The enormous main hill at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin--ha!
Saturday was our day to ski and it just happened to be the coldest day in the history of earth (a high of 5 degrees). Thankfully, everyone bundled up well and people who wanted to got lots of time on the slopes. Faces got the coldest--fleece masks and scarves became crusted and cold with frozen breath and cheeks turned red and rough with windburn.
Eric and I snowboarded. It was the second time for me and about the 5th for the Gooseman. We experienced improvement from last time and progressed throughout the day, but we both had falls that banged up knees and butts a bit. We are both a bit sore all over today. I've heard that something called stretching can help with such soreness, but it did not occur to us to do it either before or after snowboarding.
Between falls, there were glimpses of mastery--those moments were so fun! Thankfully, we will have two more opportunities in the next month to get some more practice.
Back at Wesley Woods...
Here is Eric talking with the youth:
Danny (who Eric has known since his time at Twinlow camp in Idaho) and Rachel provided the music for the weekend. They were really great!
It was amazing that the air was so cold that the lake was giving off steam! This picture was taken through the front window of the building we stayed in:
Danny got this tiny old hat from Eric many years ago. Eric displayed the Conklin way to wear it:
The retreat went really well, I think. The youth were excited to be there and enthusiastically participated in everything, the adults were engaged and helpful, the music was great, everyone had fun, and people may have even gotten something out of it that will impact them in their lives at home. I have really enjoyed getting to know youth and their leaders through these retreats and have been happy to see some of those folks back from past retreats.
On our way home today, we stopped in Evanston to meet Erin and Matt and lots of other folks at the Firehouse. Skylar was baptized today (we were sad to have missed it) and their families and friends gathered to celebrate her, and for several family birthdays.
Andria and Justin came from Grand Rapids, and we were excited to meet Felicity for the first time! She is seven weeks old and slept for the entire meal. Here she is, not excited to be awake:
A long nap this afternoon made the weekend complete! Now we just need groceries and clean clothes!
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