Family Fun in NC (Bonclarken)

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" Psalm 133:1

Photo by Wayne Stuler

Our family reunion (my Dad's side of the family) is an annual event that in recent years has been at the Bonclarken Retreat Center. There is a lot to do there from fishing, swimming, volleyball, playground, etc. and of course, the Leslie's make their own fun by adding in a 5K race, BBQ dinner, white elephant gift exchange, ghost stories by the bonfire, and the usual porch rocking chair discussions. 

Photo by Wayne Stuler

Photo by Wayne Stuler

Photo by Wayne Stuler

The town of Hendersonville has a lot of neat stores and museums. We went to the Mast General Store which is a family favorite, and the gem & mineral museum. We also took the boys on a "Bear Hunt" through the town. 

Playing with cousins...

Mama just loves babies. These are cousin Chris's twins Dorsey & Jesse.

Cousin Mary (holding Dorsey) was a flower girl in our wedding almost 13 years ago (that makes me feel so old)!

Cousin Joe (holding Jesse) is Mary's brother who I taught how to ride a bike when he was 5 years old. Now he's a triathlete! That was some good training (lol!).

The paddle-boat seats were so hot we burned our buns! 

 Getting ready for the 5K....

Family Fun in North Carolina (Pisgah Forest)

 After a day or two in Georgia we drove up to NC to find some new adventures.


First we explored a few waterfalls in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, NC. The first one shown is Looking Glass Falls. We hiked a little ways to it and stuck our toes in to find out that mountain water is REALLY  COLD!

Then it was on to the main event - Sliding Rock!

Stanley & "Sunshine" went first.

Then me & "Sweet Pea" right behind them.

The water at the bottom is about 8 ft. deep, thus the boys & I wearing life jackets b/c of the shock of the cold water & having to swim to the side to climb out. 

This is when Stanley lost his prescription glasses. We were sure they were gone forever but the boys and I prayed and right when we said, "amen" the sweet lifeguard came up with the glasses and they were not even broken. Everyone clapped & cheered!
God is so good to us!

Stanley, annoyed that I said I would blog about that story.

We drove around looking for more waterfalls but the boys fell asleep so we went on down the road and found Elijah Mountain Gem Mine.

The boys had a great time finding "treasure" and got a lot of cool rocks!

I think this is the only picture of me the whole trip - pitiful! I usually have the camera.

We ended this day by having dinner at the fabulous Wood Room restaurant in Hendersonville, NC, which has real BBQ and pizza from a wood burning pizza oven. YUM! We like it so much we ate there again the next day. Then we checked in at Bonclarken for the Leslie Family Reunion and visited with cousins and learned how to ballroom dance (thankfully, no pictures of that!).