As I promised...

...here are the photos from our pastor's retreat. We had a blast & are definitely planning to make it an annual thing! (And, yes, I did survive being away from my kids, but I was so happy to see them again!)

We rented a guest house in Lancaster & were able to just relax & spend some time having fun together. We arrived there around 4 p.m. on Monday. After checking the place out & fighting over who got the room with the bunk beds (it had a double on the bottom), we decided to go to Shady Maple for supper. For those of you who have never been, Shady Maple has the largest buffet you have ever seen in your life! It was delicious! After we ate, we headed back to the guest house & played an exciting game of Cranium. The guys beat us soundly, but I think Marie provided us with enough entertainment while acting out "Titanic" & "earthquake" that it more than made up for our loss. ;-) We laughed SO hard! After finally finishing our game, we decided to go to Waffle House for a milkshake (Marie was sure they would have them) - but there were no milkshakes & we settled for hashbrowns & chocolate pie. We slept in a little on Tuesday morning, then went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Then, Marie, Christina & I went shopping at the outlets while the guys went back to the guest house to "solve the world's problems" - or just have a planning session. I'm not exactly sure how much they accomplished, but we got lots of bargains! That afternoon, we went to see "In The Beginning" at Sight & Sound. As usual, it was an incredibly well-done & moving performance. Afterwards, we went home & Jeff grilled steaks for us for supper. We played a good game of Rook (yay! Christina & I beat Jeff & Matt) and then decided to try to play a trick on Jim & Marie, who had already gone to bed. SO... we drew a face on a paper plate, taped it to a bucket on the end of a broom, tied a towel around its "head" & added Christina's glasses for a finishing touch. Then, the guys climbed out through Matt & Christina's bathroom window onto the porch roof and held the "bucket man" in front of Jim & Marie's window and began rapping on the glass. Unfortunately, our plan kind of fell through because Marie refused to look out the window when she heard them knocking on it. Instead, she came out into the hall where Christina & I were standing & wanted to know what the guys were doing outside the window. Oh well.... Wednesday morning we ate breakfast @ Waffle House (in case you were wondering, some members of our group REALLY love Waffle House!), did a little more shopping @ the outlets & then headed home. We had a lot of fun & are really looking forward to doing it again next year!

The favored restaurant - Waffle House

Us with Mr. Buckethead

Our idea of a good time is blog surfing together! ;-)

At Sight & Sound

What on earth? Is she paying homage to something/someone?

Huh?

Okay, now I'm really confused....

Oh. The Titanic. ;-) Right.

By the way, we are leaving for our vacation tomorrow morning, so I'll most likely not be posting until I return.