Into the Wild

As Lee alluded to in the preceding post, the potty-training week was a tough week at our house. But Elsa was such a good trooper the whole week. Coupling her good trooperness with my imminent birthday meant that we should celebrate. And where would one normally celebrate? At Jellystone Park, of course! Elsa and I have camped out in the backyard a few times. We enjoyed it. If we were ever going to branch out into non-backyard camping, Jellystone would be an easy first step.

I was surprised to find out that it was about 15 minutes from my parents' house. So on Saturday morning, with the weather looking nice the rest of the weekend, I asked Elsa if she wanted to go camping. She said yes. She is always so enthusiastic about things—I could have asked her if she wanted to dig a trench in the backyard and she would have said yes. So I packed up our things and we left that afternoon.

We checked in and chose the "roughing it" type of campsite -- no water, no electricity on the site. Only two other campsites of this type were occupied. It seems that most people bring RVs or rent one of the cabins. In the spirit of Christopher McCandless, we went into the wild.

We started out in the play area, where Elsa played on the playground and we both jumped on the jumping pillow. She was relatively uncoordinated -- if someone jumped near her, she would usually fall down. But she was her usual happy self, sitting there or trying to get up while others kept jumping.

I finally got her away from the pillow to go to the water park. I wanted her to enjoy the water on Saturday afternoon as Sunday was supposed to be a lot cooler. As you may recall, Elsa was afraid of most of the slides at Blue Harbor. I got her to go down the little yellow slide, with me standing at the bottom so she could grab my arm. After a handful of times, I pulled my arm away and she understood she could do it herself. I then suggested that Mommy would be really proud if she went down the medium, red slide. She reluctantly agreed, so long as I was at the bottom. She liked the red slide, and she wanted me to be sure to tell Mommy that she was a brave girl. Then I noticed a daddy and little boy went down the (relatively) big green twisty slide together. I thought Elsa and I could do that. (Going down the slide together was verboten at Blue Harbor.) Elsa was up to the task and we went down. She liked it. And then she went down the green slide by herself. Again. And again. And about a million more times.

I sat by the pool and just watched. It would have been a good time to have a book handy. But it was fun to watch Elsa run around. Sometimes I closed my eyes, but I could always tell when Elsa was going down the slide because I heard laughter and "Wheee." Other kids just don't have her enthusiasm. Really fun to watch.

Elsa eventually wanted to go into the real pool with me. I removed my shirt, blinding a few people. (For the record, I believe I had the best male body of anyone at the pool. There was one guy who clearly spent a lot of time at the gym, but he got points deducted for excessive tattoos. Another thing: if the flab of the woman's back covers up the backstrap of her two-piece suit, it means that she should not be wearing that suit.) Elsa and I went in the pool. She danced in the water. She jumped and hopped around. She could go as far as three feet six inches. I carried her around. We played "shark attacking Elsa." She swam for a bit as I held her. She put her head underwater several times. She was a joy.

After another trip to the slides, we had to get ready for dinner with Opa and Grandma at a nearby restaurant. (We were really roughing it.) I set up the tent--surprisingly easily. Before dinner, we bought supplies for S'Mores. At dinner, Elsa had a corn dog. She also colored a picture on the paper tablecloth -- Opa (an oval torso and a plaid shirt), Elsa, Claire, Belle and some flowers. She hoped that the next people at the table would like the picture. She talked a bit about her upcoming dance recital and that she was going to wear a green dress--and that there was going to be another girl with a green dress, so Opa should spot Elsa by looking for the girl in the green dress with blond hair, because the other girl with the green dress has brown hair.

Photo by Elsa

We got back to camp and walked to the big (but not that big) screen where they were supposed to show cartoons. They were having a Guitar Hero contest first. We watched a few entrants and went to the dance pavilion to meet up with Yogi and say good night to him. Eventually, Yogi showed up. Elsa was among the first of the kids to see him and run up and hug him. Yogi led everyone through a dance--not the hokey pokey, but a more "urban" song instructing the dancers on what to do. Elsa wasn't the greatest at it (she doesn't know left from right, after all), but she tried to follow along with others. Happy as usual.

Then it was time to walk Yogi back to his "cave." We all followed Yogi to his cave where they read a book and Yogi was tucked into bed (he's no average bear, after all). Afterwards, Elsa would not stop talking about how much she loved Yogi and--shockingly--said she liked Yogi more than Toy Story. Blasphemy!!! I think she was talking such nonsense because it was about 10:00 at night.

We walked back to the mini-theater and they were showing vintage (is there any other kind?) Yogi cartoons. Everything Elsa knows about Yogi she learned from this trip. He likes pic-a-nic baskets. The ranger is constantly frustrated by Yogi. Boo Boo eats carrots (per this picture at the water park):

In one of the cartoons we saw, Yogi and Boo Boo were being chased by a lion and Yogi and Boo Boo ended up hiding in a bed together. That is ripe for deconstruction, but it was over Elsa's head.

After a few cartoons, I managed to get Elsa away by enticing her with a campfire and S'Mores. I have never made a fire before (on purpose, that is--I did once burn some holes in the bedroom carpeting with lightbulbs), so I was possibly setting myself up for failure. I arranged the firewood like I've seen some manly men do and lit some newspaper underneath and waited.

The fire wasn't the greatest, but it was good enough to melt marshmallows. We each had two S'Mores and then retired to the tent.

In the tent, we played War (the card game). Elsa had never played it before, but she picked up the hierarchy of face cards pretty quickly. We played several hands and decided to call Mommy to say good night. Mommy was rather surprised that Elsa was calling her at 11:30 at night.

After the call, Elsa and I fell right to sleep. We cuddled all night. Heaven!

She woke up at 6:30. We played a few more games of War. She wasn't hungry for breakfast. Apparently, camping and late-night S'Mores had turned my Elsa into a Bizarro Elsa. Elsa had heard me say the weather was going to be cooler today so she was adamant about not wanting to go back to the water. She wanted mini-golf.

I don't believe ANY maintenance has been done on the mini-golf area since 1980. Half the holes had no obstacles. The greens were thinner than my hair. But it was still fun. We didn't keep score.

Right when we finished golfing, it was time to wake up Yogi. We greeted Yogi at his cave and woke him up. He is a very affable bear with the kids--not cranky at all, even in the morning before his coffee.

After some more playground and jumping pillow time, we took some pictures by the big Yogi statue. Elsa just wanted to hug the big statue. She really does love Yogi.

Then Cindy Bear (Yogi's girlfriend) came to water the flowers. They handed out Styrofoam cups full of water and the kids all helped out. All in all, a sneaky way to get them to help perform yardwork for Leisure Systems, Inc.

Photo by Elsa

Elsa, still not hungry by 10:00!, wanted to go back to the water park. She had a blast--slides, the pool, and we even did the water balloon slingshot station! When I decided it was time to go (three hours later), she cried. I said we needed to eat something. She was very overtired and sad to leave. I promised we'd come back again.

We had a very late lunch at George Webbs (pancakes for both of us). When we sat down at the table, I mentioned that should could see into the kitchen from her seat. She started bawling…because she hadn't heard what I said. OK, she needed a nap…the late night was taking its toll. After she inhaled two pancakes, we drove home. She slept most of the way. I hope she was dreaming of Yogi.

It was such a fun 24 hours with my ElsaFriend. I am a lucky daddy!