Late Summer

The late summer has been quite busy. We went to our annual faculty retreat at Fall Creek Falls in the first week of August. During the second week we participated in the new student orientation retreat. Classes started two weeks ago. Cheryl and I did have a nice outing to the Olympic Whitewater Center on the Ocoee one evening.




Justin brought Camdyn and Charlie down for a visit on Sunday evening. They left this morning. They love riding on the tractor, especially "pushing down trees." Charlie and I had an early breakfast outside this morning.







We had a Covenant Life Group from the church over for a cookout this evening.

Chickens

Camdyn and Charlie, here is a movie of our chickens.

Silence

Yesterday we took Camdyn and Charlie to meet their father and Pa (Justin's father) in Virginia. We miss them greatly. The silence is deafening.

Ryan & Andrea's wedding

On Thursday we drove to Atlanta with Camdyn and Charlie for my nephew Ryan's wedding rehearsal and dinner. I officiated the ceremony on Friday. Alethea drove over from Memphis on Thursday evening and Karisa flew down on Friday morning. It was a wonderful time.
Charlie kept saying he wanted to dance with the "Princes." We might rename Andrea.



My brother Jimmy and his wife, Iris.

My sister Shirley and her husband, Mike, parents of the groom.

My sister Darlene (sitting) is holding her grand-daughter, Kathryn. Her husband, Thurman (standing next to her), is holding Natalia. Their son, Jonathan, is standing next to his wife, Jennifer. Darlene and Thurman were just wrapping-up four weeks with their two grand-daughters. Christina and her husband, Ronnie, live in Texas and were unable to make it to the wedding.

Kathryn (seen here) and Natalia are adorable.

Confession: we did participate in one non-liturgical, motion-to-music event.

Cheryl, Kathryn, Karisa, Camdyn, and Mike "cut a rug." Actually, we all got to see another side of Mike. Line dancing, disco, hip-hop; he can do it all.

Both of my daughters are quite photogenic (down rite pretty) but Karisa (here) is hard to get to cooperate; she often makes faces at the camera. Alethea is hard to catch; she's often looking downward, talking to Charlie or Camdyn or trying to catch them.

Karisa is great with children (so is Johnmark, but he was unable to come to the wedding). However, Charlie struggles to connect with her. She looks and sounds too much like his mother and he doesn't like the confusion.

Cousins

My brother danced with my sister Shirley at the reception.

The pride and joy (with Christina) of James and Ernestine Johns who I suspect were looking down with great joy from on high.

Observations

We came home today, exhausted. I observed the campground began to change Thursday evening; the tents and pop-ups rolled in. It appears more of the working middle class show up for the weekends while the mostly retired middle class can afford the nicer trailers and the time to stay for extended periods.

At any rate, we had a great time.

Camping Anyone?

Things have changed over the decades of my life. When I was a child it seemed everyone used tents. Then pop-ups and small campers came along. Now the campers are luxury chalets on wheels. We are in Townsend for the week. There are only two tents in our camping area and two pop-ups. The rest are those big trailers. Other things have changed too: wireless wi-fi throughout the campground and cable TV hook-ups at every site. The wilderness this ain't.

Sunday: arrived and set up.
Monday: Rained all day.
Tuesday: Hiked to a waterfall, Pigeon Forge gocarts etc, swam in the pool (river is too high for tubing).
Wednesday: Dollywood
Tomorrow: Cades Cove.

Weekend Wedding

What a weekend! Cheryl got home from South America Friday morning after an all-night flight; I picked Karisa up at the Chattanooga airport at 1:00 P.M. We drove to Franklin Springs, Georgia for the rehearsal dinner for Josh (Cheryl's nephew) and Bethany's wedding. I MC'ed the event. On Saturday we drove to Greenville to visit Cheryl's mother in the nursing home (comments later) and drove back to Franklin Springs for the wedding (I had a small part). We got back to Cleveland after midnight. Karisa caught a flight a little after six this morning. I went to church and preached. Cheryl is on her way to Memphis to watch Charlie and Camdyn for a few days (Justin is at Annual Conference and Alethea is working).

Cheryl, with her sisters, Ruth and Glenda, after the wedding.



Seth Mycho (Ruth's son) was the Best Man at the wedding.



Karisa and Joshuah at the rehearsal dinner.



Josh and Bethany, her mother in the forefront and Josh's Grand-pa Baker in the background.

To Travel or Not

Last Thursday we drove to Atlanta, got our tickets at the Delta counter, went through security, and went to the gate counter to see if we could get our seats changed. At that point I was told I could not board the plane for Ecuador because my passport expired in a few weeks. We had to waite for hours to see if Cheryl could change her flight to a later day. She didn't want to go for a full week without me.

We worked at the house on Friday and drove over to Bryson City, North Carolina on Saturday. We hiked Saturday afternoon and yesterday and came home this morning just in time for Cheryl to leave for Ecuador. We stayed at the Fryemont Inn, built circa 1926. It was quaint and charming, but rustic. The best thing about the stay was the food. Dinner and breakfast were included in the price of the room. It was great. I had prime rib one night and trout the other. The quality of the food made the stay worthwhile.

Last evening we drove up to Maggie Valley [by the way Ghost Town appears to have reopened]and looped back on the Blueridge Parkway. It was glorious.