More on the marriage retreat/our weekend

If you didn't read my last post, you might want to click here first.

The marriage retreat was a huge success! Many couples took the time to personally thank us and share what they learned or liked about the retreat and we definitely left there knowing marriages were renewed. Praise God!

We returned yesterday afternoon and pretty much crashed on the couch. It was such a beautiful day outside that I hated to lay around, but my body and mind kept telling me to stay put. To our surprise, we didn't even have to cook dinner. My daughter and her boyfriend came home from the store with food to cook for the whole family. It was a wonderful dinner and we really appreciated their thoughtfulness!!

Back to the retreat. The first day was probably my favorite. I really didn't expect them to be so engaged in the training, but they were and it really showed. On Saturday, right before the training ended, we had them use some of the tools they had learned. We asked them to face each other and tell their spouse one thing they would like to see them work on, then they had to repeat what they heard and then the other person did the same thing. It wasn't easy for some of them, but it was so exciting to watch many of them take a step forward in their relationship and experience the rewards of working to better their marriage. If there was one thing we tried to get across to them, it was the benefits of communication - proper communication - and to see them actually benefit from using those tools was so rewarding to us.

Another blessing was to get some family-time ourselves. Our daughter wasn't able to go, but the twins were and they had a blast learning how to skim-board. It's a pretty cool thing. They even got dad to try it, and I just have to post the pictures of his first time on the board. The story goes like this. "Hey dad, try this..." (The twins explain how)

And off he goes! (You throw the board out in front of you and then you run to jump on.) But, he ends up stepping too close to the front and...Well...you'll get what happens from the picture below...

Typically we miss capturing funny moments like this, but not today! We laughed and laughed and are still laughing...

But wait...

He actually lands it! On his feet...on the board!!! I made a little PowerPoint presentation to show our couples Sunday morning, and we laughed some more. It was a wonderful weekend, and spending it ministering alongside my husband was such a blessing to me. I can't wait for the next one! Here's a few cute pictures of the twins from the weekend...

They LOVED skim-boarding and had so much fun! Even though the water was FREEZING, they played for hours. On Saturday night we built a fire near the ocean and they'd board a while, warm by the fire a while, and head back out (with sweat shirts on, hoping they didn't fall). It's so fun to watch them having fun. And, for anyone wondering, no I didn't try it. The water was way too cold for me. I did get in up to my ankles though - not because I wanted to, but because I wanted to get close enough to take pictures and talk with some of the couples out in the water a little ways. The few times the water rolled in quickly and caught me by surprise, reaching almost to my knees, I thought I might pass out. It was that cold!