Family Reunion in Tennessee AKA Survival of the Fittest.

So I just got back from my big week-long family reunion in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It celebrated 50 years of my grandparents' marriage and got all of my cousins, aunts/uncles and, of course, my grandparents together in one huge, slightly ghetto cabin up in the mountains. Although we all had our butting-head moments with one another and had completely terrifying/life-threatening moments (continue reading), it was still a blast and I wouldn't change a thing. :]

The whole clan except for one cousin and his wifey.

The grandparents and their kids.

My family.

Big Adventure #1: WHITE WATER RAFTING

This was definitely one of those activities that make you think, as long as I do this, my week will have been a success...at least that's what I thought. AND IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME. I'd definitely do it again. But here comes the life-threatening part. Dun-dun-dunnnn.

So let me start off by saying that 1) only my parents have WWRed before, 2) my little brothers can barely paddle, 3) my dad's vision was doubling, hence his "Patchy the Pirate" look and 4) my dad can't swim (there really was no need to swim in Alaska when he was growing up...just sayin'). Anyway, so my family and I are in one raft. My cousins/aunts and uncles are in the others. We start off paddling and it feels pretty good...went through some flat water and a few small rapids. Then came Razor Rock. "That rock is so sharp, if you hit it a certain way, it'll cut straight through the boat," said Bobby, our guide. Well needless to say, that was not comforting to know especially when we were paddling and paddling to avoid it and ultimately FAILING. We hit Razor Rock and my side (Dad, me, Ethan) flew out of the raft. Dad ended up floating down the rest of the rapids because Mom and Hailey were busy saving me, who's body was half in-half out of the raft (seriously, I was so scared...I mean, we were going in-and-out, up-and-down in rapids for Pete's sake), and Tanner was busy saving Ethan who ended up on Razor Rock and Bobby the Guide who was jumped out to save Ethan. And then when everyone was safe (except for Dad who was still floating down the rapids, trying to keep afloat--a life jacket can only do so much), we tried to paddle out with half of our paddles which were EVERYWHERE. Eventually my dad did get back in our boat (he was saved by the cousins) and we did get all our paddles. Ethan said we should give Bobby a medal of honor for his bravery...but instead we gave him a tip haha.

Still loved it though.

Big Adventure #2: HORSE-BACK RIDING IN A THUNDER/LIGHTENING STORM GOING UP AND DOWN A MOUNTAIN

Before the storm/horse-back riding...and after.

Trust me, I like horses just as much as the next girl. I used to think I could have a horse in my less-than-an-acre backyard back when I used to live in Ohio. I also love those old-fashion movies where horses are involved. So with all that information about me, how could I not be excited to go horseback riding?! I was so pumped--I got a cute, white-yellowish horse named Sunshine and we were going to go ride up and down a mountain and see a beautiful waterfall on the trip. SWEETTT. That is until it started to pour. It was literally a monsoon. There were times when I could barely see where my horse was heading (oh yeah, toward the edge of the mountain where he usually went). And speaking of my horse, not only did he seem magnetized to the edge of the mountain, he also would try to pass the horses in front of him (a no-no on the trip), sprinted up the mountain for about a second (the scariest second ever) and tripped and got momentarily freaked out by the lightening. And apparently, if your horse got freaked out, you were supposed to "tuck and roll" which seems easy enough until you actually get on the mountain and think, "WHERE THE CRAP WILL I ROLL?!". Not to mention, I couldn't hear a word of what the guide was saying so I had no idea if he was saying, "Good job, group" or "Don't do that or you're going to die". It was quite literally the Horseride From Hell...I prayed so much I think it made me closer to my religion haha.

Big Adventure #3: Harry Potter 7.2

Okay, okay, so this wasn't super big or life-threatening, but you have to understand that a bit of my childhood ended that night. I went with some of my cousins to the midnight showing. If you aren't on obsessive, psycho HP freak, then you'd have probably thought it was pretty dang good...which is what I thought. Anyway, some favorite highlights (SPOILERS):

1. Rupert Grint (Ron)
2. Tom Felton (Draco)
3. Matthew Lewis (Neville)--okay, who knew that he'd turn out THIS attractive?!
4. The super awkward hug between Voldemort and Draco
5. Voldemort dying
6. Finding out Snape was good
7. The adventure

Well, that's basically all the note-worthy parts of my trip. Whatta blast.  :]