Family Reunion

We made our way back to Pike County this weekend for a Coleman family Reunion. It has been as long as ten years since Chris has seen some of his family and he was excited to catch up. When we got the invite, they told Chris he would turn on a road he could not place (he thought this was odd because he lived there for 14 years). When we finally got there, we figured out why...The reunion was on top of a reclaimed "strip mine" (for those of you who know mining terminology, this will make perfect since but the non-mountain folk will probably be "googling" it right now). As we made our way up a very steep hill, we began to wonder if we were in the right place. But we began to see family in vehicles and on atvs and we knew just to keep going and we would get there eventually. It was a really cool place to spend a day. The mine left the mountain with a perfectly flat area that was much larger than a football field. This gave the young as well as the young at heart, lots of room to play corn hole, horseshoes, frisbee, and four wheel.

This is the landing we used for the reunion.

Some members of the Coleman family camped out in tents and an RV on Friday and Saturday night.
Much of the day was spent exploring the mountains on four wheelers. This is Jerry and his son Jared in the foreground.

Here, Chris and I are making our rounds on the ATV. It was lots of fun!

Sarah had a blast bouncing and sliding in the blow up castle.

Regina's daughter Kaitlin resting from the bouncing fun.

Dana was the face painting artist in residence on this day.
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The kids spent some time painting faces and arms, (and stomachs).

Chris and Sarah spent time with Chris's uncle Leonard. He really seemed to enjoy himself with all the family around for the weekend.

Norma and Fran sharing a hug.

Much of the day was spent sitting around catching up with relatives who live far from us.



Sarah is small, but she's a force to be reckoned with!

Edward, Fran, and Della sharing stories.

By this point in the afternoon, Sarah was beginning to wear out from all the fun. We had to leave for a couple of hours to let her nap at an aunt's house.

Chris and I made our way down to the lower portion of the mountain, where Chris's uncle Ed has an authentic Civil War era cabin complete with antiques located for anyone gutsy enough to "rough it" in the overnight (with no "facilities"). He was offered it as firewood, but instead, took it apart and numbered it piece by piece, and rebuilt it on his property. No one has slept in it yet, but I am sure the kids will get lots of use out of it during the day.

Inside, we find lots of antiques, like this high chair, that Ed and his daughters located to place in the cabin.

The cabin only contains one room, and is said to be a "honeymoon cabin". This meant that when a couple got married, they moved into this small cabin until they were able to build their own larger cabin (as the family began to grow). I guess many families called this home over the years.

This is Chris's uncle Ed, the owner of the land we used for the reunion, as well as the cabin.

This is the view from the cabin's front porch. Ed is working to try and seal up the pond so that it will hold enough water to stock it for fishing soon. Chris says he would stay overnight if I was willing. I will have to think about this one...

I thought it would be appropriate to end this post with a photo of the Coleman family homestead. All of Chris's uncles, aunts, and cousins and immediate family spent many hours together in this home. It was nice, even after Pearl and Daniel are no longer with us, for the Colemans to come together for a weekend to share in the special memories created in and around this home. Chris hopes for many more reunions to come in the future. We are glad Sarah is going to grow up with a strong sense of her family heritage.
Bye for now...