Retreatin'

Over the past several years, Jon and I have gone on many trips and retreats with the youth group at church, and we have always arranged for someone to come stay with our kids or for our kids to go to someone's house. We just want to make sure that we are going to spend time with the teens, not use up all of our time taking care of babies/kids.

The weekend after we returned from Honduras, however, was the last big retreat that we will get to do with the youth group and we had just spent a solid month with the kids. We didn't want to ask family to come watch them, and we didn't want to just leave them, so we decided they were big enough to take.

They did GREAT!!! They sat quietly during the quiet times, and they played like big kids during the playing times. They slept great in the bunk rooms, and they had a ton of fun! We got several compliments on how well-behaved they were, especially how they sat quietly during the worship times. I was SO proud of them! One thing's for sure, though, this is a definite sign that they're growing up!!

On the bus ride there...they had talking to the teens and playing their Leapsters...
During one of the class times for the teenagers I took the kids out by the campground's lake. They had fun walking around on the dock and then playing on this huge muddy hill. I cringed at first, but hey, they're just kids, right?! And clothes will wash. Mostly clean.

We were supposed to be playing "Mud Football." The kids were super excited about this and we brought special clothes just for them to get muddy and gross. When we got to the field, though, it turned out that it was just going to be "Wet and Cold Football." They were a little bummed, but they still had fun squirting each other with the hose and getting wet on this wonderful 50 degree day!