Name:
Friday, August 22, 2008
Ha! I thought it would be easy to come back and write a nice summary of our week in Tennessee and post a few pics and let you see what the vacation was like.
Alas, it's not as easy as it sounds. For truly, this was perhaps the vacation of a lifetime, and at least the most memorable since 17 of us gathered in Hawaii in 2000. There are almost no words for how wonderful it was or how blessed we are, but I'm going to try to give you a taste of the week.
First, The Papa really hit the jackpot when he found the place we stayed. It was a rustic stand-alone house in the woods with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a great kitchen, two living areas, a hot tub, a balcony overlooking the woods, a large front porch with rockers, a HUGE TV on which to watch wall-to-wall Olympics, and plenty of places for everyone to sit. I wish we could take that house with us everywhere we vacation, because although there are other geographic settings I'd enjoy, that house suited our group perfectly.
Second, the week was a lovely mixture of activity and rest, chaos and quiet, laughter and tears, serious discussion and silliness. More than anything, it was a time to drink in the joy of being together with those we love, some of whom we don't get to see nearly as often as we'd like. And there were constant reminders of God's goodness and faithfulness to all of us as He has pieced us together in this colorful crazy-quilt we call family.
Third, pictures. And pictures. And more pictures. And pictures of people taking pictures. Let me say right now that I don't intend to compete with my daughters in this area...if you're up for OD'ing on great vacation photos, see their sites and their Facebooks. We figure that collectively we took close to 2000 pictures during the week, and mine are only a sliver. And mine certainly aren't as artistic as some of theirs. But I had fun catching some of the "back" moments and trying for a lot of the ordinary parts of our days.
For example...
We did nails...
We worked a lot of puzzles, most of which were actually finished...
Some of us napped...
We doctored poison ivy...
We had a Webkinz convention...
We did makeup...
Liam whisked something in a bowl...
Judah put away pounds of sweet potatoes...
See? We finished puzzles...
Aubrey and I worked on co-op and school plans...
And yes, folks, the Warrens don't even go on vacation without making homemade bread. Kristen made a batch on our first full day there, and CJ jumped in when it was gone and made more. YUM... (please ignore the liquid ingredients in the background...we also had Margaritas after the little ones went down ;-) )
We did floor puzzles...
We visited while we ate...
And we took occasional breaks from working puzzles to eat...only short breaks.
Stay tuned, I'm starting a new post.
Alas, it's not as easy as it sounds. For truly, this was perhaps the vacation of a lifetime, and at least the most memorable since 17 of us gathered in Hawaii in 2000. There are almost no words for how wonderful it was or how blessed we are, but I'm going to try to give you a taste of the week.
First, The Papa really hit the jackpot when he found the place we stayed. It was a rustic stand-alone house in the woods with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a great kitchen, two living areas, a hot tub, a balcony overlooking the woods, a large front porch with rockers, a HUGE TV on which to watch wall-to-wall Olympics, and plenty of places for everyone to sit. I wish we could take that house with us everywhere we vacation, because although there are other geographic settings I'd enjoy, that house suited our group perfectly.
Second, the week was a lovely mixture of activity and rest, chaos and quiet, laughter and tears, serious discussion and silliness. More than anything, it was a time to drink in the joy of being together with those we love, some of whom we don't get to see nearly as often as we'd like. And there were constant reminders of God's goodness and faithfulness to all of us as He has pieced us together in this colorful crazy-quilt we call family.
Third, pictures. And pictures. And more pictures. And pictures of people taking pictures. Let me say right now that I don't intend to compete with my daughters in this area...if you're up for OD'ing on great vacation photos, see their sites and their Facebooks. We figure that collectively we took close to 2000 pictures during the week, and mine are only a sliver. And mine certainly aren't as artistic as some of theirs. But I had fun catching some of the "back" moments and trying for a lot of the ordinary parts of our days.
For example...
We did nails...
We worked a lot of puzzles, most of which were actually finished...
Some of us napped...
We doctored poison ivy...
We had a Webkinz convention...
We did makeup...
Liam whisked something in a bowl...
Judah put away pounds of sweet potatoes...
See? We finished puzzles...
Aubrey and I worked on co-op and school plans...
And yes, folks, the Warrens don't even go on vacation without making homemade bread. Kristen made a batch on our first full day there, and CJ jumped in when it was gone and made more. YUM... (please ignore the liquid ingredients in the background...we also had Margaritas after the little ones went down ;-) )
We did floor puzzles...
We visited while we ate...
And we took occasional breaks from working puzzles to eat...only short breaks.
Stay tuned, I'm starting a new post.
<< Home