camping – Playing House

During the second weekend of September, we went on QUITE the glamping trip with friends. We packed up the kiddos and headed off on a 3-hour journey to a Jellystone Campground… but not for your average camping… because let’s be real, life is just a little easier with running water and a kitchen. And with 4 children under the age of 5, we were looking for easy & relaxing.

SO, we rented the grand Villa for the weekend and enjoyed all of the luxuries Yogi Bear & the Jellystone Park had to offer us, which was a bit less than normal, as we were a week or so past season.

The park-ground was a bit of a ghost town, but that made it all the better!

Our villa was a two-bedroom with a loft, full kitchen and a bathroom. See, glamping! AKA glamorous camping. To add to the hilarity, we actually had the kiddos stay in the bedrooms (our kids in one, our friends’ kids in the other) and the adults stayed upstairs in the loft, which featured 4 twin beds. This setup made our late-night camp fires easier.

The Jellystone theme for the weekend was “A weekend at the farm” and was filled with tons of activities from candy bar “horse races” to finding a needle in a haystack. We had such a great time!

The weekend itinerary:

I loved the early mornings strolling around the quiet campgrounds. It was one for the books!

Needle in a haystack:

Candy Bar Horse Races:

Swimming:

Craft Time with BooBoo:

ICE CREAM!

Playing with Friends Near the Villa:

Egg Toss & Playing on the “Foot Pool” Field:

Dinner, Smores & Spooky Stories Around the Campfire:

Bedtime Story with Ranger Smith:

Random Fun:

The Crew:

A little lunch & Yogi Bear upon arriving home:

Two weekends ago, we went on our first annual camping trip with our friends Annie, Josh and their sweet 2-year-old, Ellie. We rented a cabin at a cute little campground in Plymouth, WI and gave the kiddies some mild exposure to the great outdoors.

Our cabin was pretty compact, but actually quite nice. It had two bedrooms with a kitchen and private bathroom… we were really roughing it 🙂

Mark and I enjoy tent camping, but could not figure out how we could make it work with Charlotte’s sleep schedule. So, we opted for the cabin!

What was interesting though was the fact that we shared a bedroom with the little one. This is something we haven’t done for at least 6 months, if not longer. We had Charlie in the pack-and-play that literally JUST fit behind the bedroom door. Meaning, at night, we had to squeeze into the room as quiet as can be in hopes of not waking the babes. It did not help that our bed was the loudest most squeaky bed I have ever experienced.

Thankfully, Charlotte was a champ and slept through the night both nights, with only mild stirring when mommy and daddy came in and made a rucous.

The campground had a miniature golf course, playgrounds, two pools and tons of activities. While Charlotte is still way too young to partake in the planned activities, all-in-all, it was a great time!