Camping at Jelly Stone

We hadn't been camping in a really long time so we decided to take a trip in mid December to one of our favorite campgrounds, Jelly Stone park in Waller, TX.  We aren't hard core roughing-it material like we once were so we "glamp" in a cabin nowadays.  

This little boy was super excited to camp.  He hasn't been since a baby so he doesn't remember our pop-up camper; but we said there would be campfires, fishing, ans s'mores so he was all in!  Of course Bear must tag along.  (side note: he recently said he would give up Bear once he's grown up and then he'll pass him down to another little boy.  Not sure Bear can handle that much love.)

This moment was so funny to me.  This is his first time to put on gloves.  He gets his fingers in there but he ends up with two fingers in one hole.  He holds up his hand and is really confused.  He starts counting his fingers because he can't figure out what the problem is.  OK, now that I'm typing this it doesn't seem that funny.  It was a "you had to have been there" moment.

This is our first of two nights.  We enjoyed the campfire, roasted weenies and made s'mores.

Brian made our cabin festive with Christmas lights

This is our cabin once we could see it the next day.  It has a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, and loft area for extra sleeping.  For some reason Halle missed the part about there being a working shower in the bathroom.  She was quite disgusted to find out she went two days without showering for no reason.  

All the other times we have camped at Jelly Stone it has been completely booked out.  This time there was no one there!  There were 17 families in the whole place.  Our section was completely vacant so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.  Behind Arden you can see all of the empty tent campsites.

with no one being there the kids could ride their bikes on the roads without fear of cars.  

Here is the play area where Jack and Arden spent most of their time.  It's like a Mc Donalds playground on steroids.  And because no one was around but us, we could send them off to play and see from our front porch.  

Halle and I selfie-ing with our winter clothes.  This was the one day the whole season I've been able to break out my boots.

Jack just being outside having a good ole time

The activity center at the park has events planned everyday.  On Saturday there was the ugly Christmas sweater decorating contest.  Since we didn't bring our own sweaters we bought some white t-shirts from them and decorated those instead.  Halle and Brian kept accusing each other of taking the other's idea of Santa's sleigh and reindeer.  There were a few other families in there decorating, but our family won 1st ,2nd, and 3rd place!  I was very proud of my family's crafting skills. I was especially proud of Brian's skills!  I won first, Halle and Brian tied for second, and Arden got third.  I also did a Facebook poll which Halle won by a long shot.

 

There was also cookie decorating.

Brian's scary cookie.  Looks like a Christmas Jack-o-lantern

I ate mine before anyone could take a picture.  I'm a sucker for sugar cookies.

her own pose.  Such a cutie pie.

Jack just licks all the icing off the knife.  He has that "it all ends up in one place anyway" mentality.

Another activity was getting to sit with Yogi and Santa.  (Yogi Bear is the mascot at Jelly Stone.)  Santa was a she, and Jack immediately recognized that when she said Ho Ho Ho in a fake low voice.  "That's not a real Santa, that's a girl Santa."  He sat with Fake Santa anyway because he really wanted the candy canes she was passing out.

Before we headed back home the kids had to fish at the little pond on site.  They all love fishing.  They fished with top dollar fishing equipment: a Mickey Mouse fishing pole and left over weenies.  There were only tiny fish biting, too small for the hook, but Halle managed to catch one anyway!  It was enough for the kids to be satisfied.  

Gone Fishin'

That wrapped up our weekend camping trip.  Hopefully we'll be able to make it back again soon.