We kicked off our summer camping season by taking a trip to Jellystone for Memorial Day weekend. Let me kick this whole post off by saying the weather was AWESOME. We went to Jellystone last year for Memorial Day weekend too, and it was miserable hot. Upper 90's, low 100's the entire weekend. Ugh. This year it was in the mid-80's the entire time and it was beautiful!
I took the same picture last year and would have never guessed that this year we'd have another face in the frame.
Which opens up the whole "You took the baby camping?" question. Yes, yes... we took the baby camping. I'd like to justify it by saying "It's not like we were in a tent..." but the truth is we'd have taken him anyway. We love to camp and the thought of sitting out the summer just because we have a baby would be a huge bummer. So we packed the little feller up and hit the road.
But yes, I am crazy. I think we've already established that.
As usual, Jellystone had a great weekend of activities planned for the kids, beginning at 0930 for the daily flag-raising with Yogi bear till dusk when they roasted marshmallows around a fire.
Justice got to raise the flag on Memorial Day. He was pretty excited, and the lady was impressed he already knew exactly how to do it. Yay for Cub Scouts. See Jack in the background? Hugging the statue of Yogi Bear with his life. See the "real" Yogi" on the right? Jack wouldn't go anywhere near him. He said "his eyes creep me out."
Ha! I just noticed the bunny ears. Way to go Yogi.
The kids got to to tie-dye shirts again this year, which they really loved. I was super proud of Jack for using more than one color this year. Last year, it was green and only green. I will confess they tie-tyed the shirts on Saturday. And if you notice the date stamp on the pics above, they were still wearing them on Monday. I didn't care either. At all.
And on another note, the chlorine from the pool makes Jack's hair look SO red. It tends to get brown during the winter, but a quick shot of summer brightens it right up. Poor little feller.
They played pool bingo. It was pretty cool, all the numbers and letters were on ping pong balls and the kids had to swim around the pool calling out whatever was on the ball to their partner who marked the card.
And we all know how competitive Justice is, so it's no surprise he won.
They also had an applesauce eating contest. Justice hates applesauce. But as always, was drawn in to anything with the promise of winning a contest.
He did NOT win the applesauce eating contest. Turns out that he couldn't quite overcome his dislike of applesauce.
And there was of course tons of swimming. Those feet sticking out of the water belong to Justice.
Jack did something that really surprised us. He "forgot" how to swim. He jumped in the pool like he normally does and just didn't know what to do. That scared him and he refused to go in the water at all the second day. I was so upset for him, he was such a great swimmer last year. I did everything I could to get him to go back in the water, but he refused. He's a stubborn little mule.
Finally, on the third day, The Coach talked him into going back in and "practicing" until he got the hang of it again.
The Coach gives a good pep talk.
The Coach talked him into swimming around the shallow end until he was comfortable again. Eventually he got his act together and realized he did indeed know how to swim.
And then he was OK. Thank goodness. I wasn't looking forward to a huge setback in the swimming department. Once Jack has his mind made up about something, you can forget about it.
They also had inflatable water slides. This water slide was huge. I wish I had a picture of Jack going down this thing with a deranged and crazy look on his face. Fearless I tell you. That's why I was so shocked he got scared in the pool.
Love this picture. Justice is about to be decapitated by the end of the slide. Awesome.
They also have this cool thing called a "jumping pillow", which really does look like a giant inflatable pillow. The boys jumped on it like crazy. Too bad I had to tell Jack fifty thousand times that back flips and front flips and somersaults and face-plants were unauthorized.
He is going to be the death of me.
They also rode the pedal cars.
And of course we ate like champs. We had steaks, fish, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled nachos, and of course s'mores.
The grillmaster at work.
And holy cow. This looks an awful mess, I know it. But don't doubt me. This is a foil packet with a sliced banana, marshmallows and chocolate. Run out right now and buy the stuff for this. So what if you don't go camping, put it on your grill at home. It's seriously the best thing I've ever tasted. Some sort of magic happens when the marshmallow gets all melty and caramelizes with the hot banana, and... yes, well it's very delicious.
I think The Coach would have eaten the foil it was wrapped in if it wouldn't have hurt his teeth.
Captain Crazy loves S'mores. And I love his freckles. All seven hundred million of them.
You may be wondering what Jacoby did the entire weekend?
Yep, that's pretty much it.
He slept. And fussed. And ate. And yes, I know... call the "Back To Sleep" police.
"He's sleeping on his BELLY!!!"
When I'm awake, he sleeps on his belly. He has a bad belly. Not as bad as Justice, but bad none the less. His belly hurts often, and laying on it with his legs pulled up underneath him is the only thing that makes him feel better. So sleep on his belly he does.
I sure love the Big Brother. He struggles with his ADHD, he struggles with paying attention and he struggles mightily with the elephants running around in his head.
But the one thing he doesn't struggle with is the love he has for these two little boys. Jacoby did nothing but crap and puke on him this weekend, cried like crazy, and in spite of his impatience for everything else, he snuggled this angry bird of a baby boy on his chest and sang and sang and sang to him.
And Jack? Jack treats him like roadkill 99% of the time. He's bossy, angry, pushy and never happy with anything his Bubs ever does for him. He steals his food, his drinks, kicks him in the nuts routinely, and steals his covers. He threatens him and rides him like a mule.
And Justice? He just loves the little turd to pieces.
And this Mom loves them all. Bad bellies, errant elephants, red afros and all.
I love camping with my boys (and that includes The Coach). I wouldn't trade the dirty tie-dyed shirts and the sticky chocolate faces for anything in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment