February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A few weeks ago Weston signed us up to go on a marriage retreat for Valentine's weekend, we didn't know until a few days before we left that we would be traveling to Dallas, Texas to the Great Wolf Lodge!  We got to the hotel Friday afternoon (after getting lost...) and checked in about 2:00. When you first walk in right by the check in desk there is a huge window so you can see the indoor water park, so immediately the girls got so excited and ran to the window to see all the fun things they could do! Our first Marriage class wasn't until 6:00pm Friday night so that gave us a few hours to head down to the park and have some fun! The girls LOVED it! And it was also fun being a Friday afternoon it wasn't crowded at all, the lodge didn't start getting crazy until late that night.
Friday night Weston and I dropped the girls off in their "classroom", basically just a big playroom with toys and a big t.v., and we headed to our classroom. I wasn't sure what to expect about the marriage retreat but it was actually alot of fun. We started off by the Husbands having to stand up and introduce themselves and then their spouse and stating how long we have been married and one reason why they love us. Alot of wives were embarrassed by what their husbands said, as they did not take it seriously and were making jokes... and there were some really sweet comments made. Is it bad that I don't remember what Weston said about me??? :) I remember one part of it, he said I was the most beautiful girl in the world... hehe...after the introductions we watched a video with Mark Gungor on his book 'Laugh Your Way To A Better Marriage'. The Chaplain is the one who taught the class, and although I had a hard time understanding him through his accent, he did a great job at teaching the class. After our class on Friday night we took the girls to story time...


 This picture cracks me up :) none of them wanted their picture taken...can you tell?


Story time put Abi to sleep...


Violet the Wolf and Amariah


Saturday morning we ate breakfast and headed back to class. This time we started off the class with each spouse taking turns giving a back massage... that part should have lasted longer...who wants a 1 minute back massage??  :)   We only had class from 9-12 and it involved Weston and I filling out worksheets which was pretty eye opening. After we filled out different things we had to look each other in the eyes and tell each other what we wrote. It was really eye opening and I'm glad we had the chance to do that! For lunch we went to get our girls and lunch was catered to us. After lunch we did a thing called MagiQuest! The girls got wands and all throughout the hotel there are clues and pictures and statues and different fun things that will only work with the wands. After playing MagiQuest for a while we took the girls back to the water park, which I got no pictures of...








Saturday night from 6:00-9:30 as part of the marriage retreat we got a "date night". So we dropped the girls off in the big playroom and what did we do??? We got our bathing suits back on and headed back to the water park! Abi was too little to do the big water slides, and Ama was scared to go down all of them, so Weston and I went and did all the water slides! We had a lot of fun just me and him giggling and screaming through all the slides :) yes... Weston screamed too...  After our date night we picked the girls up and went back to story time... this time the girls participated in a game they were doing and answering some questions about Valentine's Day...

Ama said that the colors red and pink are the colors of love.

The question was what animal to you represents love the most. Almost every answer was a kitten or dog, but Abi's answer was Mickey and Minnie Mouse :) I think her answer was the best!

Showing off their prizes for answering their questions!




Army friends!! If you get the opportunity to go on a marriage retreat take advantage of it!! I have heard many wives talk about it and think it's a waste of time... it is not! As far as Fort Hood goes there are several different locations they send you, this particular one was at the Great Wolf Lodge. Almost everything is paid for! We had to pay for our gas there and back and anything extra we wanted while there... like we had a nightly trip to the ice cream shoppe at the lodge :) But as far as meals go we got vouchers to the restaurant in the lodge. It was a lot of fun, the marriage classes were awesome, they were very beneficial and not cheesy at all! We loved it!

Also I wanted to say :) Mark Gungor has a book out, Discovering Your Heart with the Flag Page. I highly encourage you to buy this book! If you don't buy the book, then take the Flag Test, it does cost a small fee, but check it out, www.flagpagetest.com    Weston and I are both doing this test, we both learned a lot about the flag and can't wait to take the test!!

Happy Valentine's Day :)