First, let’s start with a little backstory.
My in-laws, Jim and Martha, have 7 sons. Yes, seven. My Mother-in- Law talks about how she always wanted a daughter, but never got one…until her sons started to get married.
Now there are five of us married into the family and we call ourselves the “Hines sisters”, even though we are only Hines by marriage. It is a unique club and being married to a Hines boy is not for the faint of heart. It’s also a total blast and we are SO thankful for our men and their bond as brothers.
I am also so thankful for the fact that all five of us (and our MIL!) consider one another friends. We get along and we enjoy spending time together. We encourage one another, cry with one another, pray over one another, swap practical ideas for life’s conundrums, and laugh a lot.
Between the five of us, we have 23 children- with one in utero (Sarah’s!) and one “paper pregnant” through adoption (Marissa!). The kids range in age from 18 down to 1.
This year we decided that we wanted to take a sisters trip – we left all the kiddos (except Ardin who tagged along with her Mama!) with the Dads and met up in Campton, KY near Daniel Boone National Forest and the Red River Gorge. Our kids are getting to the ages that we can leave them behind for a short time, and no one is due with a newborn for another few months, so we snatched up the opportunity!
The whole weekend was wonderful from beginning to end. We basically did *NOTHING*, and that is exactly what we all needed.
I left my house around 10am on Friday, dropped the kids off with my parents, and headed to the airport to pick up Marissa, who was flying in from Florida! Once I had Marissa, we stopped for some lunch at Panera and then finished our two hour drive to the Airbnb. I had such a good time just chatting with Marissa and catching up on life. We spent a long time puzzling over this sign- what does “additional parking car only” even mean? I think it was supposed to be “additional car parking”- as in an overflow lot- but that is not what that series of words communicates to me! Ha!
We arrived at our Airbnb around 4pm, and since no one else had arrived, we literally just basked in the silence. We read our books, chatted a bit, scrolled aimlessly on our phones…such a luxury!
Eryn arrived from Tennessee next, and we decided to go out to dinner with the three of us. Everyone else was supposed to arrive around 7:30, but it ended up being around 9:30 before they arrived, so I’m glad we went out to eat! We ate at this cute little hippie restaurant that was right at the end of a trail, so I’m sure they get a lot of hungry hikers!
We got back to the Airbnb around 7:30 and all three of us agreed that we just wanted to go to bed. We put on a few episodes of Monk just to wait for the other three ladies to arrive, but as soon as they got there, I went right to sleep.
Saturday I woke up around 7 and since I was sleeping in an open loft with three others, I didn’t want to wake them up! I crept downstairs and found my mother in law was awake in her room, so I got into that bed and read my book. After a little while, Marissa did the same- just cozied up reading in bed!
We piddled around that morning, ate a lovely breakfast from the food that we had all brought.
Around 10:30, we decided to leave for a hike. We found a great trail that seemed like a good distance for us, and it had a waterfall! It was the perfect hiking weather, and it was such a beautiful hike.
We worked up enough of an appetite to head out to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. But, apparently, we hadn’t worked up ENOUGH of an appetite because these portion sizes were HUGE!
We drove back to the Airbnb and literally just lazed around for the rest of the day. Did puzzles, did bead painting, read a book, scrolled our phones, chatted, munched on some snacks, took naps. It was absolutely glorious and went by SO fast.
We had planned to make our own taco meal at the Airbnb, but we all agreed that we were not hungry for a full meal, nor did anyone of us have the urge to cook haha. So we just pulled out some snacky foods and some leftovers from the restaurant and ate that for dinner. We watched a couple more episodes of Monk and then crashed for the night.
Sunday morning we needed to be out of the Airbnb by 11. We had planned to go out for brunch, but again we decided that we had plenty of food and we all just wanted to be lazy homebodies, so we stayed home. We had started this 1000 piece puzzle that looked easy, but turned out to be really challenging! We had maybe 300 pieces left on Sunday morning and so we all took turns trying to get this puzzle finished! I’m happy to report that we finished the puzzle with about 43 minutes before check out š
We packed up, said our goodbyes and hit the road back to our respective homes. It was SUCH a lovely and cup-filling weekend. I know that not everyone has good relationships with their family or the family that they have married into, so I am extremely thankful for my sisters and my mother-in-law. No, we don’t all have the same religion, parenting philosophies, incomes, marriage dynamics, amount of kids, etc. We each have unique circumstances that we excel in and ones that we struggle in. There have been sharp words and sometimes where we struggle to get along. But just like with any family or relationships, it is so worth it. I am so thankful for each of these ladies in my life! And I’m thankful that we were able to make this trip happen!