Jellystone '21, Pt. II

 (contd.)

The next morning, Kim and Matt set up a coffee bar outside their RV (theirs formed the 'northern wall' to our Shanty Town, while the Griffin's formed the southern one.)  This was a very, very popular breakfast destination, I can assure you. 

Enjoying morning coffees around the extinguished fire pit.

The DeBoers were on breakfast duty, and BP made a few crockpots of his popular breakfast casserole - sausage, egg, hash browns, cheese, etc.  Throw in a bit of hot sauce and you were good to go.

Later on in the morning, once everyone was awake, fed, and showered, the wives all went down to the pool with the kids and the dads stayed back at Gray Island to enjoy some Bloody Marys and some cornhole.

Ryan and Morgan

Ella, Abby, and the Larson kids, Sophie and Jackson

Ryan hanging out with the Butterfields, his friends from college.

Who brought a football?

The kids practically lived in the pool this weekend.  Unsurprisingly.

The Cannonball and her friend, Lexi.  Note the phones.  They mostly hung out in their tent on those damn things all weekend (I let them use my new Coleman Sundome I had purchased before camping with my high school crew, back in May.)

Moms by the pool.

The Three Amigas: Ella, Abby, and Sophie.

With the womenfolk and offspring all down by the pool (still), some of us dads settled into a game of euchre.

Erik found this miniature horse - some quarter machine prize from the arcade, most likely - lying on the ground somewhere, and immediately deemed it his good luck charm.  You can imagine his chagrin, therefore, when his wife let one of the kids keep it later on in the weekend.

Ryan and Matt took some of their kids around on one of these things while we were playing cards.

You've probably noticed, by now, that many of the guys - and wives - are wearing matching shirts.  At the group's request, I designed shirts for us to wear this weekend - gray shirts, because we were camping at Gray Island (not sure if I said this before or not, but Jellystone is divided up into multiple 'islands,' surrounded by roads on all sides so cars and RVs can navigate the campground.)  Erik helped me with the idea for the shirt, we both wanted a retro-looking 'map'-style design, like you'd see in the '60s or something.  The names on the shirt correspond with our rough camping positions - some folks tented, some stayed in RVs, and other stayed in cabins (like the DeBoers did last year.)

Erik, Omkar, BP, and Morgan.

Lonnie Big Balls

The Indian Assassin

After awhile, I gave up cards and hung out by myself around the fire pit and screwed around on a uke.  I always bring a ukulele with me on these sorts of adventures.

Meanwhile, back at the pool. . .

Around lunchtime, folks returned to Gray Island for sustenance.

Kris, Danielle, Courtney, and Mees in matching Gray Island shirts.

Abby, Ella, and Sophie show off some new ink, courtesy of the arcade.

Oh look, more cornhole. . .

A couple of 8th graders, hanging out at the arcade.

Some adults hanging out by the camp store/arcade, waiting for their children.

Left to Right: Kris, Kim, Courtney, Sam, Mees, and Melanie.

With most of the wives and kids out and about, the dads decided to break into some cigars.  I brought my personal humidor - converted from a gun case and practically indestructible - to accommodate.

Matt and Erik

This is what good fathering looks like, America.

We had this picture taken so we could send it to Brad, who supplies us with cigars periodically - and free of charge - throughout the year.

We knew we wanted a group picture at some point with everyone in their matching shirts, but there were lots of kids and moms missing in action.  So, we decided to at least get a few of the dads in one (minus Matt, who was at work at this time.)

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.

The Bastard Bastard Harbor Mastah and The Embryonic Crusadah, ca 2021.

(Ryan had my SLR and was playing around with it.)

The Big Johnson

Moms playing some card game called 31.  It's kinda like betting, but everyone puts in a dollar.  Soooo. . . not really high stakes or anything.

Still in the pool.

Kim and Kris

Stephanie is considerably gangster.

Some afternoon cornhole.

One of the afternoon kid activities, put on by the campground, involved kids putting dry spaghetti noodles in other folks' hair.  The moms were quickly enlisted to assist.

While this weirdness was going on, I got to try this random offering from Bell's that I picked up earlier in the summer.  It was pretty badass for a hot, summer day.

I'm glad she doesn't rock this look regularly.

Courtney and her hair designers.

Waiting in line for dinner.  I got severely annoyed with this line, and may have grumbled somewhat.  I'll do that.

Chow time for dads.

For whatever reason, the kids decided to hold court in Erik's trailer while they wrapped up their dinner.

Once all the moms were back at the campsite, I was able to wrangle them all together for a group picture with their shirts (like the dads had managed some time before.)

Aaaaaand a sassy one.  I asked Kris later if they had planned on having the tallest people in the middle and then scaling it down in height as you reached the ends, but she insisted it was coincidental.

After the moms had gotten their picture in, someone suggested we all head up to the giant Yogi Bear statue outside the campground store/headquarters for a mega group picture.  So, Yours Truly grabbed his SLR and a tripod and the Gray Island mustered out.  We were able to get this one of the kids easily enough.

Ryan - a professional wedding photographer - helped get everyone into position while I adjusted the settings on my camera.

As we got into position for our group pic, a young clerk from the camp store rushed out and asked if she could snap one for the campground's Instagram page.  We were happy to oblige.

Here's the one from my camera - same as our Instagram one, just nicer quality and better framed.

I had my camera set on 10-shot bursts, so the one you just saw previously took a ridiculous amount of work to capture - we took several sets, and what you saw there was the best one.  After I was satisfied with our group pic, the crowd began to disperse and folks started wandering off.  A couple families hung back to get pictures with the giant Yogi statue, though - the first of which were the Griffins.

The Jacksons

The DeBoers

The Muthaf***in' Houghs

The Johnsons

The Nadgaudas

The Colliers

We're viral, right?

Upon returning to the Gray Island, some of the dads decided to put together our annual Cornhole Tournament.  Otherwise known as, Who Wants to Lose to the Larsons?

This wasn't much of a tournament, honestly - single elimination, folks weren't really feeling it this year.

I honestly don't even remember who won, to tell you the truth - definitely was not Kris and I (we did couples again this year, and I was not throwing well at all - Kris carried the team, which, if you know how bad she is at cornhole, is really saying something.)

Everyone crashed early this evening, too - like, by 10:30pm, I'd wager.  Folks were pretty exhausted from the previous night, and a day filled of shenanigans.

So, in closing, here's a tour of the shanty town that is Gray Island '21. . .

- Brian