Well, it was definitely a leave of absence from our regular occupation, but I'm not so sure about the rest! Immediately after Vacation Bible School our family packed our gear (which takes an entire day for a family of five!) and headed out. It's a trip we make every June, and by the next June I've always forgotten what it's like!
First we make our way to Flat Rock, North Carolina, where our denomination has it's annual Synod (our general assembly of all available ARP pastors and elders). It lasts 4 days, but the schedule for Stephen as well as the kids and I is about 6 a.m. until at least 11 p.m. We have a wonderful time fellowshipping and catching up with old seminary friends and fellow pastors and their wives, but it is EXHAUSTING!!!
From there we head up to Woodbridge, VA to stay with Stephen's parents for a week. Since we don't have cable or satellite TV, and they do, we pretty much spent the first half (if not the entirety) of the week recuperating and watching television. We did make sure to fit in some family time, see some old college friends, and take in some culture. Being so close to D.C. we choose somewhere different to visit every year. This time it was the National Zoo and the Air and Space Museum.
After this we headed to Williamsburg with the ENTIRE family (the five of us, Stephen's parents,
his older brother and wife and 3 kids, and his younger brother and wife and baby)!!! We spent the weekend walking around Williamsburg and Jamestown, thankful for the difficult task that our founding fathers took on with faith and commitment. We were also able to see some old friends from Charlottesville, and then visit my dad and his wife in Covington.
Then we were able to actually take our second family vacation ever in our 11 years of marriage.
We spent 3 days in Gatlinburg, TN (where we honeymooned). We showed the kids almost everything we did 11 years ago - miniature golf, go cart racing, driving in Smoky Mountain National Park, visiting the Christmas Store, and the Dixie Stampede! It was an expensive 3 days, but totally worth the "recreation" (back to the definition of vacation). One of our favorite memories of this minivacation was the day we were driving through the Smoky Mountains. The drive was free. We had picked up lunchables for all of us for a cheap lunch. Then we stopped at this beautiful river filled with rocks and boulders, camped out on a big boulder to eat our lunchables, and then took our shoes off and wandered up and down the stream looking for salamanders and cool little rocks.
Two and a half weeks later we arrived back home. And NOW I need a REST!!!
