10 On The 10th: January 2025

My "10 on the 10th" for January is all about our church's winter retreat. For some reason I didn't feel very inspired to take pictures this time around so I had a hard time finding ten good photos. Also, these pictures were mostly taken on January 11th since on January 10th I worked, got a ride to winter retreat, and then basically went to bed -- not a very exciting day :)

Rachel on the path to the washroom on Saturday morning. Our cabin was at the furthest end of the camp so we had about a three minute walk to the washroom and another few minutes to get to the dining hall.

Rachel is standing in front of our cabin. Can you see her? The cabins are winterized so were nice and warm. We shared with our friends, their two kids, and another couple. We were here basically to sleep and get dressed!

Sadly, none of the bodies of water were completely frozen over so we couldn't go skating.

While we had plenty of indoor fires, an outdoor campfire was not happening! The outdoor campfire circle sure was pretty though.

The winter woods were gorgeous! This was on a walk to the sauna, during the day, so I knew how to find it in the dark.

In the afternoon I walked out to Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes) with a few other people. The ice balls were along the shore and were so unique. In the photo on the right, you can see the open water. We didn't want to get too close to the edge as we didn't know how thick the ice was.

Rachel and I in the sauna!

We saunaed, we snowed, we squealed! It was a lot of fun, the sauna was hot, and the snow was cold!!!

 

There are no pictures or videos of the diving into the snow because we wanted to get back into the sauna as soon as possible. I would highly recommend this if you ever get a chance to try it.

 

Sam and the youth went to the sauna later that night, chipped a hole in the ice of the pond, and polar plunged. Diving into a snowbank was enough for me though :)

I have been trying to drink less Coke but I had one with me, just in case. And, of course, on Sunday morning I woke up with a headache. While I didn't have access to a fridge, I did have access to a lot of snow, so I had a very cold Coke for the drive home.

 

Even though I don't have a lot of pictures, I am very thankful for our weekend of Winter Retreat with our church. It is always a weekend when, not only do I get to enjoy winter fun, but I always leave feeling more connected, and very grateful, for our church family.

Maybe next year I'll even be brave enough to do the full polar plunge!