Starnes Family Holiday at Fort Hill 2012

For the 3rd year in a row, my immediate family has rented the camp at Fort Hill Christian Youth Camp out for our family to celebrate the holidays. So far we’ve never been bored or left not wishing we could be back again!

This year, Mom, Dad, Rachel, Katie, and James came down on Friday night. I came down after work to meet them along with my sister Carrie, brother-in-law James, and their kids Mason and Tucker. When I left the house that Friday night, we were supposed to be under a winter weather advisory with some 2-4″ of snow to fall beginning at 7:00 pm. While I saw the front coming in, there was no snow at camp by midnight. Just the chill.

I got up to check my sugar around 1:15 a.m. and there was an inch of snow on the ground and it was coming down nicely! When we got out of bed around 8:30, we saw there was nearly 6″ of new snow on the ground! Shortly after the entire family was in from Vandalia, Wilmington, Washington Court House, Patriot, and Gallipolis, Ohio. 5 kids + 2 parents = 20 people!

Saturday morning was pancake and pita day! We love pitas (and pancakes). BTW, a pita breakfast is scrambled eggs with crispy, cooked bacon mixed with cheese tucked into a soft flour pita bread half. MMMMM!!!

After breakfast we helped clean up the mess hall and kitchen then we were off to play a 5 on 5 game of basketball! I’m 6’3″ and I am the shortest male in the family, at least of those fully grown! Brothers are 6’5″, 6’6″, and 6’9″! Dad is 6’5″ too. Only my sister is shorter than me. Awww. :^)

The game was a street fight with adults and kids playing together. Not sure that a team of Casey, Levi, Mason, and Riley was really a balanced team with us, even if we did have 1 extra person! We got clobbered, but managed to cut the deficit by half by intermission. Yes, we did have a crowd of family rooting on the chaos with Levi, Casey, and Travis dunking the ball.

After basketball, we were all outside on the snow making sledding paths. We started small by the maintenance garage, but after insistence by Rachel, we moved to the area by the zip line start. MUCH better! We had to build some berms to keep the kids and adults on the sledding path, but it was a riot. All 20 of us on the hill in full winter garb taking turns sledding and keeping everyone from harm (or throwing snowballs!). :^)

Saturday night was the big holiday dinner, followed by a gift exchange. We all crashed hard Saturday night.

Sunday we had breakfast, and had a church service with some visitors joining us. Just had some family who did not get the right time (doh!). Casey, Levi, and Travis’ families had to leave as all had work or sports practice the next day. The rest of us stayed. It was a lot quieter after half the family was gone! :^(

Monday was clean-up day and with half the crew missing, the work took a lot longer this year. Mom was up at 6:00 am cleaning the kitchen, the rest of us were working by 8 and did so until 2:00 or later. Then we left. So fun, but sad to leave.

The best part was the photos. Here’s a gallery of the fun we had! Love my family!