july fourth - take one

josh's family invited us to join them at their cabin in cashiers, north carolina this past weekend for the fourth, and with the weight of what we're dealing with here in birmingham, an escape to the mountains sounded like music to our ears. 

the first trip we ever made to the cabin was over july 4th weekend of 1999 (man, we're old).  please enjoy these snippets from one of the 37 scrapbooks i made between 1996 and 2007 (before the beautiful blogger revolution).

take a close look at this next one.  i want you to know that i cut out every one of those little starbursts by hand and painstakingly glued them in place on the page-- do you get how thankful i am for the new age of digital scrapbooking?!? 

our next visit to those gorgeous mountains wasn't until late in 2005.  that trip also served as a bit of an escape as we were mourning the loss of our second baby -- but joyfully celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary as well!!!

here's what i remember about the trip through four states to get to cashiers:  in 1999 when it was just josh and me, our drive was full of deep conversations about the future, laughter, and quiet moments of contemplation.  in 2005 when it was just josh, me, and little abigail, our drive was full of deep conversations about the future, laughter, and quiet moments for fear of waking the baby.

then there's the 2010 trip. 

not only did josh and i add two more children to the mix but we also took cousin natalie from birmingham and cousin ansleigh from savannah with us on our trek.  and our drive was full of anything but deep conversations or quiet moments of any sort.  but we definitely had laughter...

(that's the big girls doing their best "praise team" impersonations while singing our god is an awesome god at the top of their lungs.)  unfortunately, after about five or six hours in the car, the troops started to fade, and this is what we all looked like:

josh started to get a little grumpy...

but he felt a lot better after a little nap.

(put the phone down.  there's no need to call DHR...he was driving with his left eye open.)

we did get pretty bored, though, so i was forced to bust out the camera for entertainment.  things started out mild...

...but then i got curious as to what a woman would look like if she hung out of the window of a van moving at 70 miles per hour down the interstate.  wonder no more, my friends.

that's all i've got in me tonight.  but stay tuned for the next installment of our july fourth weekend where we actually arrive in the mountains.