At the end of January, our Staff Retreat Planning Committee put together an amazing staff retreat (I am on the planning committee). The committee gave the staff three options; snowshoeing at Cypress Mountain, Countdown Escape Rooms in Abbotsford or cooking and sharing an International meal with a team of other staff.

Very excitedly, I choose to go outside and enjoy some snowshoeing at Cypress Mountain. It was an amazing time to celebrate God’s creation, get to know other staff members and retreat from teaching for a few hours.

A week after the retreat, my family took a retreat of our own on the Family Day long weekend. We went to the small town of Coalmont BC. A winter wonderland of peace and quiet, endless views of the Similkameen River, snow as far as you can see, and no cell service. Perfect!

Show off

My sister and dad started talking about having a snowshoe building competition, on the Sunday afternoon.

I thought back to our retreat and the snowshoes I wore. “Those spiked contraptions can’t be that hard! If I can walk on them for a few hours and only fall a few times, I can probably build a pair.” I thought.

I looked around at the rest of my family. My mom was creating a beautiful quilt, my brother was studying for an exam, my husband was hand-stitching a leather briefcase and my sister-in-law was lost deep in a novel. It was time I went outside and joined the competition, so at least I would have something to show for the day.

Deconstruction Zone

They had already begun when I got outside. Their supplies consisted of twine, scissors and a hand saw. I started to examine the trees around me and found a good one to “deconstruct.” I had my pieces cut, an idea in my mind and I was ready to build. About an hour later, this is where we were at:

My dad’s looked like this:

contraptions-dad

My sister’s looked like this:

contraptions-sister

Mine looked like this:

contraptions-mine

They went for a successful walk in their snowshoes, and I walked in my boots. I will stick to socializing with colleagues and friends on snowshoes that I can rent.