21 July 2026

 What a week!

The house we stayed in had these wonderful porches with a lovely view.  It was a peaceful spot to sit when the house got a little too noisy with all the excited people in it.

Rosebud immediately connected with her two girl cousins from Georgia.  They were largely inseparable the whole week, and the night we arrived they went to the pool together with Grandma.

On Wednesday, Mr. Brown and Nut Brown and Rosebud went to the water park with my brother Mark's family.  D and I stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.  D had hurt his ankle and didn't want to do a lot of walking, plus he was not yet sure what to think about his cousins.  He played a lot of his favorite video game and rested.  Eventually Grandpa took us all out go-carting (a bit of a letdown for D because he misunderstood how the pedals in the go-cart worked) and out to lunch.  It was a quiet day for us, and a lot of fun for the others at the water park.

Bears were definitely a thing.  There was a stuffed bear in the house, and it made Nut Brown nervous enough that he asked if we could put it in the closet.  We did see a bear sniffing around our trash cans.  We were all squealing and taking pictures and he completely ignored us.

Thursday, we hung around the house all morning, and in the afternoon we rode a mountain coaster near the house and did some mining for gems by washing away dirt in a sluice.  That evening everyone went to dinner at Dolly Parton's Stampede, which was pretty cool.  Watching the trick riders was fun, and the food was pretty good for a place that's serving a couple hundred people at once.  Nut Brown was really into the audience contest they had, until he realized that it was probably rigged.  We had a lot of fun eating and watching the show!

Friday, we went to Ober Mountain with Grandpa and my brother and his son, and we enjoyed a bunch of slides and a coaster and a chance to do archery!  It was really hot, and the rain kept us from the alpine slide, but we had a good time with all the rest of it. (Thank you, Grandpa!)  

Riding the ski lift up to archery - silent and beautiful.  And it turns out that Grandpa did archery in high school so he was helpful as the rest of us learned!

Ice skating- I had to tell the boys to slow down because they were skating so well and so quickly!  They were having a lot of fun but unintentionally putting some other less experienced skaters at risk.  

Saturday, Mr. Brown took a bunch of teenage boy cousins to an escape room, and Rosebud went with her girl cousins to a different escape room.  Rosebud was glad for an activity where she wasn't talked over or ignored... as sometimes happen with big brothers.

Sunday, we went to church.  My men were particularly handsome.

By this time, my sons had gotten comfortable with their cousins, and they played a lot of games (both video games and card games) and made a lot of happy noise together.  Here they are celebrating the end of a card game by dancing on the table benches.

We also gathered for an official family photo.  I think everyone is in it except for Rose Pink!

And then Monday - headed home, with stops at both Buc-ee's on the way.  Rosebud said a very sad goodbye to her cousins.  They have a secret handclap now and I watched them do it with such sad faces when I went to get her for our departure.  The boys were all ready to be home again, although they had both enjoyed themselves.  Big thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for hosting us all!