the weekend {girl's retreat edition}

This weekend was so much fun!  I spent it with a good bit of my favorite people ever, and after two good nights' sleep, I am finally feeling a little bit recovered.  Here's what went on:

My friend Missy picked me up at 2:45 Friday afternoon, and after loading a ridiculous amount of stuff for only one night away, we left my house and went to the church to pack some last minute supplies.  These are our excited faces that we were finally there!  It's beautiful out at this campground that's only a twenty minute drive from home.  It's called The Grove at Red Oak Lake.  If you're from around these parts, it used to be called Camp Cordova.

We helped unload some things, we had to figure out registration things, then we went to our cabin to claim our beds and to make them up, then met back up to pray before the girls started arriving.

It was almost dark when the girls started arriving.

We checked them all in, then told them their cabin assignments, then met back up for dinner.  After dinner was worship and session one.

The theme of the retreat was I Am.  As in God, who calls Himself The I Am to Moses.  Friday night was all about Who God is~what He calls Himself in a passage from Exodus and Who He is to us.  Abbey taught and did a phenomenal job.  I know it wasn't her, but God at work within her.  After session one, we had a game planned for them~life sized foosball.  Why yes, that is a thing.

It was absolutely hilarious to watch our adult leaders participate in this and ONE PERSON (ahem, Cathy Phillips) is EXTREMELY competitive and almost took down a couple of girls.  She is the one in the picture above, in the Alabama sweatshirt.

After this game, we had a bonfire, and when our girls said they wanted to go back to the cabin, we left the bonfire as well.  Missy and I had a little something up our sleeves for them, and our friend Renee got in on it.

Renee is in the monkey suit.  This was after we scared the daylights out of them (and a couple more times after that).  We took the monkey back to the bonfire and scared a few more girls, then went back to our cabin for the night.

We ate some snacks that we'd all brought with us, then we talked some before finally turning in sometime after midnight.  They all slept, though I didn't much, and we were up by six on Saturday.  I had quiet time on my bed, but we also had a scheduled quiet time later in the morning after group pictures and breakfast.

 I sat under the gazebo and gazed out at the view while I prayed.  After this we had session two, and my friend Sunday (our youth pastor's wife) taught on who we are in Christ Jesus.  All of the sessions were wonderful and so, so rich in content and Scripture.  We had a small break, and I had to make a run back to my cabin, made more fun by my friend Renee driving me on the golf cart.

See?  So much fun.  This one is crazy.  And so much fun to be with!

Here are our girls.

Aren't they beautiful?

I adore them!

Session three was my favorite and we did it as grades with the girls and the leaders.  We had a little time of blessing them and then we prayed for them individually.  The blessing was something that we told them God had given them (certain characteristics or spiritual gifts), then we gave them a challenge, then we prayed.  We all cried like babies.

Right after this last session, I had to pack up and leave.  Sweet Emma had an All West choir performance and I rode with her mom Laurie to go listen.

This is Emma and Emily.  Also not pictured is a sweet girl named Anna, who is also in the choir.  It was a beautiful performance!  We only almost fell asleep twice.

I was glad to be back home!  But we had no water in the house, because we had another leak, this time in the downstairs bathroom.  That was repaired fairly quickly, and Todd went to ride with the sheriff's department that night.  Noah made us a yummy dinner for him, Jonah, Alex and me, Graham went to a speaking event with Jason (their youth pastor) and Drew went to Emma's house for dinner and a movie.

They played outside and I watched Christmas movies until falling asleep in my recliner.  We had church yesterday (best sermon ever!), then we came home for lunch and a nap (me) and some coffee, then I was back at the church by three for choir practice.  Last night I watched another Christmas movie until Todd got home from church, and I was in bed by ten.

I am feeling much less tired and less sore (my everything ached), and I am looking forward to a quiet and laid back day.  The only thing on my to do list is Costco.

Happy Monday to you!  Love to all.