Retreating

The Teams

Last weekend, Ross and I were able to sneak out of town for our ABF retreat. Ross' parents graciously flew in to stay with Luke while we were gone. It was even Grams' birthday and she still was ok watching an almost two year old to celebrate it! :)
We rolled out of Dallas Friday afternoon after a yummy lunch at Angry Dog. That was one of my favorite places to eat when I worked at Rfx, so it was a treat having my oh so healthy chicken fried steak sandwich and fries...and side of gravy. We got to Lindale around 4 and met up with the Bortzfields and Hewes to set up. That took all of 40 minutes, so we had lots of time to visit and watch the fellas play frisbee. Our rooms were cleaner and more kept up than I anticipated, but there was a bit of a musty odor. Thankfully the weather was awesome, so we were able to "air" out the smell. The Havards were shortly behind us and we all rode into Lindale and picked up dinner. We had a late night of fun games... I love Hoopla, and waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. It was a late night, but loads of fun and thankfully we didn't get started until 9:30 the next morning.
Chris did an awesome message for us on "3 questions for a frantic family." It really helped us solidify our family motto, as well as a short term (2-6 month) goal for our family. After this goal is met, then we re-evaluate and change our goal. Right now our goal is establishing a weekly family devotional night. This has been thrown on the table many times, but with a plan in place I think it's going to work much better this time. We just know as children get older that a scheduled night together is going to be pretty important, so we wanted to start now.
We had an Amazing Race theme, and each team did awesome giving it their all. We had a scavenger hunt Sunday morning and Ross and I totally thought it would take minimum 30 minutes, probably more like 45, because it took people all over the camp, back and forth. After seeing Eric Tredemeyer peel out of the parking lot like a bird on fire though, it was no surprise that Team Tredemeyer placed 1st and went home with a lovely Target gift card. I told him to go ahead and hand it over to Kristen. Time: 15 minutes, shows what we know.
We had such a great time though. We really got to know some couples that aren't in our small group and just got to have so much fun chatting and relaxing by some awesome fires....thanks to a small book of matches. Ross and I really appreciated our family for coming in to watch Luke, as much as we love him, it was such a blessing to have time just the two of us for a couple of days. It reminded us how much fun we have together.
So thanks to everyone who helped plan, we missed you Johnsons, and to those who made it out, even though it was hard to leave little ones! We had so much fun...we'll start planning next year in about 3 weeks!

The view from our rooms.

It twas Amazing! Thanks Fergs for all the signs by the way!!

The Gameboard
Maren did a great job with the bags for each couple.
The boys lighting the fire...Ross is supervising?
And the whole reason to even have a fire...SMORES! We had a fire outside too, but it was blowing like a tornado, so we chose the more controled flames.
The Final Countdown



Ross putting on his poker face, and hat. To play dominoes.
Jimmy taking things a little seriously. We really wanted him to lighten up this trip.
Maybe next year.
The official term "spinner sponge."

Kristen humoring me as I'm trying to get her to give me clues when my cards are coming in a fierce game of spoons. I almost killed Jimmy during this game, but to no advantage,
Eric won the final spoon.

A fierce game, but one of the best!

I heart Valentine's Day!

We had such a sweet Valentine's this year! It began Thursday with school parties. They were so much more low key than Christmas parties, but just as much fun. My kids loved decorating their mailboxes and "distributing" their Valentines, which I could tell took a lot of time and consideration when picking. I got some yummy treats...which I enjoy, but do not need in the least!
Friday we went to Avery's house for the party she and Rachel were hosting. What a great time to be had by all! They did such a great job. Everything was decorated with pink and red and many hearts! There were centers set up with different activities: card making, cookie decorating, secret messages, and color sorting! Luke loved decorating his card for Dad and did really well gluing and sticking hearts on. There was lots of love shown on his card! Sadly, my camera did not make the trip...I was so bummed! I almost went home and got it, but decided we didn't want to be late for the fun. That evening we had lots of family and friends over for Valentine's dinner. My parents were in town and my brother and Lauren :) came over, along with the Matthews and sweet Mia!! We ate too much and then went bowling over at Allen Bowl for a jolly good time. I bowled a 96, which is really good for me...I'm usually in the 50 range. Saturday all loaded up and headed to Oklahoma for a Valentine's wedding. My grandmother (on my dad's side) was getting married to her sweetheart Jack. It was at my aunt's ranch and was a sweet event. Plus we always enjoy getting to see our family...good times to be had. We came home that night and crashed! Sunday was a more relaxing day and we got to visit with my parents a little more. Bonus Valentine's gift was Ross having Monday off from work! I loved having him home today, even though it was filled with many "tasks" it was fun to do them together. So it wasn't a typical Valentine's this year, but we loved it and We Love You!!