Canada Bound: Natural Bridge and Friends

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For our first hike of this vacation we did a short out-and-back to Natural Bridge in Red River Gorge. The best part was walking through the Needle, the narrow passage that led us up to the top of the arch and walking across the Natural Bridge itself.

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Last night we had the opportunity to catch up with one of my dearest friends and her family. They moved to Kentucky last fall and we have missed them terribly. I am grateful for our time together and loved that we all picked up as though we had just seen each other last week.

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Trip Stats:

Campground: Natural Bridge State Resort Park, KY

Highlights: Natural Bridge, Seeing friends

Days on the Road: 1-2 

Family ShinDig

I have to confess that I get a little nervous about every family event that I plan and this weekend is no exception - you just never know how things are going to turn out. Mostly they go smoothly, but that doesn't mean I don't worry.

Technically this is my 5th big family event to plan. The first was my wedding. This involved 28 (I think) people from my family and about 10 people from our wedding party staying in 5 cabins in Cedars of Lebanon State Park.

The second was a summer getaway to Gatlinburg with 12 people, a bird and a dog in one cabin.

The third was Christmas in Gatlinburg with 19 people and one on the way, all in one cabin. This was probably my favorite experience - especially getting to decorate the tree and bake cookies with all of the little girls (who are getting to be more grown up everyday).

Last year was my first official time planning the Lock Family Reunion. After much research, we settled on Lake Cumberland Resort in Kentucky as the "halfway point" for the Canadian and American residents of our family. It is not a true halfway point as one of my cousins lives really far north, but it was as close as I could come for a middle point for my mom and her four siblings. This long weekend in August included 35 people in 3 cabins.

This year we are again going to Kentucky. This time with 18 people in 2 cabins - our family is getting big and with gas prices and time shortages, it is getting harder and harder to get our growing family of almost 40 to come all together at once.

Anyways, I hope and pray that this weekend goes well. I am sad that not everyone will be able to join us this year, but that is life... we are not always able to make the trek to Canada, so this is something that I fully understand.

We Made It To Kentucky

Daniel and I made it to Somerset, KY about 15 minutes ago and are waiting for Mark, Angela & Robert to show up. They called about an hour ago to say they had really bad traffic in Memphis and have another 2 hours of driving.

We lucked out with a nice hotel, at an excellent rate and my brother even gets a rollaway cot and does not have to sleep on the floor! I brought a trusty Thermorest and a sleeping bag for him just in case. Since he is the baby of the fam and does not have to pay for the room he doesnt get a "real" bed, but since he is in college he is cool with that.

Tomorrow we will all head over to the cabins to check in and wait for the rest of the fam to roll in. Angela and I will go take care of the grocery shopping for the weekend - meals for 36 people for 3 days... thank goodness for organization and my trusty shopping list! I hope that I didn't forget anything...