#cousincabinretreat

posted by ivy on Oct 15, 2013 in family

on october 3-6, all (except one) of the cousins on the hill side (jesse’s mom’s side) and their spouses (and two babies) got together — just because — at a cabin in the appalachian mountains.  purlear, north carolina to be precise.  people traveled from south carolina, georgia, and ohio to hang out for the weekend.  there were 14 of us ranging from ages 26 to 33, so everyone was pretty close in age, which means…. i don’t know.  fun?  yes.  and as far as i know, everyone had a great time.  (we missed you MUCH, sam and sarah!)

there was lots of football watching, good food and snacks, weird bugs on the porch screens, and, of course, laughter.  if there was anything lacking, it was seasonal beer.  people played pool, went for walks, drove into town to eat and shop, sat around and chatted, crossed streams and went hiking, took naps, and/or went to the basement to play pool.  or sleep.  on the floor.  at night.  with worms.  not really.  but kind of.

my favorite moments were game times.  the first night we were there, i learned how to play euchre with jesse, jared, and ariel.  information overload, but i liked it.  the second night we played pit.  everyone hated the game except niles.  and then the last night we played mafia, and i cannnooott wait to play that game with those peeps again.  [and you guys, guess what?  niles found actual mafia cards, and there are more roles to be played: like a nurse and a terrorist and a lawyer and other things i can’t remember.]

ohhhh, it was just a really good time.  it was especially nice to get everyone together in the same place.  now that “the cousins” are all married, holidays are a little divided because there’s another family in the mix, so it’s almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time in the same place.  so this was indeed a blessing that the lord allowed for this cousin cabin getaway.  (ooooh, another sweet moment:  we got word that papaw hill was not doing well, and we were all able to come together as matt led us in prayer– a sweet memory i want to keep forever.)

here are some iphone pictures i (and other people) took to share from our weekend together:

and then from my camera:

[cousins, if you have more pictures you would like me to include, send them my way.]