Lily did their own thing, hiking up the mountain behind the condo.

On the hike to Mayflower Lake outside Breckenridge

Speaking of hiking Jude and I decided to tackle Buffalo Mountain outside Dillon one day. This is the mountain that looms over Lake Dillon and I have been wanting to climb it for years after Marcy did it solo some time ago. The climb is just under six miles roundtrip with 3,000 feet of elevation gain. Jude carried the backpack the whole way and he had plenty of energy left when we finished in just under five hours.

At the summit of Buffalo Mountain

Today, we did the big bike ride to Frisco marina. I did the same ride last weekend with Jude and Anna but all nine of us did it this time and everyone did well on the 27-mile roundtrip. Again we got lucky with the weather as it threatened to rain but we stayed dry the whole time. It was a big achievement for the nine-year-old twins as it was their longest ride ever.