jordan's bday & marriage retreat

we were in waco all last week

it was a nice way to end the summer - extra hands for me, swimming, pictures,

family, it all was good :-)

jordan came down on thursday and we celebrated his birthday

alice used the linens that i got her from india :)

they were really pretty!

what was a super nice part of this evening -

was that my parents took our kids

(not just for the night, but for 2 nights and 3 days!)

jordan had asked - (and they granted) for christmas (last year)

to have a babysitting weekend

we finally took them up on the offer

not that they haven't babysat the kids a lot since christmas -

but we "technically" hadn't used our gift

so we celebrated jordan's birthday with a quiet, yummy dinner at his parents house

and then we headed to a hotel

for a 2 day marriage retreat

it was SO good!

jordan and i both thrive off of goals and planning

so it wasn't hard for us to get excited and envisioned for what this next year is going to look like

knowing how busy our lives can be if we aren't focused and intentional about how we spend our time

so

this really helped us map out our weeks, months, and the next season

we also talked about specific things we are going to work on in our kids and certain "training" that needs to be done with them

i can't say it enough - this was SO GOOD for us!

i am super excited about this next season

and look forward to seeing how our focus and investment in certain things

will bear fruit

it's a good thing we had our retreat when we did-

because school starts tomorrow

and elevate (we are on staff this year) starts next week

so here we go

but

i

am

excited