So Darrell and I went to the Couples Retreat in San Diego this last weekend and we loved it. 

I saw a fellow VBF member and Mychurch friend Amy of the Valley at the grocery store last night and she really wanted me to blog on it...Here is her comment

"Hey you!
Where are all the highlights from the Couples retreat.
What rehmas did you get?
What spankings did you get?
What did you learn?
What are you doing right apparently?

Spill it Sister!"

I am officially here to spill it (editted of course *wink wink*).  

Darrell took the day off on Friday so we went up there early.  We got there at about 2:30 and went to eat since check-in wasn't until 3pm.  We got a very nice room, a cottage which overlooked one of the pools.  I loved that room.  We didn't want to lose our parking spot so we spent the next few hours watching tv and napping from the long drive.  The resort was about 40 acres with 4 or 5 restaurants on the premises.  

The first session was Friday evening at 8:30.  It was Pastor Jim talking about kids.  This is where I got my "spanking" so to speak.  There were a couple of things that I realize that I have been doing wrong things in my discipline techniques.   While there, we realized that Mike Maggard is a FUNNY guy.  We met him and I liked him instantly.  We also met a very nice young couple that have been married for about five months and are expecting.  They were so sweet.  We hit it off with them instantly and spent most of Saturday with them getting to know them while shopping and eating.  

Saturday morning was our second session with Pastor Ron.  He spoke about marriage in general.  I love him, so anything he says is awesome.  We broke for lunch.  There wasn't much time until the next session, so Darrell and I took some sandwiches back to our room and spent that time talking (this was my favorite time of the whole weekend - it was just me and him, no restaruants or kids, just us alone able to talk and enjoy our time together).  The next session was Vicki Loman and she spoke about sex.  Well here is where my second "spanking" came (so to speak).  I have been handling some stuff wrong in that area.  So I got some rehmas and Darrell is officially in the "Vicki Loman Fan Club" with all the other men in the session.  Our next session wasn't until 7pm, so we went to the mall that was directly behind the resort (I had been waiting for this since I saw that there were over 200 stores there).  We went with the young couple previously mentioned.  We quickly found out that this mall was WAY out our price range, but it was fun seeing that my knockoff purses were worth the $8.99 I paid for them instead of the $1895 price tag.  The last session of the evening was Pastor Ron again, continuing his talk on marriage.  After that we went to dinner at one of the restaurants on premises.  I had shrimp scampi which was AWESOME.  We stayed pretty late and went back to the room and crashed.  I never fell asleep so fast.

Sunday morning (our 6 year wedding anniversary BTW) we got up and checked out and went for breakfast at another resort restaurant.  We decided that we were going to renew our vows.  We thought it would be cool to renew on our anniversary - and it was so neat.  We got it on video and some people took pics.  Afterward, Darrell took me back to the mall and got me a bling ring.  No, not a real one, it was a Juicy Couture key chain with a humongous ring on it.  I was eyeballing it the previous day and I guess he figured it was cheaper than buying me another memento of our marriage vows.  On the way back, we talked about the weekend and stopped at Claim Jumper in Valencia (he had never been) and enjoyed some steaks and the mother-load cake (six layers of pure chocolate heaven). 

And then we drove home and picked up our kids.   Needless to say, I wasn't ready to come back to real life ;-)

We will definetly be going next year and the year after.  

Thank You Lord for allowing Darrell and I to go on this trip and be able to renew our vows.  Thank You for sending Darrell into my life. 

Thanks for Pastor Ron, Debbie, Pastor Jim, Tara, Mike and Mary Maggard, and Doug and Vicki Loman.  You guys are wonderful!!!  

Thanks to my husband, who is the best man in the world (although I think I am kind of biased).  

Well there it is in a nutshell.  If you are reading this and going this coming weekend, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I recommend everyone should go to this at least once.  It is awesome.