Family Vacation Memories

This Labor Day was the third Ham Fam Vacay, the first being 2017 and the next, 2022. We had the blessing of a three bedroom condo in Pigeon Forge – just perfect for all three families to have room to sleep, cook and play for three days and nights.

We are blessed with family relationships that are not stressful or forced. We can only credit this to each of us having a relationship with the Lord. He models perfect love and acceptance to us that we then strive for towards one another. Of course, we often miss, but for the most part, we enjoy a human love based on God’s Divine love.

We wanted to enjoy meals at the table together in the peace and quiet (well, kind of quiet!) of our condo, and also as a way to reduce our cost, so my girls and I divided up the mealtimes and each of us were assigned certain meals. We did go out for one special lunch – more on that in a minute. First, let me give you a sampling of what was enjoyed in our condo…

Alli knocked it out of the park with her homemade pizzas and salad! Whitney had a Mexican feast with tacos, guacamole, Mexican cornbread, chips and salsa.

We celebrated all of us girl’s birthdays that come two weeks apart, starting with Alli in August, then mine, then Whitney’s. The cake was the request of the family – Triple Chocolate. I decided to make it into a sheet cake so it would travel easier. I did change up one thing from my original recipe – I made the cake from scratch, and it was heavenly! I will do that from now on. I’ll share my recipe on Monday. It’s so light and fluffy – and chocolatey, of course!

We enjoyed a feast (like Thanksgiving!) at Paula Deen’s restaurant. Every bite was delicious!

After all that food, we knew we needed exercise, so each morning we went to the River Walk and enjoyed a couple of miles together. I was awed at the beauty around us! It’s sure a lot easier to exercise in the company of others! We had sweet chats and laughter as we completed our miles.

During our down time we created some good competition with our traditional Board Game tournament. Alli took first place again! We played many games, but our favorite is Dutch Blitz. Here’s a blur of a picture from a time lapse video taken while we were playing. Everyone moves fast and it’s each man for his own! There were several bent/wrinkled cards at the end of the game!

Each night we had a time of devotions, with each of the men taking turns leading us. Paul did a great job making his lesson from Lamentations 3:22-24 applicable to all of us, including our little guys, to recognize God’s mercies even that day.

How thankful we are to the Lord for His mercies that we enjoyed together. We made more memories to cherish and tuck away in our hearts. Like a picture in a locket, I will open those mental images and smile at their remembrance with thankfulness to my Heavenly Father.

Goodbyes come too soon, but of course, the time came for them…and some friendly wrestling!

I share these memories with you, but log them here on my blog as my “on-line scrapbook.” Each family member is a treasure that works together to form the snapshot. My heart is full and refreshed. ❤️

Do you ever do a family vacation?

Do you eat in or go out?