Retreat in the Mountains

We had so much fun this weekend! It started with going to the "Fireproof" movie late Friday night. Then on Saturday we packed our van and drove to Douthat State Park. We rented a cabin for two nights and had such a wonderful family time together!

The weather was yucky on Saturday...rainy and cool, but the cabin was dry! :o) We bought some firewood and built a fire that evening. I love the smell of wood smoke! It took about an hour to unpack the van and get everything in its' place.

We bought a supreme pizza at Walmart and baked it in the oven along with some french fries. Nice and easy! After supper we pulled out the "Rook" cards and taught the kids how to play. They caught on pretty quickly and we ended up playing until 2:00 in the morning! We had so much fun talking and laughing...building memories!

We slept in Sunday morning, getting up around 9:30 or 10:00. There weren't many people around, so it was nice and quiet. For breakfast I baked some biscuits and warmed up some sausage patties I'd brought along. So we had sausage biscuits with Blackberry jam.

After breakfast and clean-up we went for a long bike ride. We rode from our cabin to the campground we usually pitch our tent at. It's beside a lake and is just beautiful! The ride over there was mostly level or downhill...so I knew I was in trouble on the return trip! I made it most of the way back, but just a few yards from the turn onto our road I had to get off and push. Beth had to get off too, but my guys kept on riding! WooHoo! Neal's new heart parts are working good for him! Beth and I pushed until we came to a better spot and then we rode on to the cabin (or at least most of the way). We took our dog Suzi with us, and had her tied up outside. She was glad to see us come back! Just about as soon as we got back it started raining again. It only rained about 5 or 10 minutes though, and the sun came back out.

For lunch we made Hobo stew! I took just about all the cans of soup I had in the pantry -- Beef and Vegetable, Ham and Potato, Clam Chowder, Bean and Bacon, and Italian Wedding Soup. We mixed them all together in a big pot and it actually tasted pretty good! Ben wanted to add Spaghettios, but we decided not to!

We played some more Rook since it was wet outside again. It cooled off a lot and the kids wanted another fire, so Neal built a fire. Since we had a fire built, we decided to toast marshmallows and make S'mores! Yummy! Then the kids decided they wanted to go hiking. We couldn't leave the fire, so Beth and Ben took Suzi up a trail behind our cabin. I guess they were gone about 30 minutes. That was one happy dog when they came back. They wore her out! That evening she even fell asleep sitting up. :o)

After the fire went out, we hopped in the van and drove around the park. It's such a beautiful park. The lake is lovely...especially in the evening with the sun setting.

For supper we grilled Turkey Sausage Links (like hot dogs), and had french fries again, and some Heart of Palm Salad (I make it like potato salad, but use Heart of Palm in place of the potatoes). We played a game of "Pirateer" and then played Rook again. We went to bed at 11:00 though, instead of 2:00!

Monday morning came too quickly for all of us! Check out was 10:00, so we got up at 8:00. We started packing right away, then ate a healthy (not) breakfast of Krispy Cream donuts! We finished packing and were on the road around 10:30.

The kids didn't want our vacation to end when we got home, so after putting things away and getting the laundry started, we played more games. We played another game of "Rook" (I think we've started something) and we played "Uno Spin." My mom came up and played Uno Spin with us.

Well, that's it...back to the real world tomorrow. :o) Hopefully I can post some pictures of our cabin and our vacation tomorrow.