Marriage Retreat, Evening WIth Friends
#19/69 on the Ft Meade housing wait list.
Thursday I was a good girl and made it to the gym. It was my last day at Gold's as my membership is now expired and they want $107 for one month. Poopy. Looks like I'll be going on post - longer drive, no cardio cinema, dirty, crowded... Joy. I also did a couple loads of laundry to make sure we had the clothes we wanted for our retreat.
Friday morning we woke up, pulled ourselves together, packed an over night bag and the girls' supplies, loaded them into the car crate and headed to Austin. We took the toll road to Candace's place to by-pass the end of rush hour traffic. Candace and Steve were pup sitting for the night. It was the girls' first night staying with someone other than family (with the exception of Audrey who stayed with Lisa when Sofie was spayed but that was a looong time ago). It's a good thing we took the toll road because when we got to 35 it was backed up due to a really bad truck accident but it didn't effect us with the route we took.
We made it to Lakeway Resort in Lakeway, TX (just west of Austin) for the marriage retreat we signed up for with the army. There were about a dozen or so couples there along with 3 army chaplains working as facilitators, and a few kids. The kids were kept occupied by the resort staff during the retreat.
We met up with everyone, had a class, ate a yummy Tex Mex buffet for lunch, had another class, and were released mid-afternoon for the day. We got checked-in to our room and it was really nice. The view was the best part. We had a private balcony over looking Lake Travis. Like the lake was right at the base of the hotel. It was fantastic.
We wanted to swim but hadn't brought swimsuits so we made a trip out to one store where I had no luck. Then we went back for dinner (another buffet, this time just a variety of yummy stuff) before running to Target where I found a suit that covered my all of my butt and (enough of) my boobs. I actually had to make a wee alteration in the suit for it to be a little more discrete but it is probably the lowest and widest v-neck suit I've ever worn.
Once back we changed and headed to the pool to just float and relax for an hour or 2. It was really nice. There were several pools, 2 of them being multi-leveled infinity pools. There were 2 hot tubs too where we wound up the evening. Once back in the room we had some homework to do and then it was time to crawl into one of the comfiest beds I have ever been in.
This morning we woke up, had a delicious breakfast at 8, and were back in class by 9. We were finished before noon and even ended the experience with a vows renewal. it was so sweet. Chris started tearing-up while saying his which got me going. The resort was amazingly beautiful and very relaxing. We had such a nice time there. Too bad it wasn't a 2-nighter.
We left the resort and did a bit of shopping. We stopped at a motorcycle store to look at these vintage style motorcycles. Then it was off to The Domain where we browsed at Borders and I picked up my next book club book. We shopped around a bit more and then headed for a bite to eat at Trudy's (queso& chips, shared quesadillas) before meeting Candace, Steve, and Misti at the Alamo Drafthouse to see Hamlet 2. It was super funny and just so wrong in every way. Great movie!
After the movie we went back to Candace's where we played a couple board games (Imaginiff and Loaded Questions). It was a fun time. We called it an early night since we were tired and Steve had to work the next day. We got home shortly after 9:30 and I've been getting caught up on stuff since. Chris is saving the world via his XBOX360 and I am in bed typing on his lap top. As soon as I'm done this I am going to be out. It's nice to know that even though we've had such a wonderful couple days together we still have one more day left of this weekend. Nice.