Hey there, it's Yogi Bear!
We took our annual camping trip to Jellystone Park in Estes Park with our friends, The Bayons! It was an adventure as always. We all had a fantastic time... despite little hiccups, but I'm getting ahead of myself....
The two families met up at Snarf's in Longmont, and Chris asked me if I'd looked to see what the weather would be like for the weekend. "Hmmm. No." Rain. All weekend. Starting in about an hour. Sigh. Well... we're packed and had our tents. It'd just be a little rain, right? Full speed ahead! The stars had something else in mind though. When we get into Lyons all traffic to Estes Park was being diverted up Rt 7... making our 20 minute trip into about an hour. The skies opened when we got into Estes - thunder, lightening and lots of rain. Sigh again. It actually seemed to have stopped when we made it to our camp site and we all started to quickly assemble our tents. The Bayons were kind enough to lend us their old family (read: gi-normous!) tent... but Josh quickly learned that the poles for said tent didn't make it up the mountain. Sigh yet again. The kids and Chris and I hung out in the Bayon's tent while Josh and Chris went back down to Lo'mo to retrieve the poles. By 10pm both tents were up and everyone was ready to just call it a day already! Saturday had to be better... right?
It was. Saturday was idyllic in most respects. The Bayons made a scrumptious breakfast! scrambled eggs, bacon, veggie hash and coffee - yum! Not gonna lie: the tofu sausages weren't a hit. With anyone. Even the dogs, Maggie & Nikita, wouldn't eat them. A highlight of the morning was getting to see Yogi come out to raise the flag. It just tickles me that Van knows who Yogi, BooBoo and Cindy are! We could see rain rolling in, so we headed down to Lion's Gulch trail to see if we could get a good hike in before it hit. It started as we were getting out of the cars! But after only a quarter mile or so let up and the sun shined on us for the rest of the hike. Woo hoo!
I had one of those Good-Mommy moments. :-) I'd found a little project on Pintrest for the boys to do on our hike. Brody and Van each got half an egg container in which each cup was painted a different color. Their job was to collect objects on our hike that matched those colors. I thought, "They'll either really dig it, or the moms will be carrying ignored egg containers." As it turns out... they loved it!! Both little guys took their job of finding colors very seriously. It was so fun watching them try to match the colors, share their finds and discover new things. Below is Van's collection of colors:
The two families met up at Snarf's in Longmont, and Chris asked me if I'd looked to see what the weather would be like for the weekend. "Hmmm. No." Rain. All weekend. Starting in about an hour. Sigh. Well... we're packed and had our tents. It'd just be a little rain, right? Full speed ahead! The stars had something else in mind though. When we get into Lyons all traffic to Estes Park was being diverted up Rt 7... making our 20 minute trip into about an hour. The skies opened when we got into Estes - thunder, lightening and lots of rain. Sigh again. It actually seemed to have stopped when we made it to our camp site and we all started to quickly assemble our tents. The Bayons were kind enough to lend us their old family (read: gi-normous!) tent... but Josh quickly learned that the poles for said tent didn't make it up the mountain. Sigh yet again. The kids and Chris and I hung out in the Bayon's tent while Josh and Chris went back down to Lo'mo to retrieve the poles. By 10pm both tents were up and everyone was ready to just call it a day already! Saturday had to be better... right?
It was. Saturday was idyllic in most respects. The Bayons made a scrumptious breakfast! scrambled eggs, bacon, veggie hash and coffee - yum! Not gonna lie: the tofu sausages weren't a hit. With anyone. Even the dogs, Maggie & Nikita, wouldn't eat them. A highlight of the morning was getting to see Yogi come out to raise the flag. It just tickles me that Van knows who Yogi, BooBoo and Cindy are! We could see rain rolling in, so we headed down to Lion's Gulch trail to see if we could get a good hike in before it hit. It started as we were getting out of the cars! But after only a quarter mile or so let up and the sun shined on us for the rest of the hike. Woo hoo!
The boys were so awesome on our hike we headed into Estes to have a little picnic lunch and get some ice cream! Needless to say: we don't really "rough it" when we camp anymore.
There was some down time at camp, which for two four-year-olds and a one-year-old consists of playgrounds, mini golf and snacks. At some point Chris busted out the ball glove and velcro mits, and they got to play a little catch. Brody has a heck of a throw! Van has found a new sport to love, too. While he didn't take it quite as seriously as his pal, he was having a great time and says he's going to ask Santa for a black baseball glove, just like Brody's.
Unfortunately, Josh had`3 been sick for a week already, and still wasn't feeling well at all. He'd rallied for the day, but it'd taken it's toll on him. After a kick-ass dinner of a veggie Thai chili, cornbread and corn on the cob w/ lime butter (as I said, we don't really rough-it) he pulled me aside and asked how bummed I'd be if we packed up and headed home. I was a little bummed to miss campfire/s'more time, but I knew he was pretty miserable. Van & Wes, however, weren't as empathetic and were quite disappointed to go home. The Bayons totally understood and were very sweet, and helpful, about us leaving a night earlier than planned.
So... the whole weekend was good and bad, but I like to remember all the fun we had with wonderful friends! We didn't see the torrents of rain we'd anticipated, thank goodness, and the boys all had a fantastic time playing outside and gettin' dirty. A huge "thank you!" to the Bayons for another memorable Jellystone camping experience!!
Check out pictures HERE
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