Why I Think It's Worth the Effort

It's Monday morning and I'm feeling like I've been run over by a truck.
I'm recovering from a weekend family reunion.  It started on Thursday
when I began dragging camping equipment out of the recesses of the
basement.  Tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, lantern, camp chairs, camp
stove, cooking equipment, coolers, etc.  It takes a lot of stuff to go car
camping.  Then I was up to midnight cooking food- cookies, cake and
baked beans were my assignments.

This same scenario was taking place in Greensboro, Jonesville, Black
Mountain, Hickory and Richmond, Virginia.  The Sturdivant family
was getting ready to descend on Davidson River Campground.
This is our fifth annual family reunion and the fourth(and probably
last) camping reunion.  I have three siblings and we take turns
planning and organizing the event.  We grew up in a camping family,
so we all enjoy it.  Each year our mom and  dad would pack us up
and take us camping at the beach.  We loved it.

As adults, now we can appreciate what went into those trips.  Man is it

a lot of work and we are starting to look at other options.

 But this year I was excited to have the family in my neck of the woods
and to show them the beauty of Pisgah National Forest.  I had days
planned for hiking, biking, swimming and sitting around the campsite
enjoying the great outdoors.  Unfortunately, things don't always go
as planned.

On Friday, I was first to arrive and was pleased with myself that I had
my little tent all set up when the other families started rolling in.  Within
an hour, campsites were ready for the weekend and we were thinking
about dinner.

My brother in law Scott, had grill duty and whipped up some great burgers

and hotdogs.

Sherri wanted me to make fried green tomatoes, "Vickery's" style.  We

had these in Charleston and have been trying to duplicate them ever since.

I think I almost have the recipe down pat.  These tomatoes weren't totally

green, but they worked just fine.

Cindy is giving me a few lessons on how to start the Coleman stove with

Dad supervising the operation.

We dipped the tomatoes in batter and fried them up.

Sherri and Yvonne set up an assembly line to finish them with the tasty

toppings. These are very special fried green tomatoes.

 To assemble them, they put a small amount of marinara sauce on the

bottom of the plate, followed by a fried tomato.  Then they put a few 

spoonfuls of an herbed cream cheese and feta blend, another tomato,

more cheese and top the whole thing with pesto oil.  

Oh yeah!  Just because your camping doesn't mean you can't do a 

little gourmet cooking.   They were a hit!

The young moms had a challenge keeping their little ones entertained.

They brought plenty of toys, but of course they didn't really want to 

play with those.  The gravel was a lot more interesting.

I know it can be a sacrifice to do things like this with babies.  The 

mothers certainly don't get much rest - but I think family gatherings

without children are pretty boring.   Thank you Jessica and Ashley for

supporting our family reunion!!!

Four year old boys on the other hand can figure out things to do .  Boys and 

woods go hand in hand and Quinten had a blast hitting the trees with sticks.

After dinner, Abbie had her bath in a tub

and was ready for bed.

With babies in tents snoozing soundly, we enjoyed s'mores around the campfire. 

No one however, enjoyed the flash on my camera.

I was finally forced to put it away.  

Saturday didn't come soon enough for some of us.  The hardest part of

camping for me is crawling out of that tent in the morning.  Good grief,

the body parts just don't work so well after sleeping on the ground.  

The morning after tales of everyone's "miserable" night brought more 

than a few smiles to my face.  My dad and Yvonne however had a great 

evening in the Holiday Inn.  This is why they look so happy.

This little mama was not so happy!  What a trooper she was to come and

camp with an eighteen month old and pregnant with baby number two.

And she has her own camping style that I love.  Check out these pink 

camping shoes.

Breakfast was wonderful.  Breakfast is always wonderful when you

are camping!  Cindy is the official bacon chef.

There is the play mat again.....with no children on it.

They prefer sitting in poppy's lap.

Holden's first campout.  (Holden's the dog.)

Meals are a group effort.

Abbie wants to help with the dishes.

After breakfast, I took Sherri and Benjamin on my favorite hike to 

John Rock.

They loved it.  I'm holding on to Sherri's arm because she is nervous

about standing out on that rock.  Ben's cool with it though.

Here come's the storm.  It hit us full force on the way back down the

mountain. With thunder and lightning all around us, praying like crazy,

we made it back in record time.....very, very wet!

The trail turned into a creek.

When we returned to the campground, the storm had passed through, 

dumping torrential rain on everything.  Then just in case anything had

been spared, we had a second storm that took care of the rest of it.

With wet bedding,  the group decided to pack up and head home.  

It's really not fun camping in the rain. 

 I was so sad.  We didn't even get to go bike riding or swimming in the

swimming hole.  Darn  that rain.  

Some of the group decided to relocate to my house where we had a

wonderful BBQ chicken dinner.  My dad has a great recipe for BBQ

sauce that we love.

It was nice to be dry and have comfortable beds to sleep in.  The next day

Scott loaded up his truck and the Greensboro/ Richmond group headed 

back home.  

But not before I snapped just  a few more shots.

I love this "cousin" shot of  Jantzen, Jessica and Dillon.

Looks like we color coordinated our wardrobe, doesn't it?  

Well,  family reunion 2011 is over and even though some things didn't turn 

out quite like I had hoped, I think it was still a success, because we were 

together.   

We missed my brother and his family.  I hope they will be able

to make it next year.  I made these little "s'more kits" to send

to them and some others who weren't able to attend.

We had some stressful moments.   I think that can be expected whenever 

families get together.  It just gives us opportunities to exercise patience 

and practice forgiveness.  

We had children that weren't always happy.

And then of course, we had the rain.   

But even with sleepless nights, crying babies and wet bedding - even 

when you have to travel long distances and pack up half your house - 

even with all the work.......I think it's still worth it to have family reunions.

If families don't put forth the effort, it's too easy to let other things get

in the way of being together and building relationships, especially when 

we live miles apart.  Our Christmas gathering each year is fun, but

it doesn't allow enough time to make long lasting memories.  Family 

reunions do.   It doesn't have to be camping, but I do like the idea of 

being together for several days.  This allows us time to have some great

experiences.  And even the things that don't seem so great at the time

(like standing under a tarp trying to stay dry or hiking down a mountain

in the rain or losing an expensive pair of eyeglasses only to find them 

much later in a basket of tomatoes) become precious memories in years

to come.  I'm grateful my family has committed the first weekend in 

August to be together.  It's something I look forward to each summer.

I'm also really glad that I have a whole year to rest up before the next one.

*MYOF Goals - #1 Take 50 hikes

                              #12 Nurture relationships with my extended family

                               #41  Go camping

*Summer Goals -  Hike, Sit by a campfire and eat s'mores, Eat corn on the cob and

                                   Host our family reunion