Minimoon to Florida

Brian and I had a great opportunity from the Army in September. Army Medical Command, Brian's command, offered a Pre/Post Deployment marriage retreat to its soldiers. Apparently, soldiers are much better off if their marriages are happy (Surprising? No.). So, the army paid for Brian and I to fly to Daytona Beach, Florida, stay in a beach front room at the Hilton, and go on a mandatory "romantic" date. In addition, Brian got paid to go. It seemed too good to be true and I really didn't believe it at first, but it was all true.





We left Matthew with his Aunt Heather, his Aunt Steph and his grandparents and we took off to the other side of the continent. It was so much fun to be together. We went swimming in the ocean as much as we could (I had to take advantage of the warm Atlantic). As an added bonus the seminar was really, really good. We learned and practiced many great marriage enrichment tools; listening and communicating, understanding love languages and developing friendship were just a few of the topics covered.

The only negative was that I missed Matthew--I would have loved to see him playing at the beach. The water was so warm! I truly believe that the west coast is the more beautiful coast, but even in Southern California the water is cold compared to the east coast.



We also saw an Indian wedding while we were there. It was at the hotel we stayed at and it was so fun to watch. The clothes of the women were gorgeous, so colorful. The groom and his siblings rode in a carriage to the other tower of the hotel, while the wedding party walked behind a truck blasting music. Everyone danced as they walked to meet the bride. Apparently, the bride and the groom were meeting for the first time that day. Wow. But it really looked like a such a fun way to get married. It was a huge party.

Needless to say, it was jarring to arrive home to 45 degree weather and rain. Oh well, it is beautiful here, even if it is a little colder than Florida.