Home from the Father Daughter Retreat!

Whew!!! Last week resembled a whirlwind and it culminated (or slowed down a little) with Daddy and I attending the Vision Forum Father Daughter Retreat held at Calloway Gardens! We have been three times now, and each retreat seems more memorable than the last!
Well, let's get to the pictures!

"Father Daughter Unity Games"
It all started Friday afternoon with the Unity games. There are four games and each one focuses on a different aspect of the Father Daughter relationship. Pictured above, are fathers and daughters getting ready to do the Three Legged race and I will admit that this is the game that I dislike the most! In this race you have to work together to keep from falling and to stay "in sync" with each others footsteps! It can be rather interesting!! We saw one father that had three daughters doing it all together!!!
Another game was Father Daughter Croquet and the aspect here is the Father correcting the course that his daughter is taking as she strays off the path.

"More Unity Games"
Oh, this one was fun!! The Daughters had to jump rope with their eyes closed and LISTEN to their Fathers' command to "JUMP!" in order to be successful at jumping over the rope! It was a challenge yet fun too! The aspect of this game was listening to your Fathers commands when you can't see the "big picture".
The last game was an obstacle course that Fathers led their blindfolded Daughters through. Daughters had to step over small brush piles, go around trees (one of which was near a creek!), pick up a pine cone and then drop it in a bucket! This teaches listening to your Father's instruction even though you can't see the way or understand where you're going.
After the games a picnic was held up near the building in the picture and following that was an ice cream social inside.

There were roughly 575 people in attendance of the retreat and this picture doesn't even begin to do it justice!

"High Tea"
Noon on Saturday found all of the Fathers and Daughters enjoying a Victorian High Tea! All of the girls wore their special dresses and I can honestly say that many of the dresses were made 'specially for the occasion!
After the tea everyone went out to the patio to get their picture taken by the staff.

"Pioneer Log Cabin"
The afternoon was ours to do what we pleased with! Many Fathers and Daughters had brought their bikes and were biking many of the trails that Calloway gardens has, others, like us, headed straight over to the Butterfly Center! We took a quick detour to the pioneer log cabin though. They had a lady playing some sort of folk instrument on the front porch which was really neat.

"At the Butterfly Center"
I love the butterfly center....... I love seeing the amazing different varieties and colors of butterflies.... I love seeing their playful tantalizing flights..... I love watching the butterflies!

It was a special treat for some to have a butterfly land on you!

"Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden"
Daddy and I like going here and seeing the different things that are growing. There are two parts.... first you have the actual vegetable garden, second you have the flower garden (inside the fence in the above picture) which is in the "center" of the vegetable garden.

"Vegetable Garden"
From what I understand everything they grow here is used in the kitchen at the Inn and possibly other places.
I really like the straight rows and how everything is neat and orderly!

"Look what I found amongst the Parsley!"
This was too cute!!

"One of the many ponds"
The azalea's were in the last throes of blooming and it was neat to see the different colors on the other sides of the different ponds.

This years' Father Daughter Retreat was a big encouragement for me. I had started "So Much More" by Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin about a week before leaving, and things in it and things in the conference seem to finally click with me over the weekend. For example, it finally hit me that even though my Daddy is at work all day, I can still be a help to him by simply helping my Momma with the housework, laundry, or what have you.

I can help my Momma make a comfortable clean house for him to come home to each evening, which I'm sure is what he would like!
I have many other things running through my mind about the retreat, but I need to run. Be prepared to see more pictures and thoughts from the retreat over the next week or so!

"Before I close...."
I had to post this!!! We all got a kick out of seeing this advertisement somewhere on the other side of Atlanta!!! It somehow reminds me of my brothers!!