Our family spent the last two nights with some of our best friends at Francie’s Cabin, a 10th Mountain Division Hut, here just up the road in Breckenridge, CO. It’s amazing how much you need to prepare to sleep just a few miles away! But since it was a 2 mile hike up, we needed to be able to carry everything on our backs – sleeping bags, food, alcohol, snowboards, and games.

The kids had no idea what it would be like, but we are all so pleasantly surprised by the beauty and simplicity that the hut provided. It was nestled in the woods, completely surrounded by expanse, deep snow, and mountain views. It was my heaven.

The boys built a couple jumps and enjoyed hours of flipping and hiking back up. The girls sped down on their sleds, over and over again! Us adults managed the tedious work of melting snow for water, cooking and cleaning, but were also able to squeeze in some beautiful snowshoe hikes and memorable late night conversations around the wood burning stove. We also got to meet some fun new friends, as the hut sleeps 20 people.

We were hooked! We decided that this is something we’d like to do every year, maybe once in the summer and once in the winter.

Life is so busy. It was really hard to unplug, especially since it was in the middle of a work-week. Every once in a while, we’d get a cell service spot where we’d receive texts or emails and get to check on the Olympic Final Scores. But we tried to just focus each other and the surrounding beauty. I don’t think there is ever a perfect time to do something like this. There are just trade-offs that you have to manage.

The benefits for ourselves and our kids, though, were notable. We played more games together in the last couple days than we did in the last year, laughing ourselves silly. Our kids will never take drinking water for granted. We had time to just be present with each other and in nature – time to reflect, plan, and dream. Life doesn’t get much simpler than when you have just put one snowshoe in front of the other! We got to relax and let down a bit, and we are recharged to tackle the demands of work and life that are ahead of us.

We’d recommend this to any family! This particular Hut Trip was only 1.8 miles to the cabin, which is great for kids. There are many around Colorado that range from 3-9 miles. Feel free to connect if you’re interested in going, and we can give you a few tips that we now know from experience.

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And they’re off – boys snowboarded down with their packs on and made it to the car in 10 mins!