Our Visit with Mamaw

We drove to Mamaw's house in Johnson City on Sunday afternoon. We packed a lot of visiting with Mark's family in the three days that we were there. We started with a family reunion on Sunday evening. Sue is one of seven children and six of them are still living. All six of them, along with many of their children and grandchildren were able to meet for a picnic. There was a lot of food (of course) and a lot of visiting. The children had a great time playing with their cousins on the playground, and some of the men gave the horseshoes a workout.

We drove to Uncle Jim's place in Southwest, Va on Monday. We stopped at Pal's for lunch. It is becoming a tradition to pick up some fattening hamburgers and fries on the way (yummy!). Uncle Jim still lives in the house where Mamaw and her brothers and sisters grew up. You have to drive on a gravel road over a hill that seems like a mountain. The drive in is a bit terrifying for us city folks in our minivan, but it is worth it. The children love going to visit Uncle Jim. He has eighty-one sheep and seven cows, which Anna Grace especially loved. The biggest attraction is the river that runs through the property. We headed to the water soon after we arrived. Uncle Jim stopped on the way to make a fishing pole for Isaac to fish with. The children loved wading in the water. It took Bailey a while to warm up, the thought of getting her feet dirty was a little unsettling. Uncle Jim and Isaac waded on the rocks all the way across the river (Mark and I decided it was a "dangerous boy" thing to do!). Mark had never done that before, so he followed suit. Isaac and I decided that if he lived at a place like Uncle Jim's he would not need a television. He could spend his time exploring.

We stopped at Aunt Brenda's house after we were done visiting with Uncle Jim. She is Mamaw's youngest sibling, and she and Uncle Joe always makes us feel welcome at her place. She babysits her granddaughter, so she had lots of girl toys that my girls enjoyed playing with. One of her sons collects Star Wars memorabilia, so Isaac loved looking at those treasures.

Afterwards, we headed to visit with Aunt Novella (Mark's dad's sister) and Cousin Lisa in Kingsport, TN. We enjoyed visiting with them over pizza for supper.

Tuesday was full of visiting as well (I described it in my post about Isaac's arm). We packed a lot of visiting into a short amount of time. It was tiring, but we loved doing it. I am so thankful that our children are forming relationships with our extended family. We loved our time with Mamaw. I know that she was sad to see us leave, but I think that she was ready for a big nap!