Last weekend James and I went on a retreat with the chapel we go to here on post(base). We went to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort again (we spent my birthday weekend there) and again practically paid nothing for it! The chapel supported all that went, 50+ people and for couples it was only $20, crazy cheap for pretty much a 4 star hotel/resort place!!
Three of the five chaplains we have went on the retreat with us and kind of "directed" things, Chaplain Jackson (James' Battalion's chaplain), Chaplain Keough (the one that James and I both really enjoy) and Chaplain Chang (he's a Presbyterian, hehe). They had three different classes to choose from, Intimacy in Marriage (chaplain Keough and his wife Amy), The Five Love Languages (chaplain Jackson and his wife Heather), and a class for spouses who's husband/wife is deployed (chaplain Chang and his wife, not sure what her name is).
James and I picked the Marriage one 'cause we really like Chaplain Keough, he's hilarious! Anyways, there were only two sessions for the weekend, one on Friday evening and one on Saturday morning. Friday's was a group thing, everyone was in one room and Chaplain Keough and his wife Amy went through the book His Needs, Her Needs (great book btw) and touched on the five most important needs of Him and Her, five needs for him and five needs for her. Amy took the wives and Pete (CH. Keough) took the husbands. If you haven't read the book I definitely recommend both you and your spouse to read it and talk (really talk about it afterwards, good stuff! Anyways, it was a good session and they gave us "homework" for the evening, which was basically pick your top three needs, write them down, and share them with your spouse. James and I found that we were already meeting the top three for each other so it was more of a reminder to continue in our actions, yay for us! ;D
Alright so the second session, Saturday morning, just the marriage group this time, was good too. It was more of the same from the evening before but focused more on the differences between men and women and letting each side know that's how the other operates and to keep that in mind when dealing with each other in every situation. It was a really great retreat.
James and I walked away from it with a better understanding of each other as well as a better appreciation for each other, good stuff! We had a lot of free time during the weekend and there is a really pretty lake (the Eibsee Lake) near the resort that had lots of walking trails around it, so James and I decided to go for a walk and take some pictures (not many). You can also swim in this lake but it was a little too cold for that while we were there. But it's BEAUTIFUL! Mountains surround it and the water is crystal clear with a greenish blue color, very calming.
At the resort the have both a pool and the biggest hot tub I've ever seen. So we took advantage of both. It was kinda funny, we started off in the hot tub, keep in mind the hot tub is outside and the pool is indoors right next to the hot tub. So right, we started off in the hot tub, we were in there for a while, then both of us got too hot and decided to get in the pool. The pool water was a nice temperature so it wasn't a shock to our bodies. We got bored of the pool (and the dad and little boy that kept following us from each) and decided to go back outside to the hot tub, forgetting that it was cold outside and that we had just come from a slightly cooled pool, yea, it was COLD!! Needless to say we raced to the hot tub and practically jumped in to warm ourselves up! It was fun though and we were pooped by the end of the retreat, good times!
I love and miss you guys tons!!
