1. There are 53 pictures in this post. You have been warned.
2. The only reason I’m blogging so quickly after the trip is because my children will not let me sleep, and at least this way I can sit down. My wonderful husband is cleaning up after dinner. I am sooooooo bushed.
Friday I had all the kiddos as my house, so I used Laura’s morning nap time to pack as quickly as I could! Natalie and Ray were very happy to watch a show on Netflix, but James wanted to “help” me. :)
Thankfully, Laura had a pretty good nap, and I was able to get all packed!
Matt got home a bit early and took over for me for the last hour of the day. Lisa and Candice came and picked me up and we headed out! The drive over was pretty gross with traffic, but we made it in pretty good time.
The sun was in a perfect spot for some pictures when we arrived, but I only snapped one {and of the parking lot, no less} before going to put our stuff away in the room.
The weekend was centered around Proverbs 31.
My bed for a couple of nights!
When I got home Natalie asked me if my bed was pretty. {I can always count on that girl to have her priorities in order!} I’m glad I had a picture to show her.
After I put my things away, I wandered for just a bit before dinner. The beautiful sunlight was gone, but the light was still alright for pictures.
I set my camera on the ramp, pointing up. It’s a pretty good illustration of depth of field. My aperture was pretty wide open, and you can see only a sliver of the ramp was in focus. :)
I used the timer on this one, but I couldn’t manage to get myself (the black stripe in the middle of the top) in focus since I didn’t want to lay on the ground and attempt to manual focus on thin air. Let’s call it artsy.
Pretty sunset. Here I metered for the foreground, and you can see the parking lot, grass, and some trees.
For this one, I metered to expose for the sky, and that put everything in front in a silhouette. Pretty!
I forgot to take a picture of my dinner {who am I?!}, but I did take some pictures of some friends!
And decorations.
Gotta love a big yellow pouf!
The ballroom had big chandeliers. One of my favorite things to do with lights is photograph them out of focus with my aperture wide open so I get little perfect circles of light.
It is, as far as I can tell, a pretty useless thing to enjoy doing. But I love it!
We sang some praise songs, and one required a lot of motions and moving around. I hid behind my camera. :)
THESE TWO! Don’t you believe their solemn faces for a minute. That’s all I’m saying. :)
I used my “bling” as a lanyard for my nametag. It was quite effective for me!
Seeing my little jacket reminds me of how very cold it was in that room (where we spent many hours) the whole weekend. I purposefully changed up my packing plan when I realized it was going to be in the 70’s so I wouldn’t have sweaters and boots. I really wanted those sweaters and boots though!
We spent some time stretching a few times over the weekend, and it felt excellent!
Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law “gettin' their groove on.”
Kendra put a little ‘tude in hers.
I tried to go to bed pretty early on Friday night, but it took a long time for me to fall asleep. And I woke up a ton and slept rather restlessly. It’s pretty typical for me to have trouble sleeping the first night in a strange place. Pair that with forgetting my thyroid pill the next morning, and I’m a hot mess right now. Ha!
BUT, this delicious breakfast made me very happy Saturday morning!
Bible app, notebook, and pen – all ready for our first session!
At some point I took a few minutes to talk to Matt and the kids. I was actually sitting on one of those concrete parking things – here are my feet and shadow. :)
Another time I wandered over to this pretty little area and attempted a self portrait with the timer. I problem with the timer if there aren’t other people in the shot is that you sort of have to guess where to focus. :) So I’m a tad blurry.
I was looking out this way. The building in the center of the shot is where we were staying. It was lovely.
I forgot to take a picture of lunch (again?!), but I remembered at cheesecake time. Now, I’m a cheesecake purist, so I had to scrape off all the strawberry goo. Thankfully there was till plenty of delicious left!
I drank a few cups of tea and hot chocolate over the weekend to help keep me warm.
At some point during our free time I went and laid on a picnic bench outside get fully thawed. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the trees overhead. I know you are all on the edge of your seat. :)
It was very peaceful.
Back up at the main building.
The roommates:
Our table at dinner last night – pretty!
Kim and Courtney:
A very pretty salad:
All these pictures just go to show the day was LONG!
The communion table last night:
And because I can’t help myself:
These ladies all led a session or helped in some way like that. Yay!
Having communion…
Lindsay (above in pink) was our speaker for the weekend. She had her cutie pie baby along (with his grandma to help out). She gave excellent talks this weekend!
Kendra and Jane:
Last night I slept better, but thanks to all of our girl chat, for a much much shorter time. :)
I didn’t take many pictures this morning; too busy I guess! Sola Gratia came up to sing for our morning worship service. Six of us were at the retreat already, but the rest got up early to join us. We sang a few songs and there was an ensemble and two solos to accompany Judy’s sermon. I thought it was a lovely service and an excellent way to end the retreat.
And so it was time to go!
Candice and Kendra:
Shaun and Lisa (sorry for the washed out faces ladies, it was bright!)
Theresa (and a few SG ladies behind her)
When we drove in, I thought this way was very pretty, but I never did walk all the way over to take a picture. Lisa stopped for me on the way out though.
It was an excellent weekend, and I’m very glad I got to go! I think timing-wise it may have been a bit much. I should probably have scheduled myself a day off or something, but… oh well!
I’m super happy to be home and with my family. I missed them! And I’m planning to go to bed at 9:00 and sleep all the way through to 6:30. Here’s hoping!
No comments:
Post a Comment