Family Reunion

On the fourth Sunday of every August the Barrow clan gathers at Hull Road Free Will Baptist Church in Snow Hill, NC to celebrate being family. Dale's mother's mother was Viola Lindley Barrow. She had twelve siblings so there is always the possibility of a seeing a bunch of people you don't really know. However, Viola had seven children who all married and had families of their own and we do know all of them and some of the more distant cousins, too.
It's Ava's delight to go each year and see cousins she grew up with and catch up on the family news.
At ninety, Ava is the oldest surviving member of this larger family.

 What a privilege it was to stay with Dale's first cousin Robert and his wife, Janet, in Rocky Mount. They treated us royally and made us feel very welcome.

Janet always keeps us well fed

Sharon, Janet holding Will Franklin, Robert and neighbor, Elaine

Ava with Robert and Janet's neighbor, Elaine

Will Franklin, Robert and Janet's latest grandchild

 

I took the opportunity to snap some pictures I thought Gray would enjoy seeing since she gets her name from Ava Gray Turnage Taylor who got hers from her grandmother Mary Ava Gray Turnage. The road sign marks the road where the house Ava grew up in still stands. It belongs to a nephew of Ava's now.  

 

The childhood home of Ava Gray Turnage Taylor, Arba, NC

This stone is actually in the Hull Road Church cemetery but the bodies of Noah Henry and Mary Ava Gray Turnage are interred in the Mewborn Cemetery just a couple of miles away. We visited both.  

Summer Highlights

School starts tomorrow and though it doesn't really affect me anymore, somehow it still marks the end of summer in my mind. It's been a busy ten weeks as we've travelled more than some summers--mainly little trips. We've enjoyed the camper a few times and hope to take it to the mountains after the leaves turn for one last trip before it's too cold for me to want to go.
Here are some of the highlights.

Uncle Travis and kids hanging out with us at Isle of Palms for the day

Claire enjoys a late breakfast at the campground in Alabama while on our missions trip

Wonderful facilities for our lunches while the crews worked at two tornado devastated houses in the area

Wheat shocks a la Amish country in northern Indiana

We were always fascinated by the old style farming that the Amish use. There is a horsedrawn hayrake in the middle of this picture. Look hard.

Quilt square in flowers--Shipshewana, Indiana

 Our reason for visiting Indiana and Michigan was to see Andrew Trammell and Sarah Query be married. We acted like kin and frolicked with all the Trammells. It was such a fun trip.

Andrew and Sarah's Rehearsal Brunch, Michigan City, Indiana

Lake Michigan

Stop 38 at Michiana Shores, Michigan.  The wedding couple leads the younger set on a 5K run.

The runners

Chad and William ham it up at the ice cream shop

No wedding cake. Just a delicious assortment of pies made by the families.



Reception at the community house, Michiana Shores, MI

On our way back from the wedding we stopped in Cincinatti to tour the Creation Museum. It was an excellent testimony to God's creative genius. There were plenty of exhibits to please the adults as well as children. We wished we had had more time to spend there.

The gardens were particulary gorgeous.

Hammy's 3rd Birthday!

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 We keep thinking of ways to put the camper to use and our first outing after the initial trip to Alabama was to get Hamilton and Collier to camp with us at James Island County Park. We had a ball and so did they. Collier was contained in the pack 'n play at night and Hamilton slept on one of the bunks--rolling off onto the floor in the middle of the night-- both nights! Gray joined us during the days for the water park and the beach. Seth would come after work so that we all enjoyed supper together.

Hamilton loved the water park at James Island

Dale's favorite position at Folly Beach

Folly Beach

Our second destination wedding to attend this summer was Will Moore and Alexis Corrigan's. It was at Hilton Head. The ceremony was under the Liberty Oak at Harbor Town and the reception was close by at a restaurant on the water. It was a beautiful event.

Four Mountville couples enjoyed our time there.

 For our anniversary, Dale and I took the camper to Devils Fork State Park at Lake Jocassee. It is such beautiful place and it was nice to just be two.

There's something about breakfast out of doors that is so appealing to me.

Our Taylor trailer is sporting a new paint job.

On the way back we stopped in Traveler's Rest and had lunch at Cafe at Williams Hardware which is on the tail end of the Swamp Rabbit Trail

Cute Pix

The Morgans were with us for several days around the Fourth and I was able to catch these cute pix of the boys.

Too bad his hat doesn't look as cute on Pops

Water spouts downtown Greenville

We're all about tractors

Trailer Trash?

Our church takes a family missions trip each year to some destination not so far away where most of the families camp. We once owned a pop-up camper, bought used, that we kept for that purpose, but we gave it to Dale's sister. The idea was that we'd just borrow it back for the yearly trip. That was years ago and Linda and Billy have long since gotten rid of the thing. So we borrowed a camper from generous friends or we stayed in a cabin in the campground.
 It was not on the list of priorities to purchase one of our own again until this year. Our friends sold the one lent to us and the particular campground designated for our trip this year had cabins, but a little pricey. So we went camper hunting on Craig's List. Long story short (after letting several slip away), we found one in China Grove, NC that seemed to be the right sort and the right price. It had fixer-upper written all over it.
With only two weeks to go before the missions trip, we began to delve into the fixing up process.
First it needed a good cleaning on the outside. It was embarrassing to drive it home in its present  condition.

  In addition to cleaning the outside, the inside required more cleaning and considerable refurbishing.
With only two weeks to get it in campable shape, I worked on it day and night. Sewing took the lion's share of the time. We replaced all of the foam cushions and I made covers for them all. Dale built boxes to support the cushions, replaced the tires, and made sure everything worked. Having the floor covering installed proved to be the single thing that made the most difference in its appearance.
Here are pictures of the work in progress.



Master Bedroom



Bunk Room

Our Prowler is not completely finished but it was ready enough to make our trip to Alabama. Here are the 'after' shots.

We're hoping to use it more than just once a year. We think the grandkids will just love it!