Blue Ridge Highlights Day 3

Tuesday July 30

Sunrise, again.

The bright side to always being short on sleep is having experiences like eating breakfast with my two sons on the deck cut into the side of a mountain, watching the pink sun come up over the lake.

Our children's godparents live just over an hour from the cabin, so they made a day trip out of coming for a visit. It is always a joy to see them!

The photo I found on my iPhone when I returned from a chore, having asked my husband to watch the baby.

Also on Tuesday, the remaining family arrived of Mom, Dad, and three more cousins. I've come a long way with handling being in crowds, but I definitely felt the introvert in me assert strongly her desires to be alone when there were now eight adults (ten adults when the godparents were visiting) and ten children in one house.

Tuesday night was our family's night to prepare dinner. I served chili, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, green salad, watermelon, and s'mores over the fire for dessert.

Mary hiding

We mamas got a sweet chuckle when I reported back after looking for my Mary (4) who is my child to "go missing" most frequently and be found playing sweetly somewhere by herself (very often drawing or writing). Everyone else was outside roasting s'mores and I found the three children (one from each family) who are known for being the introverts, all three sitting together in the living room of the otherwise empty house. They were happy as clams.

View of the broken window from the inside

This was the day that our sweet boy unintentionally broke a window on the upper floor of the house. He'd never seen a crank window before and did have the wherewithal to open the lower lock on the window. But he never noticed the upper lock on the window, so cranked and cranked, trying to open the window, until the pressure caused it to break apart into big, frightening sections. No safety glass there! With thanks to John's guardian angel, no one was hurt. And we were grateful for recent teaching and practicing about telling on oneself right away being the right policy because John did just that.

View of the broken window from the outside, it having been somewhat secured by cardboard on the inside

According to the repairman we had give an estimate, this particular glass cannot be simply replaced, so the whole window will be replaced. Because it is a custom size, special wood, and a fancy dance window brand, the repair is going to cost a cool grand, which would not at all have been "cool" if we'd had to pay it. We cannot express our relief that our extended family bought renter's insurance for the week when making these reservations, so insurance will cover the replacement.