When planning our trip earlier this year, I was elated to find that they were having a Bingo, Bingo, Bingo Week!!! August 4th didn't sound that late in the summer, at the time, but in reality, it took forever for our trip to arrive!
The day did finally arrive, and despite all the preparations, we still ended up leaving a little late. The very first event we had planned to attend was musical chairs bingo at 4:30. As it was 4:20 when we arrived, Billy parked, I ran the medicine in and stashed it in the fridge, and we hustled over to the pavilion.
For this bingo, you had a bingo board that you marked, and then when the music stopped, you moved to the next board! It was less chaotic than it sounds, but really fun. William and Billy both won!
Once the fun was over, it was time to go set up 'camp.' It's awesome to have kids that are capable of helping unload the car and setting up their own bed!
I have a list of items that we use at Yogi Bear each year, but still get questions from the kids about what we have and how we'll set things up, so I took some pictures of our food/kitchen set up this year to help in future years!
My mom and I found this cute little cup at a rummage sale, and I almost passed on it, because I have five children and didn't want arguing. She recommended it as a utensil holder, at which it did a fantastic job! = )
It must have been a particularly calm week at camp, because I didn't have to pick up our flag off of the ground a single time!
We requested the same site as last year, but didn't pay to lock it in, I am glad we got it again though! And we might end up paying to lock it in in future years, because it's in an awesome location!
We were mostly unpacked, and the kids were finished with their personal set up, so off they went to the Firetruck ride! I didn't go on any of the rides, but on this one Alice and Emily borrowed my phone to take some pictures.
The next bingo was a candy bar bingo (my favorite!)
The wifi (and phone signal) are both terrible in our cabin, which is not entirely a bad thing, as it curtails screen time, but in order to complete 'daily' virtual activities, we would walk up to the ranger station. The first night, Grace and Emily came with me.
William was up late, because he had the couch bed, and was a little scared, and ended up in our room, but not until about 2. Despite how tired I was, I kept waking up, and the sheets pulled off the corner of the bed, and so I moved out to William's bed, but within an hour, at like 5am, the girls were starting to wake up, and since things didn't open until 9, it was noisy in our cabin until then.
The first event of the day was jump roping with a bear. The twins had colored pictures to give to Yogi (and Grace made a cute cutout with foam.) The staff at this camp is so amazing and sweet!
Next up was the pool! Billy had better luck with sleep than I did, so I told the kids I would take them for a short swim (15 minutes,) but we could do longer times with daddy.
Emily, William, Grace, Juliet and I all tie-dyed a shirt. I only have before pictures, because my hands were also dirty during the dying part. = )
The pool game on day one was sharks vs minnows, though they were calling it 'bingo balls vs bingo cards' to fit into the theme. = ) Emily won one of the rounds!
Billy cooked up half the food on day 2. The coals cooled too quickly for him to finish it all. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and bbq chicken. It makes feeding everyone so much easier, especially since we have access to a microwave!
The kids went on the ride each night, I think this night was a grain train ride. 5 or 6 little carts were pulled by a tractor. = ) William chased it around on his bike for several loops!
The next morning, the kids were surprised by a visit from Yogi bringing donuts!!! They were still warm even. = )
Sadly, William was still sleeping, since I was trying to keep it a surprise as long as possible. I was just glad that the girls woke up, I thought I might be greeting Yogi Bear alone. lol.
Alice's thank you seemed full of gratitude. She was our schedule monitor (even downloaded the app on to her phone!) So I knew she'd seen the post, but had no idea that I'd made the reservation.
After enjoying our yummy donuts, we headed over to breakfast bingo! It was a small group, so we ended up winning back most of our own breakfast food.
This morning was cooler than the previous day, but the girls still wanted to swim. It was a very short session, because they were shivering!
William and Alice passed on that pool opportunity, but William did find a painted rock that we grabbed and will re-hide! = )
There was a bear appearance at the how tall am I board, and so I snagged individual pictures and a group picture with Booboo bear!
Our next stop, since I had the whole crew together, was the Yogi statue. I can't believe how grown up they look here!!!
These rocks keep people from driving/parking on the grass, but some of them are kind of flat, and everyone stepped on it as we walked back to our cabin. = )
I was in the pavilion, for the Wi-Fi, during some down time, and they started setting up for spin tees or spin frisbees. Emily, Grace and William had made their way over to me, and since the frisbees were $3 I told them that they could share one, and that I'd give Alice and Juliet each a dollar to keep it fair.
Emily's paint gave her some trouble, so she had to use a different color.
I took a video of the finished product, but no picture while we were at Jellystone, so I had to take one at home. It looks like it got a little squished on the trip home, but I think it will still fly, just crookedly. lol.
Billy needed some shades for the bright sunlight at the pool. Sadly, they didn't have any Jellystone labelled options, so he had to make do with these. = )
After the pool, Billy grilled up the rest of the food. The shrimp went fast, since we'd all been looking at it for a couple of days in the fridge!
So, this picture is after Emily returned from the first water hey hey hey ride. On the first one, we sent our five children off with their little squirters (like the one Emily has) and armed ourselves with an extra one and cut gallon jug of water. Sadly for us, very few people on the ground were participating, so by the time the ride got to us, and people saw that we were armed, everyone aimed for us, not just our children. Billy and I got drenched. We would have stayed drier on the ride! Next year, we bring a hose.
The next round of Bingo was stuffed animal Bingo. Which, somehow, had a smaller turnout than breakfast Bingo: just us. So, we played Bingo for our own stuffed animals! Emily and Grace both won the coveted Minon stuffies, and Juliet won the blackout round. It was not very fun without other people. = /
At the next round of Candy Bar Bingo, there was a better turn out, but we still had time to play with my camera settings. = )
Alice won the jackpot round, so this is a real, legit Alice smile!
William found that he could rent a bike with some passenger seats. So, his sisters took turns riding.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't last very long, and he was back on a single rider bike by evening.
Billy bought the kids 500 water balloons to fling at one another! They only made it through about 200, so we ended up bringing home a few. lol.
Instead of tie-dye, Alice opted for painting a ceramic, well two, instead.
In the evening, they were making campfire cinnamon rolls. Grace was not impressed with the fire. I thought they had a lot of potential, but trying to make them for a large group of people led to a less than ideal product. The part that cooked well was really tasty!
A "later" picture of the girls Bingo 'snail' craft.
We brought glowsticks to ante and to wear for Glow Bingo!
*it was a '7-day' band, if you were lucky enough to be staying longer than that, you had to renew it each week. ; )
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