Are We Really Doing This???: The 12 Days of Camping...(Part 4)

Phew,
haven't we had enough fun already?
Are we done yet?

NOPE!
We are just getting started good!
So far,
we have only talked about
the first 6 days!
We still have half a trip left!

When choosing our third and final
campground for our trip,
I wanted to make sure it was somewhere
with enough for me and the kids
to do.
It also had to be near Morganton,
since that is where daddy's class was.
So we were going to be solo
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
and
most of Friday.

There is a whole lotta nuthin
in and around Morganton!
So I broadened my search
and found an
AMAZING
spot
in Marion, NC.
It put daddy at a 20+ minute
commute to the class.
But gave us TONS to do!!

We decided we would give
Yogi Bear's JellyStone
Camp & Resort
a shot.

I was so excited to visit after
finding their website!!!

Since our return I have looked up
other JellyStone's in the area...
the owners of the Marion one...
really have a passion for this,
they know what they are doing,
they enjoy what they are doing
and you can tell!!!

It is owned and run by a family.
Mom (Mama Bear)
Dad (Chief)
Oldest Son (Running Bear)
Younger Son (Happy Feet)

We had a FANTASTIC time!
I had us booked Mon-Fri
ONLY
because they didn't have room for us to stay
past Friday.

When we arrived,
it was actually VERY disappointing...
it looked so dirty!
Everything was covered in mud!
The lake
(that looked beautiful in all the pictures)
was the color of mud!
The grass was covered in mud,
the boats
(that looked so neat and clean on the web)
were all flipped upside down
and dirty
and partially submerged.

I was really confused!

We later learned that there
had been a record rainfall
two days before.
(Saturday - didn't rain that bad in Balsam Mtn 1 hr away!)
It literally washed out the ONLY bridge across the lake
that took you to the camp sites.
Mud came down the mountain
and
washed right into the lake.
The lake flooded horribly!
It came up on to the grass
(bringing mud with it).

It messed up the boats,
the foot bridge across the lake,
the pump on the water slide,
quite a few lakeside campsites...

It was just a mess!
And they did their absolute best!
BEST!
To get the campground back up
and running
and looking
like they built it to look
and kept it looking!
I was BLOWN away
by how diligently
and
quickly
the "Chief"
worked
ALL DAY,
the entire time we were there,
to get his campground
back to the condition
that they kept it in!

I honestly can't give enough kudos
to the hard work that family
put into getting the place
"back together".

Within a day of our arrival,
I was begging them to find room
for us to stay through the weekend.
I wanted Daddy to enjoy some of the
campground that we were enjoying
while he was in class.

Luckily,
they found a spot for us!
It was a little tight,
but
we got to stay.

So we were all happy.

We are anxiously waiting to find another
time to hike out there...
its a 4 hour drive...
so unfortunately,
its not a weekend trip...
not a frequent one anyways.

But we are definitely ready to do it again.

This campground it 100% geared around families.
And most of the activities are geared toward
the school aged crowd
elementary to middle school aged.
Which works perfectly for us.

They have a schedule of activities
every day...
all day!

So you can be as active
or
as relaxed
as you want to be.

Our first day there,
We got a SMALL glipse of the
flooding mayhem
when the rain started again...
I am certain everyone was holding their breath...

You can kind of see the slope on the

driveway,

we were pretty high up

and the lake was at the bottom...

We had to find something to do,

inside,

to keep entertained during the rain.

The next day,

the boys gathered firewood.

We asked permission to

scavenge through the woods

and gather the fallen branches.

Over the next few days,

we stayed QUITE busy!

We tried out the boats:

Daddy and Lex in the canoe

Rico rocking the kayak like he knew what he was doing!

Jackson chillin in the paddle boat

(cause he was extremely apprehensive of all

of the other boats!)

And Mr. T

quite HAPPILY

keeping his feet firmly

planted on dry ground!

(tough job havin a kid this cute!)

We tried out the playground...

Mr. T giving daddy a push...

Sort of!

This is the only boat

we could get Tony on...

Playing a couple of rounds of putt-putt

with some new friends.

Watering the flowers

with Cindy Bear

Hitting the pool and waterslide:

Rico forgot to take his shirt off,

so he rode down with it in his hand...

and it didn't get wet!

He was so proud!

This water was COLD!

Tony and I sat and watched

and everyone coming out

was commenting on how COLD

the water was!

It was a chilly day,

but the water was all new

water.

They had to empty the slide,

and replace the pump due to all

the mud that had made its way into the slide pool.

I opted NOT to go down the slide,

luckily

SOMEONE had to stay with Mr. T.

The sacrifices mommies have to make.

sigh...

(wink, wink)

See,

doesn't he look like its chilly outside??

The boys had been BEGGING

daddy to go on the waterslide with them,

but by the time he got back

from class and chilled out a minute,

the slide was closed!

So we finally had a chance to get daddy

on the slide on Friday.

Once Lex finally got on the slide,

it was almost impossible to get her off!!

Look at that happy girl!

Daddy finally made his way down the slide!

He makes it look like such a fast and exhilarating slide,

doesn't he?

After watching everyone else having so much fun

on the slide...

Mr. T decided he was willing to give it a shot.

Daddy attempted to stay in the seated upright position...

but the shear force of the speed slide (har har)

he was on...

knocked him and little man back.

Then my sweet husband,

did the noble thing

and

held our precious

baby boy child

up above his head

as he plunged into the ice cold water!

Baby boy hardly got wet!

What a good daddy!

I have no great caption for this next photo...

I just loved it!

Daddy is grinning because I saw this and

wanted to get a picture,

so I ran ahead of them and turned around

and started taking pictures.

And if you look REAL close,

you can see daddy is stepping

a little unusually high with that left foot...

he had a blow out with his flip flop

and had to walk rather

awkwardly back to the site.

We had quite a few flip flop blow outs on that trip!

(Note to self: Next time we go camping take atleast

TWO pairs of flip flips for everyone!)

The big boys hit the boats for a second time,

and this time Jackson got brave!!

He started out in the canoe with Rico...

Then Rico wanted to ride the kayak,

so Jackson decided to man the canoe solo!

Then I turned around and he was in a kayak

by himself!!!

Oh what fun stuff we are going to do

when these littlest ones get a little older!

We are gonna do things I never thought

I would do:

canoeing to a campsite

kayaking down a river

(p.s. - see all of the yucky in the lake -

that is NOT normal there)

So those were some of the things we did that I actually
took pictures of.
There were a TON of other activities that we either
didn't participate in,
didn't photo graph
or chose not to show include.
I got tons of pictures of
the kids in the pool...
chose not to add those cause
that is "every day" stuff. :)

Some of the activities that they had that
are not pictured:

Hey Rides around the grounds
Nature Hike around the grounds
Lunch with a character
Breakfast with a character
Roasting smores with Yogi
Daily Organizied Games
Daily Arts n Crafts
Story time complete with milk & cookies with Yogi
Dance Parties

(me and Mr. T at one of the dance parties)

We had an absolute ball
and
can't wait to go back!
Daddy has already been notified of the dates
for the next class he has to take
out there...
he is ready for me to book our trip already!
For NEXT August!!

On Sunday mornings,
they have Yogi come around the campground and say good-bye
to the campers.

We were busy packing up
when he stopped by our site.

We had a cooler propped
up on a set of sets to drain.
Yogi,
thinking he was helping...
came by and
helped speed up the process...
he dumped our cooler
and
all of its contents all over the place!

Much to his surprise...
it was FULL
of drinks!