Our big West Virginia vacation.

While Aunt Katie was sitting in California wishing my new cousin would just be born already, we jumped in the car and drove to West Virginia.

In case you didn't know, my dad's whole family is from West Virginia. We went back to see where my GG and GG came from. This is the exact place that my GG Parsons was born.

The house that he was born in was no longer there in Olcott, WV, but GG remembered that one of the neighbors lined up old Volkwagons on the mountain behind the house. And wouldn't you know, one of them was still there.

Back in my GG's time, Olcott was was a booming mining town with company stores, a movie theater, and beer joints. It's not quite as booming anymore.

Next we went to GG's high school.

It was later a junior high and then a VFW hall.

West Virginia was very pretty this time of year.

Finally, we went to Rabel mountain to see the last Parsons home. After my GGG (Great-Great Grandpa) decided to quit mining, he moved up here with his family. This farm is where they raised my GG, his 8 little sisters and little brother.

Here are 9 out of the 10 Parsons kids.

Can you believe my GGG and GGG raised 10 kids in this little house? Makes our house seem enormous!

I loved hanging out with Aunt Girl all weekend.

Here's a back view of the green house. You can see the gray bathroom that got added in 1965. (Na-ma said there was water in the kitchen before that.) Also, you can see the extra room out back that GGG built for the girls when they became teenagers.

When it got cold and dark outside, we headed inside for some more fun.

Inside, I met another online celebrity- my second cousin (once removed!)- Delia. (You can see her blog at deliamorgan.blogspot.com) She was tons of fun.

Later, we both got pretty tired and took a rest.

Great great Aunt Janice helped my take a picture of George.

And finally, I understood what they were talking about when they say "kissing cousins." Luckily, dad assured me that in West Virginia, this wasn't illegal. I don't know how Delia's daddy felt about it, though.

Even though we spent about 30 hours in the car, the weekend was great. Thanks to Great great Aunt Joann and Uncle Dean for letting us stay at their house. (Mom was sick, so we forgot to take any pictures.) Thanks to my GG and GG for showing me around where they grew up. Aunt Lester, we were sorry to miss you this weekend!

And the fun didn't stop in WV! On the way back home, we stopped in Wheelersburg, Ohio and saw the house that my papa was born in. We also got to see the apartments that my Na-ma and Paw-paw were living in before they met each other and finally we headed to Portsmouth to see the Ramada Inn where Paw-paw asked my Na-ma to dance and ended up with a wife. (More importantly, it's the same bar where Na-ma met Dolly Parton! I don't know which is luckier!)

Finally, for those of you following along, Aunt Katie wet to the hospital last night and they promised that she wouldn't leave without a baby. So far, no baby. We'll let you know when we hear anything new!