gathering of the masses

I embarked on my first summer travels Wednesday. After calling Jaclyn and realizing we were within a few miles of each other on the west side of Knoxville, we met up at a gas station and drove together to Lake Junaluska. You can click on these pictures to see more detail.

Even though we were having the KY-TN campmeeting on campus at Highland, I took 2 days off to go home to the Carolina campmeeting. I love Lake Junaluska. We've been going to campmeeting there since I was about 13, I think. Amazingly, this year I took my first walk all the way around the lake with Jaclyn and Renee.

Jaclyn and I got to hang around on Thursday and Friday and take some random pictures of different things we did. The stone chapel arches are a good background and a railing made a good tripod.




This is just one of several killer shots we got with our excellent photography skills. You just can't get this quality from a p&s camera!




The best thing about going to campmeeting is getting to see friends. We got to meet John & Rita's baby, Logan. They go to my parents' church, but I haven't been home since he was born. I saw a ton of people from high school, and even a few from before.


On Friday, I finally found Matt, Marca, and Gracie at the playground. I kicked another guy off the swing, told him it was for kids, and got to swing with Gracie for a little bit. I handed off the camera to Jaclyn so I could twist around without breaking the thing. Gracie got worried when I jumped off the swing. She thought I got hurt.

Jaclyn and I went to see Deborah at our former snack bar of employment. We even ate there for supper one day. We didn't let her coax us into putting on aprons and slicing things in the kitchen. Those days are gladly over!

My parents, Grant, and my grandparents all came up on Friday. I got to eat lunch with them at their hotel in the room they always let us use. It almost seems like campmeeting last year never happened, because none of us were there.

Tara showed up on Sabbath afternoon. By chance, I ended up seeing her park her car. Jaclyn, Tara, and I hung out at Pisgah's lemonade stand for a while and talked to the Parras, Fullers, and other MPA staff.

This picture was taken pretty late Saturday night. It was just like old times at Mark & Wendy's when we used to cram the four of us (missed you Lindsey!) into one bed. We ended up talking until after 2:00a. Too bad we couldn't have been around longer to see Tara while she's home for a few days. I'm sure Jaclyn will have the pictures on her blog of us assembling parts of Tara's wedding invitations. Joy was there too, so we had 3/5 of the bridesmaids together to help. Random.

We all got up and left pretty early. Jaclyn and I made the most of our Sunday and went shopping in Knoxville at the mall on our way home. They weren't playing the movie we wanted to see, so our plans had to change. Oh well . . . We're all stocked up on veggie food and ready for another work week. I even had to work a little today. I joined an alumni conference call that I did not say a word on. =)