Marriage Retreat - Not the Movie

This past weekend, Ryan and I went on a marriage retreat. Not the movie. :)

I know, I know. We've not even been married 3 months yet. Why could we possibly need a marriage retreat? Well, we thought it might be a good tradition to start, and some of our friends were going, so we went too! It was in Fort Wayne, so Ryan caught a ride with some of our friends, and I drove over after work to meet him at the hotel.

I made him meet me outside because the parking was in a parking garage and those things and I do not have a great history. I figured it wouldn't do well to start the weekend by having a head on collision in the garage because of my inability to read arrows. {Stop rolling your eyes. It can happen.}

The retreat is sponsored by the Wabash Friends Church/Counseling Center, and they'd come through all our rooms before we arrived to leave some sparkling grape juice and chocolates...and to sprinkle a few rose petals....

We were on our own for dinner, so while I was still at work, I got some ideas of where to go. Given that Ryan and I are a couple of classy hot dog fans, we checked out the famous Coney Island hot dog stop. {Or if you're texting it - it comes out Comet Island. FYI.}

We went with our friends, Brad and Lori, and the valuable tip we learned while visiting was that the mustard in the little bottle is NOT thick. Brad shook it and ended up wearing mustard...on his shirt...in his beard...in his EAR. I was sorry I missed THAT photo opp before he got it cleaned up. We really enjoyed dinner, though. One good hot dog!

I'm getting worse at self photography. My neck looks like Gaston's from Beauty and the Beast!! And just so you know - YES I'm aware that I'm in a really, REALLY unfortunate hair phase right now. I'm trying so hard to not touch it until after the reception {except for coloring} but I need bangs in the worst way. I'm sorry for the view until that day comes.

Anyway. Friday evening we spent time at the retreat...they had some time of worship...door prizes...funny videos...and our speaker was Dr. Gary Oliver. He had a great sense of humor and was one of those guys that was obviously incredibly knowledgeable in his field...but yet not incapable of relating to the common folk. :) We really enjoyed him!!

They passed out some "couples games" at the end of the night and we received one because we were {almost} the most newly married duo there. It was a dice sort of game....and we were required to report back on that the next day, so off to do our homework!!