Windy Gap

The weekend before Halloween, we all headed up the mountains to Windy Gap, near Blowing Rock, NC. Ken was playing with his old band members for a weekend retreat and we tagged along with them.

The camp is beautiful and has a very charming, rustic setting. Here is the cabin we stayed in:

And here was one of our views during the day:

Here was another view as we walked up the road towards the meeting hall and dining room:

Right by that large draping tree is a large pond with a huge slide going down the mountain into it; and a large blob (huge pillow-like bouncy thing that you can jump onto, scoot to the edge and then have someone else jump behind you and fly you into the air before landing in the water. The weekend we were there was freezing and it even snowed a little bit however there were still high school students doing the blob, swimming in the pools, and going down the slide. Crazy!

Windy Gap is a Younglife campsite and their goal is to make it a fun place for high school students to go. They feed them three meals a day and include activities in addition to worship time during the day. In addition to the lake and pool, they have a volleyball court, basketball court, snack-shop with games, horseback riding, a zipline, and probably something else that I just missed.

The kids and I had quite a bit of time without Ken while he was setting up and practicing, so we took a walk around the place. We went to see the horses and stood at the gates waving:

And oohed and ahhed over the huge leaves we found on our walk.

This isn't exactly a good picture, but I thought it was funny. Grey looks so serious here. He was just running up to me when I tried to jog ahead a few paces to take their picture. I guess he thought I was trying to run away and he was concentrating hard to keep up!

We saw this old bridge that the kids loved. Scared me silly thinking they were going to fall off though!

Grey did try to kill himself… although not by going over the side of the bridge.

Next we saw an old wagon and the kids wanted to hop up and "ride" it.

What? Were they actually having fun together?? I don't remember this phenomenon!

Grey was pretty obsessed with the lake and little rivers that ran along the property. I'm pretty sure he would have jumped right on in along with the high schoolers.

Ken's old band-mate, Scott brought his wife, Michelle and their two little girls. Skylar was so excited about seeing Abby and it didn't take her too long to warm up. They were bff's after about an hour.

Grey ran back to that same old bridge on our last walk back from the dining hall, and took his "bappa" with him and sat right on down, feet hanging over the edge. I ran beneath the bridge on the side of the river just in case… and also happened to have my camera with me! Score! Except that he was up and running just a second after I shot this one picture.

The kids had a ball and Skylar loved the mountains. She wants to go back and walk to the top of one. I told her her daddy would love to take her. ;)