PEF Fall Retreat!

The last weekend of October, we all went on the PEF fall retreat!  This was the first fall retreat in years -- I think the last one was the fall of my senior year, 2002?  There was enough interest among the students (and enough energy on the staff side!) to reinstate this tradition this year, and it was such a good weekend!

This was also our first time bringing *both* kids on a trip.  I was a little nervous about how they would handle the disruptions to our normal routine, and whether I would be able to do anything other than childcare over the weekend, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about.  The retreat was up in the Poconos, about a 2-hour drive away in good traffic.  Of course, driving north on Friday during rush hour is anything but good traffic... But thankfully, the kids did well with the car trip!  And at the retreat itself, Joshua had a BLAST playing with all the students.  He loved having so many energetic friends to run around with -- and this tired mama was glad to have others take on the task of running after our little ball of perpetual motion!  And little Sophia was such a trooper.  She hung out in the baby carrier with me for most of the weekend, eating and sleeping regularly, and just rolling with all the changes.  She really is such a mellow little girl!

So for the first time in weeks, I was able to sit through some good PEF teaching.  The retreat theme was busyness and rest, a topic that is always apropos for Princetonians.  The format of the meetings was a bit different -- instead of having two or three main messages, there were a series of mini-messages, interspersed with times of directed prayer and sharing.  I very much appreciated hearing the messages -- though my current season of busyness is different from that of the students, the message of God's rest is just as applicable, if not more!

And of course, I took a ton of photos.  I do love being the PEF photographer and capturing the sheer fun of hanging out with college students!

One of the many amenities of the retreat center: Gaga Ball!  And the students graciously let Joshua in on a very brief round.  :)






Meetings in the rustic lodge:




While Joshua played (relatively) quietly in the back:


And one of the retreat highlights: a campfire!




What an incredibly fun and refreshing weekend away!

PEF Beach Retreat 2011!

And now we've made it to the beginning of the school year!  :)  PEF kicked off the year with its annual beach retreat, and I took a half day so Joshua and I could go for part of it!

The theme this year was hospitality as evangelism and outreach, and I think the students really, really took the messages to heart.  It was incredibly encouraging to see students reaching out to incoming freshmen, thinking about ways to expand their natural friend circles, and just seeking to love the entire body.  And now, three months into the school year, it's still going strong.

And here are just a few (okay, a ton...) of my favorite photos from the retreat!

PEF/Manna winter retreat 2011!

[Watch out -- here comes another big blog burst!  Complete with storyboards -- I've been having too much fun creating storyboards lately, and I think this will also help with formatting the blog books we create each year.  Which is good, since I'm still only halfway through formatting our 2010 blog book...]

The last week of January, our whole family went up to New Hampshire for the annual joint PEF/Manna winter retreat!  It's actually been several years since I've been able to go on this retreat -- I haven't wanted to take the week's vacation in the past, since it's one of David's busiest weeks of the year, and therefore not much of a vacation for him.  And of course, last year, neither of us went on the retreat because Joshua was due to be born that Monday, and was actually born early that Wednesday morning.  :)  But now, with our fun little toddler in the picture, we decided that making a family trip of it would be worthwhile.  And oh, boy, was it!

This retreat has always been one of our favorite weeks of the year.  It helps, of course, that David and I met for the first time on this retreat...  :)  Intersession break is the one true break during the school year, since Princeton has its fall semester exams after winter break.  So this week between the semesters is about the only time that students really have time off, which changes the whole tenor of the fellowship.  And it was so much fun bringing Joshua this year -- we were worried that he might have stranger anxiety the whole time, but he rose to the occasion, and then some.  He was so excited to have so many new friends to play with!  It was a wonderful place to celebrate his first birthday.  :)

And it was a wonderful week of refocusing for all of us.  The theme of the retreat this year was the beatitudes, with a mini-message on each individual beatitude.  It was a simple but powerful theme, focusing on the character traits of the Kingdom.  At the very end of the retreat, before we packed up the vans and headed back home, the entire group recited the beatitudes by memory -- and I was moved by how heartfelt the students' response to the message was.  As we're all caught up in the busyness of the semester again, I pray that we will still be clinging to this vision of the Kingdom, and seeking to live it out daily here.

So... pictures or it didn't happen, right?  :)  I took hundreds of photos that week, all of which are archived in our SmugMug galleries (click the "photographs" link in our header above), but here are a few of our favorites!

Joshua's first experience of the winter retreat!  Complete with ridiculously cute bear hat.  :)


Indoor fun and games in the chalet, where Joshua and I spent pretty much all of our non-napping time.


The annual (friendly!) PEF vs. Manna basketball game!


"Snow Bowl" 2011!  That is, snow tackle and ice-throwing -- conditions were too rough for the full tag football game this year, so they just spent time running and tackling each other.  Because, you know, that's much safer...



And the big huge group shot at the end of the trip!  (Minus one car, which had to leave early.)


We're so thankful for the opportunity to spend the week with so many dear friends.  What a wonderful break from our normal lives!  And Joshua is very much looking forward to the next retreat.  :)

Beach retreat 2010!!

PEF has (in my unbiased opinion) the very best way of kicking off the school year -- a three-day retreat at Ocean City, NJ!!  We of course go every year, it being David's job and all.  :)  But this was the first time in years that I was able to attend the whole retreat -- the beauty of being part-time means that I only had to take one day's vacation.  And it was definitely worth taking that one day off, to reconnect with PEFers... and to introduce Joshua to the wonders of the beach!

So we all met up for breakfast bright and early on Thursday morning.  At least, the students all thought it was super early -- we had been up for hours, as normal, since our cute little alarm clock almost never goes off later than 6am.  ;)  Joshua was on his best behavior, though, and had fun being held by new people -- no real stranger anxiety yet!






Then it was off to Ocean City!  We stayed at the Ark Retreat Center again, this great old house just a few blocks from the beach.  The first scheduled activity?  Hand-addressing flyers to be delivered to every single incoming freshman.  Gotta love the abundant supply of free labor...  I, of course, was too busy watching Joshua and taking photos to help out...  :)




And then, to the beach!!  I was a wee bit nervous about sun protection for our little guy, so perhaps I went just a bit overboard... But how stinking cute is he in his little sun suit and floppy hat??








OK, I've got to tighten this up and include fewer photos for the rest of this recap...  :)  Thursday night, we had the traditional walk on the boardwalk and Ferris wheel ride.  I had Joshua in the front carrier, and we felt he was perhaps too young to go on the Ferris wheel himself... Maybe next year!




And just a few more photos of the typical PEFer's fun in the sun...




The retreat was SUCH a fun time!!  What a wonderful way to get revved up for another school year.  Joshua is very much looking forward to spending more time with all of you guys!