While we were taking down the tent, Ben was sitting at the picnic table drawing a picture for Yogi Bear. I told Ben we could mail Yogi a letter. When we got home, he found an envelope and began filling it full of magnetic plastic letters off the refrigerator. He was getting letters to send Yogi.
While we were off camping, Mollie was not feeling neglected. Here are some pictures Nana and Grandaddy took of the fun time Mollie was having with them.
Ben slept until nearly 8 a.m. Saturday. We all slept good Friday night.
Ben played on the playground for a few minutes while we waited for Yogi to come to the flag pole.
A final hug from Yogi, but we did bring home a stuffed Yogi Bear from the Ranger Station gift shop.
We swam and played at the splash pad for an hour before returning to our campsite and began packing up to head home. Checkout was at noon. 
Goodbye campground. We plan to go back again next year. We had a great time.
After lunch at the Azteca (John's favorite Mexican restaurant from childhood), we picked Mollie up at the Elders.
Andy and Opie going fishing after the rain stopped.
Although right after it rains isn't the best time to fish, John and Ben had been talking about fishing for days. They had to go fishing. This was Ben's first fishing trip eventhough he got this rod and reel for his 2nd birthday. John is explaining how to release the button when casting.
It rained for three hours Friday afternoon. Thankfully, our tent didn't leak. Ben was very patient about it. He drew a picture of Yogi.
Then he ate cookies and watched a movie on the portable DVD player.
John wasn't as excited about watching Elmo's World. I read every word of the Southern Living that arrived on Wednesday.
Ben and I took naps in the tent after lunch on Friday.
After nap, Ben was super excited about playing "golf balls." We only played eight holes because it looked like it was about to storm. After we finished, I asked Ben what he thought about golf. He said it was "frustrating." 
John also finds golf frustrating.
Jellystone is a Yogi Bear campground. Although Ben had never heard of Yogi and Boo Boo before we began planning our trip, he was very excited about meeting them.
Yogi and Boo Boo greet the campers at the flagpole every morning at 10 a.m.
Getting a hug from Yogi.
Giving Boo Boo five.
Shaking Yogi's hand. We had planned to go on a "Hey Ride" with Yogi and BooBoo on Friday evening, but it got rained out. Ben was pretty disappointed but we told him that would be something new to do next time we went to Jellystone. He actually accepted that and was fine.
John gathered firewood to build our campfire. We also had some pine starters that we brought from home and charcoal. We've never been very good at building fires (we love our gas fireplace that lights with a click of a button) and this was no exception. John didn't bring lighter fluid along with the charcoal.
John got the fire going and we cooked hotdogs. As we were preparing to cook the hotdogs, we had one of those moments that remind us what different households we were raised in. John asked where the wire clothes hangers were for roasting the hotdogs and I answered with a completely blank stare, "Clothes hangers? You roast hot dogs on a stick with the end sharpened with a pocket knife." Since we didn't have clothes hangers, we had to go with my sharpened sticks. 
Roasting marshmellows. We didn't have a complete campfire experience, though, since Ben informed me the next morning that we forgot to sing campfire songs.
Showing me his marshmellow fingers from eating S'mores.
Frying bacon on the campfire for breakfast.
Ben using a second spatula to dig with while we cooked breakfast. Cooking over a campfire was a little slow for him. He said, "Cooking inside helps."
John frying eggs on the campfire.
On Friday night, we were late getting supper started because it rained all afternoon. John was trying to start a fire in the dark with everything very damp (even though we did put the wood inside out of the rain). He finally succeeded and the burgers were delicious.
The main attraction at Jellystone is the splash pad and pool. Ben had so much fun. At first he would only go up the steps to the slide, but then he decided that it was cool to climb up the rope ladder. We did it over and over again. Up the rope ladder and down the green slide. John and I took turns even though John is in all the pictures since I'm behind the camera.
Ben down the red slide.
And then John.
Ben's favorite was the longer twisty green slide. At first he would only go sitting up, but then he discovered it was really fun to go feet first on his stomach. The black spot in the bottom left corner is John's head. He came dowm on his stomach head first.
Pump, pump, pump, . . . 
WHOOOOOSH! Water shot out the top like a geyser. You can see it raining down if you look closely.
You can see more of the splash pad and the favorite green slide in this picture.
Ben may have loved just hanging out in the pool more than the splash pad. You can see lake in the background.
We dropped off Mollie and headed to Jellystone (only about 20 minutes from Nana and Grandaddy's house). We arrived about 3 p.m. The Weather Channel was predicting heavy rains so getting our tent up was the first priority.
Ben helping set up inside. He's trying to blow the sheets up with the air mattress pump. Each campsite has water and an electrical outlet. You can see that we have the box fan blowing already.
We have been planning our camping trip to Jellystone Park for about a month. We bought a tent, had a test campout in the backyard, reserved a campsite, and made a long list of all the supplies we would need. Thursday the day finally came to go camping. I don't think you can be "roughing it" and pack this much stuff for a two day campout. And this is before John made a last trip into the house and came out with the coffee pot.
Ready to go. Ben was very excited about going camping. He was completely wired Wednesday night at bedtime and was standing by our bed at 7 a.m. Mollie is headed to spend two nights with Nana and Grandaddy.
Cat is buckled in and ready to go too.
We had a mega homemade slip-n-slide down the hill behind the church tonight. I didn't actually plan for Ben to participate. John had to go to a meeting and I thought it would be too much for me to manage both Ben and Mollie. However, I let Rachel (who has three little ones including one Mollie's age) talk me into it. 
Ben's first time down as he was standing up to get off the plastic, one of the older kids came zooming down, hit Ben in the back of the legs, and knocked him down hard. Ben cried and didn't want to slide again.
I really didn't want him to be scared so I made the next three runs down the slide with him . . . fully clothed. Laura held Mollie and took these pics. I didn't have towels or anything, but we had fun.
