Sorry it’s been a while since a real post. Real life is kicking my butt, and work + school = a lot to do (especially since school is dwindling down for the semester and my boss is on maternity leave). In any case, here is part 3 of our countdown to marriage retreat. You can find part 2 here and part 1 here.

Ok so I’m going to back up a little. Our session on in-laws was really interesting to me. It was just all of the couples asking their own questions to a panel of various married couples (all who had taught the classes). One thing we talked about is how you split your time with both sets of families during the holidays. That was one Mathew and I had talked about briefly, but it was nice to hear what other people had decided on it. We also talked about what to do if you have a disagreement with your spouse. Do you tell your parents or not? The answer that was given to the group was to not tell your parents of disagreements because it will diminish their view of your spouse. It makes sense! Anyway, there were many other questions, but those were just a few that I found interesting.

Anyway, so we went and had our “couples processing time” and Mathew and I walked down to the mill.

We first stumbled upon this cute handwashing station outside by the mill. It was too cute not to take a picture of.

Then Mathew and I sat on a deck at the mill and just put our feet in the water. I was constantly on the look out for water moccasins, and actually the next day one of our friends said they saw one right by where we were sitting. YIKES!

I saw this windmill by the mill and thought it looked pretty cool and very “texan”.

I found a cute stepping stone and thought our feet would look cute on it.

After our little hike, I realized I was getting a little bit sunburned. I had Mathew cross the water and ask these ladies in swimsuits if he could have sunscreen, and they gave him SPF 4. What?! I thought, why even bother with sunscreen if it’s only SPF 4? In any case though, we headed back to the Ranch House to play card games since I was burning.

We ended up meeting with some of the others and going to Salado for a little drive, and then came back to the retreat center for dinner and our last session called “leave and cleave”, which basically was about how to leave your parents and become independent on your own. We barely were able to touch base on it though, because we had a “special event”. I would love to mention this special event on here, but it’s a secret. Only people who have been to the retreat, and their “marriage investors” know about it. Let me just tell you that it was extra special, and had Mathew and I both in tears. It had us end the night on a very nice note, and we were able to meet up with everyone else at the retreat center for a campfire with s’mores and another round of the Naked Game.

I have one more small post after this, ending our “Countdown to Marriage” series of posts. Be on the lookout!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links and/or product(s) sent from companies or their PR team for editorial consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

Well, this weekend was certainly a BLAST! Despite my terrible eye infection on Friday (and me not going to work because of the inability to drive), we were able to go to the Summer’s Mill Conference and Retreat Center for our Countdown to Marriage Retreat.

The entrance to Summer’s Mill

I was roomed in one house with 5 bedrooms with all of the girls in our group (except for Jessica because she just got married last month) Skylar, Nicole, Lauren, and Melanie. We stayed in the Ranch House, which basically was the place to be at Summers Mill.

The outside of the Ranch House



The living room (with an electric fireplace) where we played fun games.

I was the second person to get to the Ranch House from our group, and was able to pick whatever bedroom I wanted from the 5. I picked one that had a bed that was so tall I pretty much had to jump up to get on it! It was super comfy though. As soon as we all got settled (around 8), we went into the Conference Center (where most of our weekend would be spent) and began activities to get to know people, got some time to hang out with our friends from our group, and then it was onto the actual discussions on our future marriages. It was a good way to get to know everyone and at the end of the night (10:30ish), all of us girls left to the Ranch House, and invited the guys over to play some games.

Keep on the look out for the next post tomorrow for more about our fun couples retreat weekend!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links and/or product(s) sent from companies or their PR team for editorial consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.