Weekend Retreat

We spent the weekend at White Sulphur Springs.  My parents' OCF/chapel group had their annual retreat, so we joined them.  It was a lovely weekend, as usual.

Saturday was a beautiful day, weather-wise, and the kids ran around all over the place.  The girls and little boys did some bowling, and then Anna, Micah, and I had to use the bathroom, so we headed over to the old hotel.  Afterward, Anna and Micah were playing on the wagon in front, and I got to thinking how we always used to get a family picture taken on the wagon.  I think the last one we have is when Grace was a baby.  At that point, I was determined to get a family wagon picture this year.

Of course, the weather was not so cooperative on Sunday.  It rained right after lunch, and then Drew was really crabby, so I put him down for a nap.  Then I walked the girls and Micah down to the rock-climbing wall in the barn.  Eventually all the other boys showed up at the climbing wall, so after the rock-climbing was over, I hiked back up to the new hotel to wake up Drew and track down Bob.  We drove back down because I was dripping with sweat, lol.  It was still humid up in the mountains!  I was very happy to get my family wagon picture.

After the picture, we poked around the old hotel some.  The boys remember staying there, but the girls don't really remember it much.  I of course have fantastic memories from my summers working up there, so it has a very special place in my heart!

One of the other couples from the retreat was looking around too, and the husband was flipping through an old scrapbook out on the coffee table.  On the very first page, he was surprised to recognize Bob!  And then we were both surprised to see that a picture of me was right below it, from a different year!  So fun!  My friend Emily (the one on the left in the picture) said she put the scrapbook together, so we'll just say she was inspired to include our pictures like that!

When we got done, Nathan and Luke were involved in a game of horseshoes, but during a break, I was able to take a picture of all the boys (not that I could get them all to look at the same time).  I have to treasure times when everyone is all together, because I know those times are going to be rarer and rarer!

So we had a wonderful weekend, which made it all the harder to come back today and jump right back into our 2 co-ops, which kicked off today.  I'm sure heaven will be like White Sulphur Springs, just with no looming threat of school!