Marriage Retreat

Over the weekend, as a family, we attended a marriage retreat sponsored by the military. A lot of people have their gripes about military life, but there are so many opportunities out there that aren't taken advantage of. This COMPLETELY FREE event included bus transportation (6 hr ride one way!!!), 2 nights stay at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort (fancy, fancy!), breakfast and dinner each day, AND childcare..........all free!!!! Our only out-of-pocket expense was lunch (and the couples massage Leevi surprised me with at the spa!!!) We arrived on Friday afternoon and had the evening to ourselves as a family (we went swimming) and then on Saturday the girls went to school (the CDC) for the day while Leevi and I attended the conference and then we had Sunday morning to ourselves until the bus left at 11am for the long ride home. Childcare was also offered (FOR FREE) Friday night and Saturday night, but we opted to stay together as a family...especially when the girls we gone all day on Saturday. It was a great weekend and we will definitely be back and hopefully stay a little longer to tour around the area...they offer guided tours throughout Germany and into Switzerland, Austria and Italy. It's an American Military resort and is one of five throughout the world (we've been to two others...the Hale Koa in Hawaii and Dragon Hill in Korea. The other two are in Virginia and Florida)
We will be back to snowboard on those mountains!!!!

Hailey drives me crazy when she doesn't look at the camera!

They had these cute little kid rockers in the lobby

Checking out the mural

One might not think a ground floor room would be ideal, but it was awesome that the girls could walk out the back door to run around in this grassy area!

A horse-drawn carriage is definitely on the to-do list for our next trip down here!

Playing at the (expensive) arcade before dinner

Cheese!!!!!!!!!!

The girls did great on the ride to and from...because of traffic it took us 6.5 hrs each way!!!! Hailey said later that night that her ears hurt from her headphones!

Little Bear to the rescue!!! Leevi and I wouldn't have survived without it!!!!

The scenery was gorgeous!!! Wish we had the car so we could stop and take pictures! We also passed (from afar) Neuschwanstein Castle...it's the castle that Disney is modeled after...we will definitely be back!

We stopped briefly at a rest stop on the way back and this field of cows was right there. Kailee was asleep so Hailey and I ran over to take a look. We didn't stay too long in front of this cow because she started staring at us and the only thing blocking her from charging was that tiny yellow rope!

Moooo....I mean, Cheese!!!!