I just read the article, “First person: Blessings from family vacations” in the July 30 issue of The Baptist Paper. I thought about our family experience.
When my four children were young, my job required frequent travel. I decided it would be good to take the family with me when it was possible and the location would be interesting/educational for them.
We visited Boston, Washington, New York City, Orlando and other cities. We walked the Freedom Trail and experienced Niagara Falls, the brand-new Disney World theme park, Kennedy Space Center and many other attractions.
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Those trips included visits to churches (usually Baptist) in the various cities or along the highway if we were traveling on Sunday. All were special blessings.
In 1973, my wife and I decided to attend a Sunday School teachers conference at what was then the Glorieta Baptist conference center in New Mexico. As part of the trip, we included the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater and Grand Canyon.
In 1984, my wife, our youngest son and I took my dad to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to celebrate his 85th birthday and his first great grandson’s first birthday. We visited Pike’s Peak, Royal Gorge, Mesa Verde, Four Corners and Grand Canyon on the trip.
Fast forward to the year 2001. The four children are adults. Three are married, and there were five grandchildren. They lived in Florida, Virginia and Mississippi. We decided to have a family Thanksgiving in Gatlinburg. We rented two adjacent cabins, and it was a fantastic time of family bonding. We have continued that every other year since.
Four generations together
In 2023, we celebrated with 28 people — four generations — in three cabins in Pigeon Forge. There have been three exceptions to the Thanksgiving gathering. When my wife and I celebrated our 50th (2007) and 60th (2017) wedding anniversaries, we met in the Smokies in May. In 2021, we celebrated our daughter’s 40th wedding anniversary at Disney World in August.
In 2025, our number was down because my wife and one son-in-law’s dad had passed and our daughter-in-law’s mother is in a nursing home. This month, 12 of us will visit Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We have reserved cabins in Pigeon Forge for 2027.
Family vacations build on the love God intended families to enjoy across the generations.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This letter was submitted by Sidney Sumrall Sumrall, Mississippi.
