Girls Retreat!

This last weekend was the annual d-group spring retreat. Every year Annette and I plan a retreat at a secret location for the d-group girls. It's a great time of bonding and a chance to go deeper than we do on a normal weekly basis. This year the secret location was a farm house 30-40 minutes outside of Charlottesville. The house was beautiful and the property amazing. The perfect place for a retreat! (here's the listing if you'd like to see it: http://www.flipkey.com/charlottesville-vacation-rentals/p308939/)

Since we were going to be gone the whole weekend I didn't want to leave Nathan and Evie. And I couldn't really bring Evie alone and still be able to participate in the weekend. So this year Nathan and Evie came along. I loved having them there. Evelyn LOVED it. She loved having hundreds of acres to run around on, a new house to explore, lots of girls to play with, and a slide, sticks and rocks all just outside the door! :) She and Nathan spent several hours exploring while Annette and I took the girls into Charlottesville on Saturday. Here are some picture from their fun. :)

First, the slide. Slides are Evelyn's current favorite thing. She can climb up and go down them all by herself. She especially likes when they have little platforms at the top like this one had. :) (sorry about the picture quality - they're all from Nathan's phone.)
She found a frisbee in the yard and for a while she hauled that up with her and then sent it down ahead of her. She'd slide down and grab it again.

Sticks and fires. We wanted a bonfire Saturday night but there wasn't tons of wood when we arrived. Nathan collected a nice pile for us and built this beautiful fire. She loved watching Daddy chop the wood and then helping build the fire. Whenever Nathan was chopping and a piece would fly particularly high in the air, Evie would grab a stick and toss it up too. :) Don't worry, she stayed 15-20 feet away from where he was chopping to watch. :) On weekends she is totally Nathan's little shadow and this weekend was no exception. :)
Picture of the rest of the retreat will be coming once I get copies. ;)