Yogi Bears Jellystone Park Camping, Day 2

Sleeping in a tent isn't what I'd consider "fun" but as far as sleeping in a tent goes, it went fine. The evening started off quite warm but at some point in the middle of the night Dakota yelled out "I wanna get in" and after finding her little body in the corner of the tent I realized she meant she wanted in the sleeping bag. It got pretty chilly out there under the stars and once I'd cooled down I slept relatively well. Dakota and I shared one tent while the guys were in the other one. No particular reason it ended up that way, it just happened like that.

I was the first to wake up Saturday morning. I knew as soon as the bright ball of death sun came up and the birds started screaming singing that I'd be awake and sure enough I was awake at 6 am. I did my best to be quiet and not wake Dakota or anyone else but I needed to use the bathroom and wanted to grab a quick shower so I had to clothes out of the van but I didn't have the keys. I looked high and low for them and before I could even get to the bathroom Dakota started unzipping the tent. I peeked in the other tent and saw Harper's head pop up and decided that all was lost at that point. I did finally get the key and a shower and then it was time to get a fire going to make breakfast.

So, everything takes longer when your cooking over an open fire but it took us about three hours to make breakfast, haha! Really, it did. Our wood was slightly damp and despite Tony's best efforts, he couldn't get anything started. We had to wait until the little store opened at 8 am to buy some dry wood and fire starter. Once we finally had what we needed it was about another hour to get everything cooked...but it was delicious!

After our amazing breakfast we had to clean up a bit. EVERYTHING takes so much longer when you do it outside! Washing a few pans took me about half an hour. Take pot to water spigot, squirt in a bit of soap, add a bit of water (that is spraying everywhere except into pan) and scrub. Take pot to camp table, dry with whatever isn't damp. Repeat. Gah! It took an eternity. While I was busy with my two pans Harper and Dakota played in the tent a little. (Landon was still "sleeping" and didn't get up until about noon. Even in the bright, sunshiny heat. Punk.) 

I read that there was pottery painting down in the pavilion and in an effort to keep the kid's happy we headed down to do that for awhile. Harper complained that he didn't like to paint but when a certain ceramic fish caught his eye he changed his tune. Both kids did a great job painting their pieces. 

We brought our little ceramic pieces back to camp and changed into our bathing suits. It was time to head back to the water park for a little fun!

Those were the only two pictures I got at the water park because we were just too busy playing around. Harper stayed in the splash zone area for the most part while Dakota played in the pool. She doesn't care for all the splashing. At lunch time we ordered food from the food truck at the pool then got back in the water for awhile. After a couple hours there it was time to head back to camp and see what else we could do. Harper decided he wanted to draw but Dakota was antsy so I took her to get her face painted. She LOVES having her face painted these days and whenever she gets the opportunity, she goes for it!

While Dakota was getting her sunshine painting we noticed a guy twisting balloons, so naturally, we ended up in line for a fairy princess wand...

The rest of the day pretty much flew by. We went to the playground and jumping pillow again. Dakota tried the pedal bikes but was just too tired to really give it a go. Landon played basketball with some kids. After dinner the kids played on the rocks and tossed around a Frisbee. The night air was cooler than before and the kids were tired but happy. 

After checking the weather and seeing that it was due to storm overnight and all day the next day, Tony and I made the executive decision to pack up and leave while it was still dry. We didn't want to have to try to pack up and entire camp in the rain and besides that, Landon's allergies were driving him crazy. (No, he wasn't taking his medication. Teenagers. Ugh.) So we started packing the van back into it's sardine state and hit the road home around 7:30 pm. We weren't in the car long before Dakota zonked out and we were home by 9 pm. It was a great trip but we were (as always) glad to be home! 

Here are some final pics...