resident retreat 2014

June 20

The girls and I got home from Utah on the night of the 19th. The morning of the 20th I met one of the residents at Costco to buy all of the food for the camping retreat, which we were leaving for that afternoon.

Side note: Earlier this year, Mitch was voted in as Junior Chief Resident! Pretty awesome! This does require more responsibility, but it also includes a couple of trips and allows me to be more involved. I think it'll be really good for him. One of the responsibilities is planning the resident retreat and all of the meals. Since the residents are busy working, I was able to help out with the food.

Elyse came up to Pocatello with me and was coming to the retreat with us. She helped me out a ton with the food and getting stuff ready. Plus, the girls were super excited to have her there! Mitch had the morning off (some of the residents had to work) and was able to help get a lot of things ready for the retreat as well. It was definitely a team effort!

The retreat is held at Heise Hot Springs, the same place as last year, about an hour and a half from Pocatello. It is a great location. When we arrived, we set up our tent and helped set up the food area. I was pretty excited to be there. I really do love camping!

 

This girl.

I love the leftover marshmallow on her chin.

 

 

S'mores!

This year we brought a Costco size case of

Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

And every single one was eaten.

 

 

 

 

Kenz and her friend John.

She talks about marrying him one day.

I can't believe marriage talk has already started!

 

Saturday morning started of with breakfast, followed by the spouses meeting. This year I was in charge of the meeting. I wanted to express the reality of residency, but not leave a negative feeling. It could have been better. I didn't plan too much in advance since I was in Utah until the day before the retreat. Next year I'll do better. After the meetings, the rest of the day was ours. We decided to go rafting with a few other families. The girls LOVED it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had the kids in our raft.

Which was fun until we hit some rough patches.

 

 

 

 

There were some rough moments as we floated down the river. We went through a narrow portion where the current caused us to ping pong back and forth on the banks. The craziest moment was when we were headed straight at a tree overhanging the river with three of the little girls leaning over the front. Elyse and I tried to push the branches out of the way with our ores, but weren't completely successful. I was able to pull two of the girls out of the way, but Alex hit the branches face on. Surprisingly, she didn't have a single scratch on her face. Unfortunately, Elyse's ore got stuck in the branches. I held onto another branch as hard as I could, so we could retrieve the ore. It was crazy. We had a few other rough moments, so the guys decided to take over paddling in the front. After the tree incident, we made a rule for the kids. If we yelled "Get down" they were to lay on their tummies in the raft. Needless to say, it was an adventure!

 

That night we had dinner, played games and sat around the campfire talking. I love the retreat. It's so great to get to know the other residents, faculty and their families better. It's fun to get away and enjoy each other's company. It was a great way to finish off first year and start the next!