3 of my children have birthday 28 days apart and we ask them every year if they would rather have an experience/trip or a present. Every year they choose to have the experience/trip. This year we decided to take them to Jellystone Park in Luray, VA. I booked the cabin on Tuesday 9/21/2021 and we took them as soon as they got home on Friday 9/24/2021 and stayed through Sunday 9/26/2021.
Jellystone Parks always send out Birthday cards for children campers when you sign your children up. These cards are to be taken to the camp store and each child will receive a special birthday toy. It doesn’t matter what month you take the card, it can always be redeemed. I took one of the cards and wrapped it in a box and we had grandparents over for dinner and presented all of the kids with the box.
The kids were so excited. As you can tell from the video they love Jellystone (see the Tie- Dyed T-Shirt). This was going to be the kids 3rd trip to Jellystone in Luray, VA.
As soon as all of the kids got home from school we loaded them up and headed for Jellystone. We stopped at Arby’s for dinner and actually allowed the kids to eat in the car. We were trying to make it to the campground before the outdoor movie started. The first night the movie was Hocus Pocus.
Jellystone Luray, VA does themed weekends and the weekends from 9/24-10/31 is the Halloween Weekends. The events and movies are the same each weekend from 9/24-10/31.
Friday, September 24
9:00am Don’t Forget to purchase your magic pumpkin Seeds!!! 💰
4:00pm Arts and Crafts💰
5:30pm Bears on the Prowl
6:30pm Free Craft
7:00pm Candy Bar Bingo 💰🍫
8:30pm Monster Mash Dance Party!🐻
9:00pm Movie Night : Hocus Pocus (PG)🎥
Saturday, September 25
9:00am Don’t Forget to purchase your magic pumpkin Seeds!!! 💰
9:00am Pledge and Yogicize🐻
10:00am Arts and Crafts💰
11:00am Plant your Magic Pumpkin Seeds ⭐
11:30am Photo Op 🐻
12:30pm Pumpkin Pick up and Painting ⭐
2:00pm Costume Contest
4:00pm Fall Carnival
5:00pm Trick or Treating
7:00pm Bears on the Prowl🐻
8:00pm Haunted Trail ⭐
8:00pm Movie Night : (PG)🎥
Halloweentown
Sunday, September 26
9:00am Arts and Crafts💰
10:30am Fall Hey Hey RIde
12:00pm Bears on the Prowl🐻
1:00pm Coloring Pages with Friends
2:00pm Sand Art 💰
3:30pm Farewell to the Bears🐻
8:00pm Movie Night: Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (PG)🎥
Arrival
We arrived at 9:05 and the camp store to check-in was already closed for the day but we were able to catch an employee and get our key. We were told to come back in the morning to get the rest of the weekend information. We found our cabin which was a different location from where we normally camp. This site was in the woods and gave you a more camping feel. While Blake and I unloaded the car and got the cabin set up, the kids went to see the outdoor movie.
Saturday
We stayed at the campground and did activities with the kids all day. At 9:00 each morning, one of the bears goes to the flag pole and meet the kids to say the Pledge and do some “yogi’cize. The kids love this and getting to have a picture with the bears. Unfortunately this morning it was just the pledge, no exercise.
We headed to the camp store to purchase our magic pumpkin seeds. The magic pumpkin seeds were bags filled with a few pumpkin seeds and glitter (ugh, I HATE glitter).
My mom wanted a tie dyed shirt from the campground so my daughter Arianna, Blake and I headed down to the recreation center to dye a shirt. The other kids were playing on the jumping pillow and zip line.
At 11:00 it was time for everyone to plant their magic pumpkin seeds in the large sandbox. All the kids picked out a spot in the sandbox and began to dig and plant their seeds.
Blake and I went back to the cabin and the kids went to the playground to play until it was time to pick up their pumpkins. We picked up our pumpkins and had the opportunity to paint them but for transport back home we felt it was better to paint them at home (we do not lack paint in our house).
After bringing the pumpkins back, we got the kids ready for the costume contest. The boys put on their zombie tattoos and face paint and the girls put on their dragon fly, unicorn princess and Elmo costumes. The boys went as zombie campers. The boys decided they didn’t want to participate in the costume contest and went to the bouncing pillows to play. The girls went to the costume contest but were too embarrassed to go on stage and just played with a friend they met instead.
4:00 began the fall carnival. We went to the rec center for the kids to participate in the games set up. They all played a few games and won medals. The medals were really cute.
After the carnival, we went back to the cabin to finish getting everyone ready for Trick or Treating. We loaded Taylor in the stroller (she refused to wear her Elmo hat) and everyone else grabbed their candy buckets and off we went. The kids got so much candy and only went through half of the campground. We left a bucket of candy out in front of our cabin since we were going with the kids Trick or Treating. A lot of the cabins and camper sites had decorations set up. There was a campsite contest as well. People went all out for this.
Once we were finished with trick or treating, we went back to the cabin to have hot dogs, pasta salad and chip. The kids finished eating and went to watch the movie while Blake and I cleaned up and got things organized to leave in the morning. The movie was supposed to be Halloweentown but ended up being Frankenweenie. The younger kids did not want to watch all of it and came back to the cabin. We loaded them up with glow sticks and headed to the Haunted Trail the campground had set up. They were nervous (ages: 5, 6 and 8) but said they wanted to try it. It was about 1/4 of a mile and the campground did a fantastic job with the characters and decorations. The kids were scared but powered through it and were very proud of themselves when it was over. We told them going in that it was all fake, that helped some. Once the movie was over the boys came back to the cabin and wanted to do the haunted trail. Blake and I take the 2 of them over and Ethan (11) was hesitant but went through, Nick (9) ended up deciding not to go. Ethan had a blast and was laughing when it was over. We all got back to the cabin and called it a night.
Sunday
The kids slept in a little bit. We made waffles and sausage for breakfast. The kids went to play once they were done with breakfast and Blake and I packed the car and cleaned up the cabin. Once the kids got back to the cabin we loaded them up and took them to the Yogi statue at the exit of the park to get pictures. We forgot to do this on our 4th of July trip.
We headed out to our next birthday surprise for the kids…….Skyline Caverns and the Mirror Maze. Until next time Yogi!
Nic of Time - Travel 