Day 114-118 JELLYSTONE!

We have had had to cancel two trips due to the COVID and it was sad but we were all most afraid of cancelling our yearly trip to Jellystone.  I held my breath right up until I checked in!  But, we made it!  We obviously sat down and made sure that we felt safe before we left and that we were making a good decision. After some discussion and finding out that Jellystone had put many changes in place to ensure safety, we packed up and headed out!

Day One

This is usually unpacking and setting up day so I don't get many pictures on day one.

This year one of our Travel Buddy families joined us and to say the kids had a blast is an understatement. 

DAY TWO 

Mark helping Harper and Aspen make slime.

The inflatable slide broke this year but they had this fun rocket ship and trampoline to play on.  This year you had to make a reservation and you only had 10 minutes at a time with them closing it down in between each reservation to sanitize the whole thing.  It was a pain to make reservations but it really kept us away from a ton of people and I loved that.

The water park closed about every hour and the staff sanitized all the chairs and tables.  Again, it was a pain to have to leave each hour for 15 minutes but I really liked all of the precautions that the park took.  They also only let a certain amount of people into the waterpark at a time.  Also, this year there were "no guests" allowed.  So you if you were not a camper you could not come in.  This kept the numbers way down and it was a wonderful and quiet week.

The boys loved eating their clams for a late night snack.

The kids always love relaxing and watching a movie each night.

And of course, the adults love to sit around the fire and chat.

DAY THREE

While I am so sad that the kids are getting so old it is so nice!  They went each morning to make their reservations for the rocket ship!  

And we got all set up to watch the madness.

This was the first year that we got a golf cart, well Kathleen got a golf cart and I have never loved her more.  It was sooooo hot this year (95 each day) and this was so helpful!

The kids loved piling in!  And I must say that there was a night when us adults had some fun driving around too!

It was so hot this year that the waterpark water was very comfortable.  Us Moms spent most of our time supervising the children from here.

These kids seriously had the best time!  

It is official that my kids no longer need us to take them out on the boats this year.  While it makes me so sad, I do love it!  Harper even got to go out with with the kids!  She just kept yelling, "Look!  No adults!" Notice her Daddy was always close by in the kayak lol.

Such a great group of kids!

Back to our favorite spot!

Oliver loved his new buddy Bandit!

Nick got us all these awesome shirts!  And I got the amazing task of rounding everyone up for a photo.  While everyone gets mad, you will all be happy that I take these pictures someday!  Poor Nick had terrible sunburn and missed our retake shot!

The original shot didn't have a flash and is grainy but at least we are all in it!

Jacqie brought this bracelet making kit this year and thank God she did.  This thing was a hit for all of the kids!!!

DAY FOUR

<3

Started out the day back at the inflatables!  The Dads hopped on this time!

Then Uncle Nick treated all the kids to ice cream!!!

Annual Yogi picture! It was tough this year because there was no hayride due to the rona.  It was sad but the kids didn't seem too upset about it!

Big shots.

Aspen rocked those paddle boards!

And of course, there was a lot of fishing!

I love these kids!

The big shots asked to do a "Night Swim" this year (well until they closed the water at 9).  They had a blast and some crazy person told them it was ok to swim out of the boundaries over to the fountain (it was me, that crazy person was me).  And they had a blast!  Kathleen and I took some heat from it and were terrified we were going to end up in Jellystone jail but we all pulled it off!

DAY FIVE

I didn't get any pictures of day five. That is pack up, check out, hang out and the kids swim for the day, grab souvenirs, and come home and sleep all day day.  Every year I expect my kids to tell me that they are getting bored and sick of Jellystone but, every year they are sad on the last day and tell me that they had the best time ever.  This was our 10th year and they love it just as much as they did that first year when Oliver ate watermelon for the first time and still couldn't walk and Claire talked the entire time and said that she wanted to have her birthday party here and live here when she grew up. When it was time to leave, they both still had the same sad look on their faces that had when they were little and cried when we pulled out because Mark always said, "Say goodbye Jellystone, see you next year!". 

I went down the waterslide with Oliver (which I hate but I do it for him) and on the walk back to the cabin he told me that it was so much fun and then he cried and told me, "I don't want to grow up Mom."  After we had a long discussion about how he will do this stuff with his family some day (and I will come if he wants me to, God I hope he wants me to) he felt much better. Even though they are growing up and is makes me so sad, I still have Jellystone (for now) and I will take it for as long as I can!!!