Our church staff and board had it annual retreat weekend recently. We went to Mermaid Event Center for the social portion. We ate, played pool and darts, then got to try axe throwing.
I've been wanting to try this ever since it became a more common thing a few years ago. There was definitely an art to it that I was not able to grasp very well.
I finally got one to stick to the board, but it was not worth any points. I took a picture just in case I didn't hit it again.
I did manage to get one more to stick and it was a bullseye! We also had a "killshot" battle where we tried hitting the small blue dots. I had pretty great aim, but didn't get any to stick. Tom was the big winner!
Our final day was mostly travel again. I had packed our bags the night before. We grabbed some breakfast for Esme again before making a quick stop to say goodbye to Dani, Logan, and Owen. Our flight departed just before Noon, but I knew our 80 miles drive back to the airport would be on snow covered mountain roads so I gave us extra time. It only took about 20 minutes longer than the GPS originally said.
Esme did a great job entertaining herself on the drive so I could focus on the roads. Returning the car was just as easy as pick up. We just parked and dropped the keys off before heading to security. No one was in line which was nice because I didn't feel rushed.
We had a much shorter layover in Seattle which I was looking forward to, but was also well aware of in case we needed to rush between gates.
We made our connection with no issues. I packed a couple PBJs again for Esme since we wouldn't have time to grab lunch. Both flights went great. The only hiccup was sitting on the tarmac for about 20 minutes after landing in Minneapolis. Luckily, we were able to get out to the ground transportation area pretty quickly and our shuttle arrived shortly after getting there.
First girls trip was a raging success. I am already thinking about where we might go next.
We woke up pretty early Saturday after a 2 hour time change and early bedtime. I grabbed some breakfast for Esme and we headed to Dani's house. We hung out for a couple hours, packed some lunch and headed north to Crater Lake.
Esme loved all 3 dogs, but especially Link! "He's so cute and he follows me everywhere!"
I was super hopeful we'd be able to access Crater Lake on our trip. They get nearly 45' of snow a year at the top so it's often closed for safety reasons. This was the case a few weeks ago when we first booked our trip, but it was looking clear this day!
The drive up was gorgeous. the further we got, the higher the walls of snow got on either side of the road. By the time we were to the top, it was well over the roof of Dani's car.
They have a gift shop, cafe, and observation room at the top. Here is a model they have of the lake.
This was the first view we got of it from the observation room. We changed in to our snow gear in here.
Esme loved hanging out with Owen.
WOW! The picture is incredible, but it still doesn't do it justice.
We brought a couple of tubes to go sledding as well. There wasn't on official sledding zone, you could just go wherever it was safe. I thought Esme would be more in to it, but the combination of deeper snow, bright sun reflecting and higher elevations made her tucker out pretty quickly. Still the most beautiful place I will ever go tubing or sledding.
Of course we couldn't leave the gift shop without adding a stuffy to Esme's collection. This is BeeTle (emphasis on the "T"), the bald eagle.
We played and rested for a bit back at Dani's house before exploring town.
We stopped at a nearby park to get a little more energy out.
Then we stopped at a local bookstore owned by one of Dani's friends. Dani was so sweet and bought Esme a book and some gel crayons as a gift.
For supper we ordered pizza from Rodeos, They have a ton of fun speciality pies and we got the farmhouse.
Esme finished dinner with a sherbet push pop! That took me back to my childhood. We will have to get some for our house. Esme took another dip in the pool before heading to bed.
