Part 2 of my super surprise! Part 1 can be read here.
For dinner we had a salad bar and baked potatoes. There were a few different kids of tea to drink. Yummy!!
We spent more time fellowshipping and getting to know one another. After dinner everyone who has gone to a prior retreat shares one of their favorite memories for the years past. I really enjoyed getting to hear some of the stories! Next year I will have a few to share. 🙂
We were given our room assignments. A special card and a beautiful homemade item was made for everyone. My homemade item was a beautiful gingerbread ornament. Yay! A sister ornament and it is not even secret sister time! (I will eventually have a Secret Sister post because it is almost that season!!)
My roommates were “D” and “J”. “D” was one of my secret sisters in the group. The room was larger than a standard hotel room. I never thought about taking pictures of our room. There were two queen bed with a sitting area that had a desk, a big closet, and a couple of dressers. The bathroom was huge! It had a small walk-in closet, two sinks with a good size counter top, and then the shower and toilet was in its own little room. Our villa was a two story, 4 bedroom villa. Two of the rooms were upstairs and two were downstairs. There was a kitchen and a living room downstairs too. I also never thought about taking pictures in the villa. The nice thing about the two bedrooms downstairs was that they also had outside access from the room.
I cannot remember what time we all woke up Saturday morning, I am going to guess sometime around 8 AM. We went over to the hangout villa for breakfast and more fellowship. We had a delicious egg casseroles, baked oatmeal, and other goodies.
After breakfast we were left to do what we wanted to do. There was going to Callaway Gardens, horseback riding, and a high ropes course as some of the available options.
A group of us went over to Callaway Gardens to see their birds of prey show and see the butterfly gardens. When we first went in there was a local wood work artist. He and his wife created bowls our of wood. They also had made handles for cork screws out of the same wood. Amazing! I didn’t think about asking if I could take a picture so I don’t have any pictures of it. Next, we ran over to the main gift shop. I was looking to see if I could find an ornament for my secret sister this year and what else they had. They had a few ornaments and nothing stood out although I saw an ornament that could be a possibility for my family. Their Christmas items were not out yet.
Next, we saw the birds of prey show. They brought out a few of their birds and they did fly overs. It was so cool. My two year old would have loved watching the show!
After the show we walked over to the butterfly center.
At the butterfly center I was asked if I was talking promotional photographs. 🙂 Just day or two before I left on my trip I found my camera mounts for my tripod so I decided to bring it along with me on my trip! Best decision ever! It came in handy for a group shot later that evening and also taking some night photos (more about all of that later!)! It made it nice having it with me at the butterfly gardens. I bought some seeds for flowers that are supposed to attract butterflies so the older girls and I can plant some flowers in our front yard.
We got back to the villas and ate a quick lunch as the afternoon event had already started. They had a craft bazaar for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Some of the ladies who have their own business or are a consultant for a company brought things to sell! I will end Part 2 of this post with links of some of the ladies who had tables there. I do not receive any money or items from these links I just want to share them!! Please check them out!
Borne Again Gifts & Treasures
Jamberry – Beth Gleason
Mary Kay – Michelle Deckard