Football and Fairies: Fabulous 4th of July Trip to Montreat

There were many, many things that made leaving Memphis hard, and our friends, the Alexanders, were definitely high on that list. Because our friendship with them was based on our shared faith, our relationship is deep and still thriving in spite of the miles. What a blessing their family is to us! John and Melanie have three boys, and Big Brother and Little Bit love them all. Since we don't get enough time with them, we met in Montreat, NC for a fun mini-vacation! What a blast!!

The Alexanders actually arrived on Saturday the 30th. Melanie had rented a gorgeous cabin for us to use. It was 3 stories and each floor had a porch. The lower level porch had a swing, so the kids called that the "play porch." The Alexanders had broken the cabin in for us (in a good way!!), and we arrived bright and early on July 4th to begin our celebration.

The town of Montreat is tiny. There is a college and Christian conference center. There are also lots of beautiful homes, many of which are probably 2nd homes for a lot of families. After spending some time there, it became pretty obvious that many families have Montreat in their blood. They come back summer after summer either to stay at their family home or to take part in a conference put on at Montreat conference center. The 4th of July festivities are adorable, and, it seems, very much steeped in tradition.

The first activity on our list to celebrate the 4th was the cute Montreat parade. Our kids all loved it! It was probably 15 minutes max. There was everything from a firetruck to a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I loved how so many of the people in the parade would stop and say hello to the people they knew sitting along the parade route! Of course, our kids (all 5 of them) enjoyed getting the loot that people passed out!

After the parade and flag raising ceremony, we all enjoyed the barbecue lunch. My blogging followers may remember that last spring, our family took a trip to Asheville and then stopped to enjoy the coolest playground on the way home. Well, that was in Montreat! This playground has a mountain stream running all the way through the middle of it. Gorgeous! It was also a highlight of our few days with the Alexanders! The kids all enjoyed splashing around and walking through it. It was a bit cold, but that at least kept snakes away so I was good with that!

Melanie and I hiked back to the cabin with her littlest one (who is not quite 2) to get the cars after lunch. Thank goodness we did! It was pretty much all up hill ... I worked off those extra calories from lunch... The kids would NOT have liked that! We enjoyed the rest of the day in spite of some rain which kept us from going to see fireworks.

The next two days were filled with fishing, hiking, more time at the playground, renting boats, and just playing. I am not really an outdoor-sy kind of person (I'm sure those of you who know me well are laughing at that understatement!) but I love doing those kinds of things with our family. It is so good to see the kids take a break from their normal interests and get dirty and enjoy God's creation. We also were so thrilled with how well John and Melanie's three guys and our two kiddos got along. There wasn't a single fight among them (except for the occasional fussing between siblings, but that i to be expected). I got some good girl time with Mel, and JM and John hung out a lot, too.

We ended our vacay with a fun family dinner at an Italian restaurant in Black Mountain, and then the Jardina crew hit the road for the drive home. We were all sad to say good-bye. I don't know the next time we will be back in Memphis. But, we definitely have plans to make this trip an annual thing! Alexander family, we love you and are so thankful for your friendship!