Marriage Retreats and Begging for Lies

This past weekend, Ryan and I went on a marriage retreat...the same one we went to last year. It's held up in Fort Wayne at the Hilton and it's a great opportunity for us to meet up with old friends...make new friends...and have some fun. And learn.

Our room this year was on the top floor of the hotel with a really nice view out over the city...including the baseball field! {We would like you to think we were in the Presidential Suite...but um...not so much.}

Friday night, some of our friends were going out to eat and invited us to go along, so we went...even though we had just loaded up on all that chocolate at DeBrand. We ordered Lobster Bisque, and it was terrible. Good flavor, but no chunks of lobster!! It was like eating baby food! Boo!! But the company was fun, anyway!

Dr. John Townsend was the speaker at the marriage retreat...he has written and co-written a bunch of books, including all the Boundaries books. He's a really great speaker...so entertaining...and had good things to teach as well.

I did disagree with him once, though. He did a session about communication and how it's important to not lie and to always be open and offer grace before offering the truth. He said, "Guys, even if your wife walks out and asks if this outfit makes her look fat, be truthful." I looked Ryan straight in the eye and said, "NO. The answer to Does this make me look fat? is always no. ALWAYS. Lie. Lie lie lie lie lie!!!!!!"

But other than that, I was on board with everything he said!

It was great to be able to spend more time with our friends...here's a glimpse of some of our fun!

I have been Facebook friends with a couple Ryan knew from before we were married...but this was the first time I'd really gotten to spend time with them and actually get to know them. LOVED them! They were so much fun, and Saturday night, we had a great time playing Wii bowling together. It was Troy's first time to play. He won.

 Remember Adam and Sara from our wedding? They've moved away, and we never get to see them anymore, but they made the trip back for the retreat, and it was fun to see them...and they're still fun!

 Saturday afternoon, the whole group went out to eat at Biaggi's...where I had a low-cal chicken and artichoke pizza that was so spicy that I went through three glasses of water and ended up unable to taste anything. {It really wasn't my weekend for stellar food choices.}

 Adam's group selfie. I thought he did a pretty good job!! {That's Adam down there in the corner. The nose.}

 Back to the Wii Bowling night...Ryan's stellar form.

 I didn't fare so well.

 And this is Troy's cute wife, Cilicia. I really enjoyed getting to know her!

So that's our marriage retreat in a nutshell!! And Ryan, when you read this, remember - LIE!!!!!!!!!!!