The Weekend Updates #2

For years we've heard about Cornerstone's all-church retreat through the email updates that Barry sends out. This year was our first year to attend! Heading into the retreat was mixed with emotions...I think most "first" things are for me these days after changing our life's direction.

As I packed for the retreat, I was thinking through our JV conferences and retreats and our "family" time we had there. So many sweet and wonderful memories with dear friends...missing those times and at the same time, looking forward to new "family" times and making new memories! I was making out my list for what our family of five needed to take and the length of list wasn't that much shorter from my list of JV Conference days when it was a 5-6 day trip to this being a 2 1/2 day trip! Felt like a lot of stuff for a little amount of time!

I knew going in there would be teaching & worship times, bonfires at night with smore's, a family night on Saturday and different family events during the day. So much like our JV days! It was fun to wonder in anticipation of what those new events would be like for our family and how we would enjoy being with our new "family" here at Cornerstone.

We were not at all disappointed! It was a joy filled weekend! The Lord even shone down beautiful sunshine on Saturday for us all to enjoy! Annually, there are pinatas for the different age groups. A first for both Abigail and Elijah to take part in! Their age group was 6 and under and Elijah decided he didn't want to participate and Abigail just waited patiently to take her turn.Her hits were so "polite" and sweet! As I watched her, I thought about just how feminine our little 3 (almost 4!) year old girl is. I treasure that about her and that weekend told Joel, "I will be totally happy if Abigail never plays a sport in her life if she stays as sweet and feminine as she is now." She's not the most coordinated when it comes to running or throwing and I am fine with that! She loves dolls, babies, dancing, wearing dresses, looking at herself in the mirror and crafts! She is all girl, created the way God intended for her to be! I love it!!It was fun to watch the kids all scramble to gather the candy and toys that fell out after it was broken open and no, Abigail didn't break it open. : ) It looks like it with these two pictures following each other, but no. Afterward, Elijah played around with the pinata...I didn't get a picture of it, but he ended up sitting inside the car. It was funny.It was so warm, that the pool was open! Elijah borrowed some water wings and was really catching on to swimming with Joel. It was fun to watch. Abigail too, borrowed a blow-up ring and "swam" around in that for a long time all by herself. It was so fun!
The evening program that night was filled with laughter! From the "minute to win-it" games, "Eric Says" with the kids and the Elder's skit...it was a pretty fun evening!
After that, we let the kids stay up a little longer to enjoy their first campfire! They were a little more excited about the glow in the dark necklaces that they got than the actual fire, but it was fun to experience it with them anyway! Becky Boos helped Elijah make his first s'more and although he didn't eat it, he enjoyed it! It will be fun to do that some more this summer!
After all that...Joel and I stayed up way too late playing games with most of the couples with younger kids. It was so, so fun for us!! I think we would've gotten a lot more gaming in if it weren't for all the laughter!! A key moment for me that night was when the high schoolers brought snacks in for us. After 13 years of working with high school students, it felt so strange for me to be the one sitting at a table, playing games and having them bringing me snack food!! : ) For more pictures, or to see some videos from the family night, click here.