Beautiful Brooke: There's no place like POE!

If you and I have met, it's no secret that part of my heart belongs to Poe Valley.

Might sound strange to those of you who have never 'summered' with the Richard's in Poe, so allow me to share the short-version of this piece of Heaven with you!

January. 1988.

My grandfather retired into a 'camp.' I use the word 'camp' VERY loosely.

This place was considered a camp, but it had 2 levels. On each level was a living area. A kitchen. A full bathroom. Running water. Cable TV.

Freddy lived in this 'camp' for over a dozen years. He'd travel in and out of town a few times a week, but mostly, enjoyed the quiet mountain air and completing lots of projects in his wood shop.

The camp lovingly became known as F. Duck. Truthfully, it's the most beautiful property that exists in all of Poe. To this day.

My entire family would spend summers, weekends, and most holidays in Poe. With all of the comforts of home in the peaceful mountain...it was our most favorite place to be.

I could write NOVELS full of stories of me, Meg, Stacie, and Stephy giggling on the screened-in porch until we fell asleep.

Or the times that Stacie and I would make hammocks out of blankets tied between the bunk beds. (Only she could tie a tight enough knot to hold us.)

Or the winter weeks we'd spend sled riding down the front hill...BAIL OUT comes to mind!

Or the hours we'd spend on the motorcycles and 4-wheelers covering the acres of trails behind the camp.

Or the late nights that my most favorite people would sit around a 'humper' fire singing hymns to my Dad and Uncle Butch's guitar.

Pure. Heaven.

Freddy has since sold the camp and the property to another family who I can only hope loves F. Duck as much as we still do. In a perfect world, I would have been married and established when my Pap needed someone to buy it and take over the up-keep. Zig and I would have loved to have that place to share with the next generation of our family and friends.

This is F. Duck.

The sign that Freddy made is still hanging at the base of the driveway. It says "Always Inn."

Simply driving by this place, and now looking at the picture... I can smell the camp. Remembering everything about it. Every corner that my family enjoyed for such a huge part of my life. I miss that place.

Sniff. Sniff.

A few months ago, Zig started talking about vacations that we should take this summer. And all of the fun things we can do now that Brooke is a little older. When he mentioned borrowing the Daubert family motorhome (the same motorhome we traveled Out West for 16 days in) to camp in Poe Valley, I almost screamed in excitement. Actually, I did scream!

In late spring, we traveled to Poe when it had just been re-opened after some extensive remodeling. We got to see the new beach house, bath house, playground equiptment, updated camp sights, new sand, refilled lake, and so much more! The best part was, we actually got to pick out the sight that we wanted to be ours.

Zig reserved our sight that week...

And the pictures below chronicle our amazing weekend as a family of 3...

A new generation of Poe Valley...

Our home on wheels for 3 days!

I wouldn't actually call what we did 'camping...'

We had running water, electricity, a full kitchen and all the comforts of home!

Brooke was an explorer! She checked everything out!

She's kind of a big deal! HA!

FINALLY, Friday afternoon, we were ON OUR WAY!
Zig's brother and his family were able to reserve a sight to camp right along with us! They led the way, Zig followed in the motorhome, and I followed him.
This was the view from my car!

These dirt roads were the same that we used to ride on in the back of my dad's truck...
Stacie and I would lay down on the bed of the truck and watch the trees above us - or sit on lawn chairs and hang on for dear life!

This is our almost-6-year-old niece, Zoe Joy!
I'm already calling her the best babysitter ever!
As soon as we got the motorhome and camper parked, Zoe came to help entertain Brooke while Zig and I got everything unpacked!
Brooke just loves her big cousin!

See?

Sight #23!
Home Sweet Home!

After we had everything in order, we spent the evening at Scub and Stephanie's sight.
We cooked steaks and baked potatoes over the fire! SO Yummy!
Brandon, Amanda, and Halle came to visit with us too! The girls had so much fun playing tag, riding bikes, and swinging together!

After we all had full bellies, we walked the kids down to the beach. We walked on the sand, tested the temperature of the lake, and played on the playground! Brooke loved going down the slide - as long as Daddy or Uncle Scub would catch her!

We finished our first night in Poe with mountain pies and goodnight kisses for the kids.
We headed back to the motorhome and you can see just how tired Brooke was...

We rested on the couch, watched Pooh, ate some snacks, drank some milk...
We took a quick (kinda cold) tub, and layed together on the couch.
We were so worried about how Brooke was going to sleep while we were away from home, but she fell asleep with me on the couch, and slept well in the pack-n-play for the entire night!

Saturday morning, Zig made a big breakfast for everyone!
He did bacon, eggs, and toast!

It wouldn't be POE VALLEY without Stacie!
And now, we get to take our daughters to the same place that we used to spend our summers together!
Stacie and I were literally together every weekend of our lives the whole way through high school. Crazy, I know. Our families were so close, it was just what we did. Seemed perfectly normal to us!

I invited Stacie to bring Anna and meet us at the beach to swim...and they decided to join us!
I was so glad that they did!
We lathered the kids up with sunscreen and enjoyed a few hours on the sand!
Brooke ended up LOVING the water! Although, she hated the sand...
We'll have to work on that at the beach!

Zoe Joy showed us all of her swimming skills!
She also played with the babies and helped them have fun in the water!

My Beach Baby!

Stacie and I have ALBUMS of pictures of the two of us from our lifetime of friendship.

We were taking LOTS of pictures of our girls together and are ready to start albums for THEM!

How cute are these girls!!??

Anna will be 1 next month - Brooke just adores her!

Stacie and I have already decided that we were going to take day-trips to the lake with the girls this summer! YAY!

Saturday equaled NO NAP for Brooke!

There was just too much playing to do!

Also, Nana, Pap, Freddy, and Freda came to visit!

We hosted my family and had a big supper over the fire! We were so happy to share our camping experience with the ones who started it all!

She played and played and played!

Bubbles, stones, stickers, galore!

I brought some crafty things to keep the kids busy during the day...or in case of rain :)

After all of our guests had gone, and the camp sight was quiet for the first time, we sat Brooke on the couch to get her tub stuff ready. One minute she was snacking on crunchies and milk, and the next she was FAST ASLEEP!

We decided to skip the tub, and changed her diaper and got her into her PJ's - she never woke up!

We laid her in her bed and didn't hear a peep until 8 the next morning!

OUT!
That mountain air really wore her out!

Brooke was asleep before dark!

But that meant that Zig and I had some quiet time together!

We built a big fire, made S'MORES and relaxed...just the 2 of us!

The view from my chair...

We all took our time waking up on our last morning in Poe!

(Zig is probably going to kill me for posting this picture!)

Brooke crawled in bed with Daddy and watched the Bee movie while I got cleaned up...

I wish you could see how sunburned Zig was from the beach!

After we were ready, we took a walk on the dam, down by the falls, and towards the beach.

Many campers were packing up and heading home, so things were pretty quiet.

There aren't many things more beautiful in this world...

It's weird to think about, but I've literally looked at this view from my eyes at almost every age... And it's still one of my favorite places on earth!