Saturday, November 15, 2008
Donnie's unit has put together some amazing marriage retreats... and this weekend was definitely one!! We stayed in Stone Mountain, GA, which is a little more than 10 miles east of Atlanta. Stone Mountain was originally home to the Creek and Cherokee Indians and is the world's largest exposed granite. The Confederate Memorial Carving is a picture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson. We stayed at the Marriott... we felt so spoiled sleeping in these big, white, down-feather beds with down-feather pillows! We had a gorgeous view overlooking a little lake. It was so funny... the french doors going out to the balcony were so clean, Kaleb actually walked into it!! I guess he's used to seeing little handprints! =)
After Saturday morning's large group session with the chaplain and visiting with friends, we had plenty of family time to enjoy the little village. It was decorated for Christmas with lights, trees and wreaths everywhere. They even had Christmas music playing in the background... talk about getting you excited for all of the holidays coming up!!!
There was a train that went around the village, lots of little shops, a glass blowing demonstration, Christmas plays, storytime with Mrs. Claus, and a parade. It was SO beautiful, I loved just walking around and taking everything in!
There was a 4D Theater showing 'Polar Express,' which was a 3D movie with special effects. Snow fell, wind blew, and we were even sprayed with water a few times! The boys loved it, especially Kaleb... he kept reaching his hand out, thinking he could actually touch objects in the movie!! It was SO funny!
On Snowflake Lane, the trees were decorated with snowflakes and had tinsel and lights hanging off them. The boys thought it was really cool when we drove back through later that night.
I was driving when we saw this giant tree where there was a fork in the road. Donnie thought I was crazy for taking this picture real quick, as you can see, it's a bit blurry. I LOVE this time of year... it's still so magical to me!!!
That night was date night. Donnie and I were SO excited because it was our first date night since he got home. We decided to eat dinner at the nice restaurant in the hotel before heading back over to the village for the night time festivities. Just as we sat down and ordered something to drink, the fire alarms in the hotel went off!!! We couldn't believe it!! So we hurried over to the rooms where the childcare was, and got the boys... Kaleb was a bit scared! We decided to spend the evening together as a family and took the boys for some hot chocolate and watched the laser show on the side of the mountain. There was Christmas music playing to the show... we had so much fun singing along and being silly! Afterwards, we went back to our room, ordered room service... a couple wood-fired pizzas and cheesecake with chocolate-dipped strawberries, yummy... and all of us snuggled in one of the beds and watched a movie together. We didn't get our date night, but we had SO much fun with the boys!!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
After the worship service and our last session, we took off to hike up the side of Stone Mountain. It is only 1 1/2 miles up, but we took our time and stopped for lots of pictures... as we got closer to the top, the walk got steeper and the wind blew harder, and the younger two got tired. But they were SO proud of themselves when we made it all the way to the top!!
In the background, you can see the village. There is a skyride that takes you to the top of the mountain... but we had so much fun walking up, it was definitely our favorite part of the weekend.
This picture was taken on the other side of the mountain. If you look closely at the skyline, you can see Atlanta. The view was SO gorgeous!!! Especially this time of year, when all the trees are changing colors!
If you look closely in this picture, you'll see Kaleb's little walking stick... both he & Kaden HAD to have one... although, Kaleb's looked more like a twig. =)
I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Donnie had the cute idea for us to sit in this large heart that was carved into the stone. It reminded me of a video we were shown earlier today talking about the three Hebrew forms of love mentioned in the Bible... the love for a best friend, the longstanding love of commitment and the passionate love of physical affection. The video said these different loves burn like little flames... but if we burn all three flames together, we will forever have an eternal flame.What a beautiful way to look at marriage!! How lucky I am to have married MY best friend!!!!! I really enjoyed the marriage retreat... and can't wait to go on another one!! We received three different books... I'll be sure to report back after we read them.
'The Five Love Languages' by Gary Chapman
'The Power of A Praying Wife' by Stormie Omartian
'Tender Warrior' by Stu Weber
