Cumberland Falls =] December 10, 2009

When it gets closer to the holidays it always makes you think that the people in your life that mean the most to you. I really think that that is what the holiday season is designed to do. There is a group of people in my life that mean so much to me! I only get to see this part of my family a few times a year but when I am with them I know that no matter what happens they are always there for me. I am so thankful to have each and everyone of them in my life and I do not know what I would do without them!

For my whole life, I have gone to Cumberland Falls, KY every summer! It is the best week of the year and my whole family looks forward to it. It is kind of hard to describe to people that have never been there before. I guess it is not really the place that makes that week in July so special, it is the people that we see while we are there. It all started when my mom was my age and she went with one of her friends on her family vacation. They went to Cumberland Falls State Park in Corbin, KY. She has such a fun time that she convinced my Grandma and Grandpa to vacation there the following summer. The second summer there they ran into the Fisher family from Ohio. They hit it off right away, they had kids that were all similar ages and they all just clicked together. Our group has grown a lot since that first summer, we have added lots of new family members and it seems like every summer we grow a little more.

As you can see from the video above that I have made about our big summer family reunion that we have a blast. It is a week filled with dancing, swimming, laughing, crafts, and most of all you can just feel the love in the atmosphere that our group feels for each other.

My Auntie Linny has written some wonderful blogs about our week at Cumberland Falls. She has a way with words, here is part of her blog that really sums up what our Cumberland Falls family is all about:

"I have absolutely no blood relation to my Cumberland Falls Family--they are just a group of people who happened to vacation at the same place a very long time ago. Yes, there are some families that congregate there, but the point is that the whole group sort of just clicked and continued on coming the same week for over 30 years. It is a magical place where your salary and your job description don't mean a thing--you only gain respect for how much fun you can be. Well, and in some people's case this week (Pete), it's how much bourbon you can safely taste without throwing-up or dying.

There are no words for our CF family--it just is. It is goodness and love. It is unconditional acceptance and fun. It is being silly and sharing a laugh. It is forgetting the problems of daily life and lying in the sun discussing how tan you got today. It is fighting over who the life guard thinks is the cutest, even though he is 20 years younger than we are. It is photographing 54 of the gang in Fain's stupid cat t-shirt without her knowing. Is is laughing until you can't stand it anymore. And it is crying with everyone as you leave.

So, I'm back posting. Back with some fresh material for the blog thanks to the gang this week and I'm smiling with my heart full. I am rejuvenated and have a fresh look for the busy week ahead. Okay, so I'm gonna lose it tomorrow when the kids have to start band camp and I have to tackle 5000 loads of laundry--but I'm feeling that good-kinda-tired tonight.

I missed you all, but I miss all of them even more tonight. I just know there is a blue moon over Kentucky right now and I'm missing it. Somehow, I think we all are."

--Lin Kautz (duckandwheelwithstring.blogspot.com)

This holiday seasons brings me to missing each and everyone of them a little more! I hope they know how much they mean to me and I hope that they have an amazing holiday season!!! I cannot wait until we are all reunited this coming July in our favorite place in the world, Cumberland Falls :)