Family Retreat Weekend

This past weekend was our church's annual Family Retreat at Lake Louise Methodist Camp. While he was on the middle school UMYF ski trip, my husband was talked in to going. I wasn't too sure about it, but said ok. So we signed up. The camp has dormitories for men and women and also has semi-private rooms. They generally like to keep the semi-private rooms for families with small children, and it was our luck that one was still available. So, once the information for the weekend arrived, we paid for our room, made arrangements to kennel the dog, and rounded up the necessities.

Kevin had to take the dog to the vet's after lunch on Friday. I kept telling Bo that he was going on vacation to the doggy hotel, but it didn't make him feel any better. Kevin told me that as soon as the nurse at the vet's came toward Bo with the blue leash they use to take dogs back to the kennel, he took off for the door. He even refused the treat Kevin tried to give him.

Kevin got home from work at 5:00 and we were on the road by 5:30. We couldn't have asked for worse weather to be travelling in. It was incredibly foggy, getting thicker the further north we went. We stopped to eat around 6:15 (and waited in line for more than 10 minutes.....Wendy's continually redefines what "fast" food means) and were back on the road at 7:00. When we hit Gaylord, not only were we driving through pea soup fog, but then we got snow added in to the mix, as well. It was slow going, and we ended up driving past the camp on the first try, but we made it there in one piece. The rest of the evening was spent getting settled in, doing some crafty projects, and general socializing.

The semi-private room was not too bad. We had walls and a door, two beds, another bed in a loft, and our own sink. Unfortunately, you could hear a lot of noise...people slamming down the hall, kids screaming in other rooms, things like that. It would have annoyed me even if it was just me it was bothering, but it made trying to get Alison to bed (something that's difficult, at best, any night in a new place) nearly impossible. I put her down at 10 and laid down on my bed and she was still awake when Kevin came in at 11. She did finally go to sleep shortly after that. Amazingly enough, she was wide awake at 7:00 the next morning. To bad we weren't.

Breakfast went off without a hitch. Afterwards, we played a game where we counted off into small groups, took off our shoes, threw them in a pile, were blindfolded and then had to find our shoes and put them back on. After that, we had a bible study. There's nothing like trying to keep an active toddler quiet and in one spot. Alison eventually made her way all the way down to the other end of the room where the minister's kids, and their toys, were. When she got loud, Kevin grabbed her and tooke her into the dining room and let her run around in there until we were done. They came back just as we were singing again and Alison got loose, walked over to the coffee table in front of the minister and the two other men who were playing guitar and just stood there dancing and "directing" the music. She put on quite a show and everyone thought she was "soooo cute." From there we had family time until lunch. I took Alison back to our room to play with her toys (and settle down a little) and Kevin went to the store.

After lunch came the fight to get Alison to take a nap. It took almost 20 minutes, but she eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep for nearly 3 hours! Kevin and I were supposed to man the craft tables for the afternoon, but there wasn't anyone there to do crafts, because almost everyone headed out to go sledding or to one of the ski places to go tubing. We spent the afternoon playing games until Alison got up and then we went out for a walk. We weren't able to get very far because there was a lot of snow. Very deep snow. At one point, I stepped slightly off the side of the cross country ski trail and ended up almost thigh deep in snow. It didn't help that I had Alison in the backpack. I was able to get my leg out of the snow, but re-pulled a muscle in my other thigh in the process. :(

After supper, we got bundled up again and headed out for a "hike." We didn't go very far, just followed the plowed trail, but we ended up at the bonfire and stood around singing songs while others roasted marshmallows for s'mores. I was good and didn't eat any. I figured it would be better to give up s'mores at the campfire in favor of an ice cream sundae later. :)

Once we got back from the hike, we attempted to get Alison ready for bed. We had no access to a bathtub, or even a deep sink, so we just tried to wash her hair in the sink (to get the food of the day out of it) and then wipe the rest of her off with a wet washcloth. She screamed the entire time Kevin washed her hair, and then, I guess to show him how mad she was, she pee'd and pooped all over her towel while he was washing off the rest of her.

After we got the mess cleaned up and Alison was in her jammies, we headed back to the dining room to watch the square dancing. They had really gone all out and had gotten a real square dance caller to come in and teach everyone who was interested how to square dance. Alison loved the music, so Kevin and I took turns dancing around with her for a while. Then it was time for her to go to bed. She went down amazingly easily that time. I stood outside the door for a few minutes to make sure she wouldn't start screaming and wake the other babies up, but she was fine. I went back and had my ice cream. I watched Kevin play a game for a little while and then, when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, I went to bed.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we had a nice, simple, worship service. Of course, we ran into that little problem of trying to keep and active toddler quiet and in one place again. It didn't work any better than Saturday morning, so Kevin and I took turns playing in the meeting room with her. After service it was time to make up a sack lunch and get packed up and ready to go. We had the option of staying through lunch, but we decided that since most everyone was leaving before lunch, we'd do the same. In hindsight, we should have waited until after lunch. Alison ended up sleeping almost the entire way home, so she had no need to take a nap in the afternoon.

Overall, I think we all had a good time. Alison loved having the big, huge dining room area to run around in, even if she did walk into a wall once. They already have the date for next year's retreat set. Depending on what's going on in our family at that time, we'll probably plan on attending.