get away

The weekend after Labor Day is the best weekend of the year. Every year, we are blessed to attend Phil Waldrep's Pastor's Encouragement Weekend. Its one of the priorities in our marriage and scheduling. A weekend away without the kids, fellowship with friends who we don't get to see nearly enough and just time for me and Rich to relax and reconnect and just talk without interruption.

Phil Waldrep had a vision years ago to start a retreat for New England pastors and their wives- a time to relax, eat a lot, have wonderful speakers and entertainment - all for free - for us crazy people in the ministry. We are so thankful for all the people who support Phil Waldrep so that this weekend is available for us.

This year it was in North Conway, NH. The weather, as it seems to be every year, was perfect. During our free time, Rich and I headed up the Mount Washington Auto Road. It was amazing ontop of Mount Washington. Apparently, there are only about 60 clear days a year on the top, so we felt very blessed for the gorgeous day. It was 83 at the bottom of the moutain and about 54 at the peak! So cool!

Arranging childcare took a bit of finagling, but we got all the kids set and situated and headed out Thursday around 3 p.m. Thank you so much to Shannon, Kristina, Kristopher, Lynn, and Kelly for taking care of our wild crew.

I felt especially blessed by God as Phil Waldrep gave all the wives $125 in gift cards for the adjoining outlets outside our hotel. As I walked around, supposed to just spend the money on me - I realized I didn't need a thing. I ended up buying a little cute clutch which I so don't need, but it was cute and a few other little things. Rich used the rest of the money to buy a few "pastor clothes" items. We are so blessed. Our kids don't need a thing - they have more clothes than I can count. We are really blessed. Did I say that already? Yeh. We are.