This past weekend I had the chance to attend my church’s women’s retreat at Lakeview Retreat & Conference Center in Federal Way. It was the shortest distance I’ve ever had to travel to attend a retreat which was kind of nice. It was a great chance to get refreshed by spending time with the ladies from church and encouraging one another in the Lord. The theme for our retreat was “Lord, Set Our Hearts On Fire” and our guest speaker was Christie Rayburn. Christie is host and co-producer of Marriage Uncensored. Christie walked us through the book of II Timothy chapters 1-4 and was a great encouragement to us. I personally came away with a renewed desire to focus on the condition of my heart and not worry so much about the externals of how I might look to others. As Jesus told the Pharisee in Matthew 23:26, “clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean”.
I’m also happy to say that the silent auction that we held on Saturday evening raised enough money to pay for almost three full tuitions for kids to go to summer camp this year. I’m also excited that one of the auction items was a photo session with me. Angie – I’m so looking forward to capturing some wonderful portraits of you and your family!
The indirect benefit of going away for the weekend is that Chris had a chance for some intense and concentrated daddy time with our three kids which both he and the kids love. It sounds like they were pretty busy with Saturday being spent at Woodland Park Zoo followed up with a picnic dinner and some good story time at night. When I returned on Sunday the kids were outside enjoying the castle and village that dad had created for them on the patio with his talented sidewalk chalk art. They even pointed out the horses that dad drew for them. Adam’s was a war horse of course and had a knight with a lance riding it. Kelsey and Clara’s horses were purple and pink and had long flowing manes. Unfortunately the Sunday afternoon rain washed it all away but that just means they can draw a brand new adventure next weekend.
Although I tried to limit the amount of time that my camera was out of the bag so as not to bother the ladies too much, I did manage to grab a few candids of our time together. Below are a few of them to enjoy. I went with my favorite b&w for most although the first one, I had to go “Old Skool” since it just seemed to match with the wood paneling. Looks like it was taken in the 1970s, doesn’t it?
