Being a mom to our three boys is my favorite role I will ever have in my life and I know I was given the most incredible gift to learn from the very best in my own mother. I also know many out there may have felt a different kind of heart squeeze for any number of reasons yesterday and I hope you were extra gentle with yourself and felt the extra love so many of us were sending your way.
Mother’s Day Weekend 2025
Our weekend kicked off on Friday with a 90-minute drive to to Jellystone Golden Valley, a campground our family has grown to love over the years.
It’s crazy to me to think we first started bringing the boys to this special spot when we had only two little ones and Ryder was barely walking.
(Flashback 2019 Jellystone pic!)
We were invited to the campground through an Instagram collaboration (I was not compensated but our cabin rental was covered) and since we’ve happily paid to go to Jellystone numerous times ourselves in the past, I knew our whole crew would be thrilled to return for a weekend of s’mores, mini golf, swimming, gem mining, crayfish-catching and more.
One of my biggest tips to anyone who books a stay at Jellystone is to make sure to rent a golf cart! The park is rather expansive and half the fun of visiting Jellystone is never hopping in your car after you arrive and zipping around everywhere you need to go on a golf cart.
We stayed in one of the Sycamore Loft Cabins which suited our family perfectly, especially since it was dog-friendly and meant Pepper could join in the fun!
Ryan and I realized this was our first visit to Jellystone where we had our own bedroom and access to a bathroom because our boys were all finally old enough to sleep together and we didn’t need to sequester any little ones in the main bedroom away from noise for early bedtimes or nap time.
Our Friday arrival was later than anticipated (Ryan was flying back from a work trip and his flight home was delayed) but we still had enough daylight remaining for a round of mini golf, a little exploring and s’mores to kick off our trip!
Saturday
To the shock of no one in our family, everyone was awake by 6:30 a.m. and we made breakfast in our cabin and managed to sneak in another round of mini golf before 8 a.m. when Scout’s Table, one of the park restaurants, opened.
We drove our golf cart over to the restaurant for lattes for the grown ups and a bag of the deliciously warm cinnamon-sugar mini doughnuts for our family to share.
After that, it felt like the whole park began to wake up and we made our way to the playground and the jumping pads which are easily one of our boys’ favorite spots in the entire park. They ran around at the playground and bounced around on the jumping pads for quite a while and made a bunch of friends that joined them for endless rounds of sharks and minnows.
We also squeezed in a little gem mining!
Eventually we figured we should grab an early lunch back at the cabin before making our way down the mountain to grab the shuttle to the Blue Ridge Mountain Coaster. We haven’t done the mountain coaster in the past but now that all of our kids meet the height requirement, we were excited to give it a shot!
(Rhett with his little hands up kills me. Pretty sure he thought he was at Disney World.)
It was a lot faster and even more fun than I anticipated and all three of our boys said it was a highlight from our visit. Chase was big enough to fly down the mountain on his own while Ryder and Rhett rode with me and Ryan and made us promise not to use the manual breaks on each cart so we could fly at top speed. The turns were wild!!
After the mountain coaster, we drove back to the jumping pads for more bouncing fun and then spent time in the little stream where the boys were thrilled to catch and release salamanders and crayfish.
Eventually we spent some time back at our cabin for a little downtime where the boys played in the dirt (literally), flew their monster trucks off our picnic table and gathered small sticks for our evening fire.
The weather during our Jellystone visit was much chillier than anticipated (mid-60s) and a little overcast and that’s not swimming weather for this girl. It was a bit of a bummer because one of our favorite things to do at Jellystone is spend hours on the giant inflatable obstacle course in the lake. It was just too cold for this to appeal to any of us so we’re toying with the idea of a late summer visit to take advantage of the water fun.
The boys were still brave enough to hop in the hot tub to warm up their bodies and then make several mad-dashes back and forth from the hot water to the giant water playground for some rounds on the water slides.
We rounded out our day with pizza and several hours by the campfire, making s’mores and just hanging out until rain rolled in and had us calling it a night.
The boys got so into fire-making during this trip and were especially excited to see the cabins near us were unoccupied so they could commondeare the firepit next door for a “brother fire.” (You can see it in the background of the above pic.) The pride they felt when they made s’mores on their own fire was adorable.
Sunday
Sunday we planned to spend most of Mother’s Day at Jellystone but the dreary weather curtailed our plans and we decided to drive home in the morning. I also woke up not feeling my best so we made our way back to our house where I ended up resting on the couch for a few hours which was a bit of a bummer. I mean resting on the couch sounds lovely, don’t get me wrong, but not when you’re not feeling well. It wasn’t the fun-filled Mother’s Day we imagined for Sunday but I still felt very loved by Ryan and the boys.
They gave me a few sweet surprises and picked up sushi and an ice cream cake — two of my favorites — for dinner and dessert. I felt bad and a little guilty that every other idea they had for fun rainy day plans I ended up shooting down because I was just not feeling great but I loved watching Babe, one of my favorite childhood movies, as a family together at the end of the day.
Thankfully I am feeling much better this morning — just lingering upper respiratory stuff — and I’m hoping the week ahead is a healthy one for all of you out there! Have a great Monday, my friends!
api.follow.it (Article Sourced Website)
#Mothers #Day #Weekend #Jellystone #Golden #Valley #Peanut #Butter #Fingers