Last Sunday was not only Father's Day; it was also my sweet hubby and my 23rd anniversary. Knowing that it was a doubly special day I knew that I needed to plan something extra special. Glenn had been talking for at least a year or more about his desire to visit the Museum of Appalachia located in Clinton, Tennessee. He has always enjoyed seeing the way things used to be here in the Appalachian mountains and is even working to help set up a Pioneer Village right here where we live.
The tough part was going to be getting Glenn to actually take the day off and just rest. He is a VERY hard worker and often over-stretches himself. He loves to help community and church groups, as well as the local schools with any project that he feels in beneficial. All of this piles stress on top of the stress that he already feels and takes up much of what should be free time.
I decided the best way to get him to just give up a day was to conspire with our two children. Our son NEVER wants to go anywhere with us. He has reached that age of early adulthood where he has begun to find his own interests and therefore his own recreational things. On Friday night we told Glenn that we had decided to go the frugal route for Father's Day this year. We cooked him a meal, including cake and presented him with a single card and his "gift": an air popper for popcorn, some corn, and seasonings. (He loves popcorn, but usually burns it in the microwave.) I followed that up with a simple request. "Keenan wants us to go somewhere with him tomorrow. You know that he NEVER asks us to go anywhere with him, so I really think we should go." Needless, to say, Glenn agreed.
That night he tried several times to get one of us to let out the secret location, but all he got in answer to his question, "Where are we going?" was a single word, "Distance".
The next day we set out bright and early with Glenn posting this on Facebook: " My family is whisking me off to some unknown destination...Should I be happy or worried??? Hey, I still love them!!! "
We had prepared 4 cards, each with a clue inside. Glenn was given one every 30 minutes. When he got the first one he started posting the clues on Facebook as well and friends back home started trying to guess the secret destination.
Kari, my daughter, had prepared the clues and had really gotten creative:
You are in for a mountain of fun!
You won't be the only 10 I see on our anniversary!
This town is a great CANDIDATE for a road trip!
You won't be sawing any logs today, but you will be seeing them!
By the time we got just outside of Clinton, Glenn finally figured it out. He was having just as much fun with the clues as we thought he would have with the trip.
The day was a great one for us all and a much needed rest. Viewing log cabins is not really up Keenan's alley, but I truly think that he got into the whole experience too.
By the end of the day, we had all decided that we definitely need to do something like this again. Rest is one of those things that we can all use more of and it is even better when we get that rest together as a family!
Thanks so much for sharing the details of your special day with us all! What a great way to rest as a family. Visiting from #60 at FMF.
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