The Bailey Planet : Memorial Day Weekend - Camping in New Hampshire

We had the best weekend camping at one of the Jellystone properties in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend!

We left as SOON as the kids got home from school on Friday so that we could immediately set the tent and camp up as soon as we arrived - thankfully the sun stays up later this time of year.

This particular Jellystone property has everything you need. As you can see from the picture above this one, we actually rented a lot in the camper section (rather than in the tent section.) The lots are bigger, and you aren't right up against your neighbor. Each of these lots has power, a picnic table, and a fire pit. The property has a little general store that sells firewood (you can't bring your own anyway!) and the lot is big enough so you can park your car there.

We got the firepit going until long after we spotted the moon.

I don't know what these two clowns were doing - I think they went out to explore the campgrounds and they came back like this.

I'm not playing around when I camp. I want it to feel as homey as possible!

Meanwhile, my poor kids ha ha. (They were fine- in fact, they were MUCH warmer than we were that first night - it was FREEZING.)

The sunset was so lovely on our first night in New Hampshire!

I love a good sunset over a lake! Well, I call it a lake but it's really the Saco River, and that's Maine across the water.

We also REALLY enjoyed our hot tub! What? A hot tub? What kind of campground is this? When Todd was booking the weekend, they offered him a hot tub (with like, one night free or something) so he booked it! This was fun for the whole family!

After a VERY cold first night, we went out for a really big brunch at the Farmer's Kitchen.

I got a breakfast sandwich and promptly forgot to take a picture of it. It was GOOD.

I snapped a pic of the entrance sign on our way back to the campground!

Before we took this little vacation, I had to look up the campground, knowing that on a Google map it was right next to the Saco River. Our little site sat very close to the confluence of the Saco with this little tributary.

Well, there's no floodway here, but we are probably in the Special Flood Hazard Area! I'm such a nerd.

It got a bit warmer each day over the weekend so on Saturday, we enjoyed some time at the "lake." (Like I said, this is actually the Saco River, although I think they call this area Northeast Pond.) Hello, Maine!

We sauntered down to the Camp Store where they have an arcade and sell ice cream, along with grocery store items.

Kids can even do a bit of gem mining, if they want! (Mine did not want to, ha ha).

But Grant really wanted to play some giant chess, so he and Todd played for a bit.

The boys played giant chess while Nat and I took a few tries at some bocce ball. They had all kinds of games, arts and crafts, tennis and basketball courts, and so many other things here - most of which my kids were too old for.

But you're never too old for a swimming pool! It was too cold for Mama, but the kids thought it was nice (once they got used to it).

Todd and Nat played basketball in the pool for a good while.

This little boy jumped into their game and played with them for a bit. It was so cute.

After some pool time, we went back to the campsite to enjoy the hot tub for a bit.

And we cooked some burgers on our "grill" - you may recall we used that little thing when we camped in Germany and Slovenia!

We had a delicious feast!

Followed by S'mores of course.

And we couldn't miss the Celtics playoff game against the Heat!

It was an incredible game 6 with Derrick White making this crazy shot with like, less than one second left in the game to help the Celtics win 104-103 and to force a game 7. You could hear other people screaming and yelling across the campground! Spoiler alert... the Celtics did NOT win game 7.

Sunday was ANOTHER beautiful day, so we decided to hit up the "beach" along the river after we went down to Little (Lil?) Miss Sophie's in Rochester. Best breakfast sandwich I think I've ever had - and Natalie got some cinnamon roll pancakes that were to die for. AND Todd ordered biscuits and sausage gravy and it was actually GOOD. I have never had a good biscuits and sausage gravy up here in New England! Naturally, I didn't snap a single picture, so you'll have to take my word for it!

Natalie decided that water was entirely too cold, even for her, so she took a nap in the shade.

While Nat snoozed, Boo Boo Bear came around on a wagon being towed by a tractor!

I would share one of Yogi but he wouldn't turn around (he had his back to us) so here's another cute pic of Boo Boo Bear.

We decided to head back to the pool for a bit, but Nat felt like she was getting red so she hid underneath a towel for a while. Poor kiddo with her Irish skin.

And everyone was hot, so we went over to get some ice cream! YUM!

After ice cream, the kids and Todd got back in the pool for a little more basketball.

And Natalie dragged her brother around the pool for a bit.

Todd said, "That's enough... let's go back to the hot tub so I can read my book and relax!"

Hot dogs and S'mores were on the Sunday night menu!

I snapped this picture of our "road" that led down to the lake. It was really nice in the evening hours.

Todd signed the kids up to play laser (laZer?) tag (they were not happy about this), but they reluctantly went. Thankfully most of the kids were around their age or maybe just a bit younger.

They were very concerned they were going to be barreling over little kindergarteners or something. Good thing this is lazer tag and not paintball!

My kids do not seem very concerned about that other kid. I hope he's on their team! The site was pretty cool - they had all kinds of things set up so you could hide behind them. The kids made no strategy though, and some people were lazering people from their own team!