The Most Amazing Week

We just finished the most amazing week of family vacation. The reason it was so wonderful was not because it was somewhere new or exotic. In fact, we just spent the week in a place that I have been more times than I can count. A place my grandparents and my parents used to take my sister and I every single summer when we were growing up and a place that I have been numerous times since I got married. I have been to this place alone with my husband and many times over the years with our children. This place is familiar to me. I love it so much because it is familiar, because even many of the people are the same. I actually see faces I have seen since I was a little girl, still working behind the cash register at the General Store, still calling the numbers on Bingo Night. The familiarity of it all brings back so many great memories.

This week, however, for the very first time ever we spent the week in Fontana Village with our entire family. There are only eleven of us - my mom and dad, my sister, brother in law, and nephew, and Stan and me and our four children. We rented two three bedroom cabins directly across from each other and spent five great nights and days.

The resort is quiet and family friendly. There is a rec hall with arcade games and a grill for burgers and homemade potato chips. There is a pool with a lazy river, a putt putt course, tennis courts, and a softball field. All of this is clustered together in the middle of the village with cabins situated all around, up in the hills. Nearby there is a stable full of horses and a huge lake with pontoon boats for rent. All of this is in a valley surrounded on all sides by the Great Smoky Mountains, appropriately named, especially when the clouds roll in and hover over the tops of the trees like billows of stark white smoke. It is breathtaking!

Every night someone lights a bonfire in the huge fire pits and the kids scurry around to find thin branches to use for marshmallow roasting. Then, from nowhere appear a few softballs and a box full of bats and gloves and someone volunteers to be the pitcher. This week Stan and my brother in law were the most popular pitchers. The kids hit and run the bases until the adults have had enough of the hard bleachers and the chill. Yes, I said chill. Sitting outside in a thick hooded sweatshirt was heavenly.

The time spent with family this week was precious. We slept in every morning and stayed up late into the night, playing cards, talking and laughing and eating smores. It was a wonderful vacation. Thanks Mama and Daddy!!