Flashback

I never blogged about our CMT retreat and anniversary trip! (That's "Collegiate Ministry Team," not "Country Music Television.")
I have always LOVED our CMT retreats, even when they weren't called that. In the Northwest, we went to Cannon Beach, Oregon, and walked on the windy beach and shopped and ate salt water taffy. Here, we go to Branson, Missouri, and go to Silver Dollar City and shop and swim at the hotel pool. But in both cases, my favorite part is talking to the other wives, and now that we have kids, watching our kids interact. Arkansas has the family retreat every 3 years, and when we finally get together it's as if being around people who have similar ministries and goals and lives opens a dam and we cram 3 years of conversations into 3 days. We laughed, we cried, we prayed. Every child met at least one friend their age, and they fell right into best buddies. I guess that's what "family of God" means!

The Arkansas Convention gives a birthday party for the kids at each family retreat. Pizza, cake, ice cream, and even presents!! It's so much fun.

This year we were also able to see some friends/former students from Idaho who now live in Missouri. We went to see "Noah: The Musical," went out for ice cream, swam at their hotel pool, and got caught up.

When we left Branson we stopped in Conway to see my family for a few days.

And Mike and I left the kids with my Mom and spent the night at the Red Apple Inn in Heber Springs. It's up in the Ozarks, in a beautiful setting. It was a nice little get-away.