Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ok, so maybe it's the second most wonderful time of the year (after Christmas), but I always look so forward to the end of February each year! That's because the last weekend of February is always Hope Church's annual Marriage Enrichment Weekend for the couples at Hope Church.

It is SO awesome every year, and Aaron and I look forward to it for weeks beforehand. This year didn't disappoint...it was encouraging, very convicting, inspiring, relaxing, and so much fun.


We left our kids in good hands,

and headed to the hotel where the retreat was being held on Friday night. We went out that night just the two of us,

did some homework in the lobby late at night (and had some pretty great conversations about some of the things we are learning),

went to bed, and woke up Saturday morning ready for a day of listening to the head pastor from Fellowship Missionary church. His four sessions on Saturday were SO GOOD. His messages were essentially about "unclaimed baggage"...ideas and traditions and thought patterns that we all bring in to our marriage and often do nothing about changing because we say, "That's just how I am." But he used scripture and personal stories to show us how important it is to be honest with ourselves and our spouses and stop making excuses for the sinful habits and tendencies we've developed and become accustomed to.


There were about 80 people (40 couples) there. This picture was during one of the breaks, so just imagine all of the chairs being full. (Right about this time, eight of the couples were stuck on the elevator together...but we didn't find that out until later!)

We had lunch with some really good friends (L to R: me, Michelle, Bri, Mike, Craig, Aaron)

and supper with some really good friends (L to R: Aaron, me, Bobbie, Aaron, Brenda, Kent)

We also had chances to connect with a lot of couples from our church that we haven't seen in a long time, and we had encouraging conversations about missions, the gospel, marriage, and many of the things that we are learning in our classes.


Sunday morning we got to sleep in...it was so wonderful. And then my parents were gracious enough to bring our kids to us so we didn't have to add more driving time to our trip back home! (Thanks so much, Mom and Dad! We appreciate it immensely!)


 Looking forward to next year already :)