Ministers & Mates Retreat

This past weekend was the NY District Minister and Mates Retreat. 

We were excited to be able to attend!

Before we left, I snapped a picture of this cute boy….

Nik was giving Jaxen a “thumbs up” and Jaxen was imitating him. 

Kind of. Ha ha!

He could not get his thumbs up, only his fingers.

We asked a girl who has babysat Jaxen before 

(and every other child in the church and who came highly recommended) 

if she would stay at our house for the weekend and keep Jaxen. 

She agreed! (She went to college this fall, but drove home to help us out this weekend).

So thankful!

So Friday afternoon, we took off to Western New York, 

and enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way. 

Guess where our retreat was?

The Beaver Hollow Biggest Loser Conference Center.

I thought that was pretty cool!

We arrived just in time for dinner and then we had our first session with a guest speaker. 

After the session we had time to visit with other couples.

There was a campfire with s'mores and an area to play games or sit and visit.

Saturday morning started bright and early with a walk by the lake on our way to breakfast. 

It is hard to see really well in the pics, but there was steam coming

off the lake…and it was beautiful! Such a pretty area for a weekend retreat.

After breakfast, session 2 and lunch we had some free time!

So we took off with some friends and explored the conference center, played bocce ball, 

tennis and even took the paddle boats out on this gorgeous lake.

After that we went to check out their Fitness Village…

which included an amazing pool, some other work out rooms and this gym - look familiar?! 

After passing this wooded area and seeing the colored leaves all over the ground,

we decided that a hike would be nice. Little did we know that our “little” hike would turn out

to be a couple hours long in which we went on every trail they had (we got lost)!

photo credit: Chad

photo credit: Chad

After a very tiring free-time :) we had dinner, session 3 and then some more free time

 that evening at the campfire or in the lobby area.

Sunday we had breakfast and then closed with the last service and lunch.

And then we headed home!

photo credit: Chad

Although we did not have a weekend of completely free time…it was still nice to get away. 

It was nice to not be responsible (at a job, the house or as a parent) for a full 48 hours.

And it was really nice for the ministerial staff of our church to spend time (away from church)

together - laughing and getting to know each other even more.

I am grateful for the opportunity to attend this retreat and for the time away with Nik.

photo credit: Chad