A Cabin in the Woods, Kickball and Bears

For those of you who may not know, David and I work together.

We both work at Look Up Lodge.  

It's a place very close to our hearts.  

We were both campers there.  We met there. We both worked there during college as summer staffers.  And now we both work there as grown ups. 

Working together prevents some challenges, but mostly, it's just really fun.  

We love what we do, and the people we work with.  

There are a lot of fun parts to our job.  I love that we get to share those.

This week was one of those fun times. 

We had our annual staff retreat with all of our year round staff.

We went to Gatlinburg, TN.  The weather was perfect, just starting to cool off and remind me that fall is coming!  We really enjoyed our time relaxing with everyone and we spent some time refocusing on what we do and why we do it.

We did a lot together.  I think one of my favorite was playing kickball.  I'm pretty sure I haven't played that since fifth grade.  It's harder than I remember to kick that little ball.

 It really was just a great time, making great memories.  

Here are some of those memories.

Every time David and I go to Tennessee I look for black bears.  I love them.  I think they are so cute.  (I'm not gonna lie, I want to hug one).  Finally on this trip we saw some.  We were going hiking and these friendly, cuddly fellas were on the way in.  I am not really happy with the pictures I got, but oh well.  I saw them! I think there were 8 in all.

Our hike was really nice.  

We ended at a beautiful waterfall. 

(I have to be honest...these 2 awesome photos were taken by wonderful husband.)

This was our putt putt team, just me and the boys.

And sadly, this is the loser's photo. 

We went out to a nice dinner at a yummy restaurant on our last night.

It's tradition.

This is our amazing dessert.

(See the bear paw on top...so fun!)

There was a negative part to this retreat.

For those of you who know me, you know I'm a little bit competitive.

(OK that is a huge understatement.  I'm a lot bit competitive!)

Well, I think the theme of this retreat was "Charity should lose at everything."

I'm serious...everything.  

Games, Putt Putt, Air Hockey, Kickball...

even cooking breakfast.  (I know that doesn't seem possible, but trust me.)

I guess I have a lot to learn in that area.  I actually caught myself thinking..."No, I don't want to grow.  I just want to be mad right now." Kinda funny, but Kinda sad.  

 Boz the Big Green Bear says, "If I don't win, I'll try again. The fun is in the trying."  

Maybe I can learn something from my child's favorite DVDs!

Overall though, I'd say LUL Staff Retreat...Success.