Through all the planning..the Barry Boy Family get together has come and gone and WOW !!  What a GREAT time.  Lets start from the beginning.  

       Mike , the oldest , got in touch with all the brothers about spending a weekend together and needed ideas.  We first decided that a beach house would be just what the doctor ordered, but then in order for us all to be able to make it the beach would have been pretty cooool...because the autumn seemed like the most likely time .  SOoooo  when you think of get togethers in the fall...you think of what?      You got it....CABIN'S.....The search was on...when you live on the east coast....where to you think of when you think of cabins.....Right again!!   The Great Smokey Mountains. Again ..the search was on....you see where this is leading dont you?   Mike wanted to find a place that was a bit out of touch with the city life and tourism...and did he find a great place....Franklin North Carolina...right on the outshirts of the Smokies......and the Cabins he found were right in line with what we were looking for ...The Bates Cabins. 

The one we selected was a 6 bedroom...4 bath...and Giant living space with wrap around porch..The only thing we needed was a toothbrush... Carl Bates and his wife  thought of everything..right down to the cork screw that Mark used on all the wonderful wine that he and Dianna brought...  When we arrived Carls crew was just finishing up cleaning the cabin from the past clients ..so we sat out on the porch and enjoyed the scenery.  When the cleaning was complete...we were led into one of the most amazing Log Homes we have ever seen, more less been in.

The Bedroom selection had begun...Mike and Robin downstairs with Mark and Dianna....Charlie and Norma upstairs with Tim and Paula, Christopher, Nicholas , Caitlin and Megan.   

We had decided earlier that dinner was to be cooked and served by the men , along with clean up.....Girls Loved that...  So we sat down on the back porch , robin with pen in hand , and wrote our meal list .  Mike , Charlie and Tim did the shopping the first day because Mark had not yet arrived.  Spaghetti was on the agenda for the first meal....it was easy and fast...and we were all starving... We were told to buy 3 pounds of  noodles..but heck...when the 5 pounder is on sale for the same price..what would you do....right.....we bought the 5 pounder...and do you have ANY IDEA how much 5 POUNDS  of spaghetti noodles makes....YIKES....... we ate and ate and ate..and I think we eventually had to get rid of the 3 pounds that we were intending to buy..but..man..was it good.....I'm kind of getting ahead of my self....when we got back from the store..guess who was on the porch....you got it...Mark !!   with a stogie in his mouth and a glass of wine in his hand...now that is exactly what the rest of us did..AFTER dinner. 

Now Im back on track.   Things were going along fairly well when Robin came up with a guessing game.....she would tell us the beginning of a story and the end of the story and we had to guess the middle ...for example....There was a man who walked into a bar , the bartender held a shotgun to his face. ( beginning )..............the man said Thank You....( end )...why did the man say thank you?   We worked on that for quite some time...before Paula hit the right answer... Norma got the answer to the next one... it took a couple of hours ...but she got it !!!!    This was all in the first night.  

The next day we went to the FUN FACTORY in downtown Franklin to let the Christopher and Nicholas burn off some energy and it turned out the only ones that actually burnt off energy was the adults....Those Games were FUN !!!   And we actually have pictures of Robin milking a cow..after pizza..we headed home to rest and get dinner ready....Charlie and Tim made it a Surf and Turf night. We BBQ'd steaks that Mike marinated all night and Tim made a fabulous Shrimp Scampi...after dinner Dianna and the girls made it up and we sat around and watched "Day after Tomorrow"....great movie......and great conversation......lol.... 

The next day Tim and Paula took the boys to Pigeon Forge to shop and Mark and Dianna took the girls to Cherokee where they got to pet and feed a real tiger...While all this was going on...Mike , Robin, Charlie and Norma tried their hand at Gem Mining....That was really fun...once you figured out what was rock and what was gem.......Robin found a 20ct Black Star Saphire and Norma came back with a 5ct Ruby......so the day was pretty productive..OH...and Im getting ahead of myself a bit again...at the steak dinner the night before..Mark decided to tell the boys about the infamous "Punkin Man" that came out of the Spooky Forest ( as nicholas refers to it). and he pranced around outside the windows with a pumpkin on his shoulders trying to scare them...which he did......but Christopher found him out..and told his mom that he thinks its uncle mark..which Paula replied..." GEE...Ya think".....and we all broke up laughing.....well...mark carved a great pumkin for the kids ..and so did mike and charlie.......but that night something strange happened..because in the morning...Marks pumkin had ..oh...maybe 12 knives stuck in it..ketchup running down the front  of the pumkin with a note that said "THE PUNKIN MAN WUS HEER"....Mark laughted like hell..but you could see the pissed off look in his eyes...hahaha. 

Well..back to the night we went mining...We went to check out a trout pond near the cabins...there were soooo many trout in it that the water just swirled...and it didnt take long to find out why.....WE THINK  it was because they charged $3.50 a pound to catch and 75 cents a pound to clean...and according to the man that owned it....people were catching 5 pounders the day before.....DUH !!!  like that impressed us...soo we decided to try that little game next time we come up..  That night we had smores by the campfire ..and had a ball....and guess who made a guest appearance..."THE PUNKIN MAN".... Tim decided to cut the bottom out of Marks pumkin and insert his head.....and then walked around the cabin...in the dark...to scare the girls.....megan laughed..while caitlin go a tad bit scared...nice try Tim......we All had a few drinks and snacks watched some movies....talked over old times and just plain relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.....

OH...WOW...I cant believe I forgot the most important moment.....geeesh.   They gave Robin and Charlie their 50th birthday party...WOW....that was soooo cool...they dressed charlie up in a Austin Powers outfit....and Mark brought in the best birthday cake...it was a birthday POUND CAKE...wow..was it good....robin was sporting her new OCC baseball cap... The brothers got together and got Charlie a nice ZIGA Digital Picture Frame with pics of his past on it along with music....I think there was a tear or two......now ..where was I at...Oh......yes...the last day.  We all got up...cleaned our rooms and out the front door.  Hugs and kisses to everyone and we all parted in our separate ways....with one hell of alot of memories to keep forever........We really hated leaving...I know I did..and cant wait for the next 2nd annual Barry Boys Retreat !!!!