Inside Joanna Gaines & Chip Gaines’ Private World

Joanna Gaines Shares Rare Glimpse of Her, Chip Gaines’ 5 Kids During Family Trip to Colorado

Are you ready to see what Joanna Gaines and Chip Gaines have been up to since closing the door on HGTV‘s Fixer Upper?

Not that the parents of five went anywhere other than to their own network, which is just one facet of their perennially blooming Magnolia brand. But it’s been almost a decade since the couple restructured their priorities, starting with the decision to end their flagship show in 2018, and life in Waco, Texas, is sweeter than ever.

Though it’s also a little bittersweet now that son Drake, 21, and daughter Ella, 19, are away at college most of the year, though Duke, 17, Emmie, 16, Crew, 8, remain in the nest.

“These days, summer for me looks a bit different,” Joanna wrote in a May Magnolia Journal post. “It’s my kids coming home, or staying home, and settling back in. It still involves a lot of ordinary days stacked on top of one another, but instead of spinning my wheels wondering where we should go, this year I’m also asking, ‘What do we need?'”

Hence the family recently spending time at their retreat in the Colorado mountains, a.k.a. the star of their latest series Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House, the first time they plied their trade outside of Texas.

“A few days in the mountains with the whole fam, makes this mama’s heart so happy,” Joanna captioned an Aug. 3 Instagram reel, which these days constitutes some rare family footage. “Fishing, chopping down dead trees, making forts for the [squirrels], crunchy french toast, rodeo, bikes, and family hikes.”

While Crew seemed to be taking the lead on chopping wood and fort-building, Chip previously tasked Ella with designing a whole cottage on the property.

“I’m accepting the challenge,” the Parsons School of Design student said as she toured the space with her mom on Colorado Mountain House.

This wasn’t the first time that Ella—who was 13 when her dad predicted to People that “she’ll follow in my footsteps and have her hand in a lot of things”—showed a flair for the family business. While the four eldest Gaines kids spent almost as much time at Magnolia headquarters when they were little as their parents did, Ella returned as an intern.

So, Joanna knew the shiplap would be in good hands when she and Chip took a three-month break from running their empire in the summer of 2024.

And the couple knew from past experience that pausing to make sure they’re working from the same blueprint is key to avoiding a total teardown.

When Chip and Joanna announced in September 2017 that the upcoming season of Fixer Upper would be their last, they said at the time, “We have poured our blood, sweat and tears into this show. We would be foolish to think we can go and go and fire on all cylinders and never stop to pause.”

Noting the more salacious stories that started shadowing them once they became overnight HGTV sensations, they added, “Our family is healthy and our marriage has honestly never been stronger.”

As Magnolia Network got off the ground in 2021, subsequent iterations of Fixer Upper—Welcome Home, The Castle, The Hotel —premiered every year.

Add their quarterly magazine, sprawling product line at Target and destination shopping center in Waco, among other ventures, and they were still working as hard as ever. It “really physically hit us” in 2024, Joanna said on Business of Home. “We were physically lacking vision for what was next.”

She and Chip regrouped and came up with new plans, including last year’s Magnolia series Back to the Frontier, Mini Reni and Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House.

And they talk things out “to death,” Joanna quipped. “It’s like, ‘OK, Chip, I’m done talking.’ But in the morning we’ll have coffee and we’ll sit and just talk about everything, and there’s always that connection.”

But while there’s a big world out there demanding attention, and the theme of Magnolia Journal‘s latest summer issue is “Chasing Adventure,” Joanna wanted to clarify that there are adventures to be had anywhere, including your own backyard.

“Our highest highs may very well appear wrapped in circumstance, in some fantastic experience, but what if the part that truly thrilled us was the connection we felt—to each other, to ourselves?” she wrote in her May essay. “What if the spark was actually our full-tilt embrace of what is already ours, honoring what’s already here, and that’s what made the moment so legendary?”

She noted, “This isn’t to say my own family won’t go anywhere this summer. I’m sure we’ll find our wanderlust somewhere at some point. But for the majority of the next three months, I hope we’re chasing the ordinary.”

Taken close to home, see Chip and Joanna’s sweetest family photos: