If you follow me on social media, you probably saw my beautiful pictures from this weekend. But if you're not following me there, I'll tell you on here :) Through MORE pictures than I've shared on social media yet!
Well this past weekend, my mom and I attended our team Leadership Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN. And let me tell you, the 11 hour drive to get there was WELL worth it.
Before I get into the details of the trip itself, let me first tell you why I almost didn't go.
1) My husband couldn't come and I am SUCH a shy person, I absolutely hate going places alone. I will avoid going anywhere at all costs if I'm forced to go alone. So don't think I hate you. I'm just THAT anti-social.
2) I was NOT driving alone. Last time I drove to TN this summer, I just about had the worst experience ever -- between a tire blow out on the highway, a busted gas cap, busted blinker, and a dead battery, you're lucky I even drive to work everyday. Much less driving 11 hours to the same place where this all happened. No thanks.
3) I have no extra money to hop on a plane. Christopher JUST got his job. We are slowly building up the life we were supposed to have started years ago but couldn't because I was the ONLY income and that just wasn't in the cards for us.
4) My carpool friends were only driving through a town in LA that was 5 hours away. Chris would have had to driven a minimum of 10 hours to meet up with them and drop me off during his week of night shifts. I couldn't bring myself to even ask him to do that.
Exactly. Nothing wanted to line up for me to go on this trip. But as I got on a call last Sunday night with some of the leaders on our team, they kept asking if I was going. And truth be told, I wasn't. I didn't even have a slightest thought about going. Until they asked that ONE LAST TIME. And I said, well maybe mom can take off of work and this can be a mother/daughter trip. So I got off that call around 9:30 and called mom to ask her if she wanted to come with me as my last ditch effort to get there. She said she doubted she could get off on such short notice, but she'd ask in the morning.
Come 4:00 Thursday morning, we are packing the car and off to TN!!
The ride up was rough. Getting up that early is just not my thing. But we made it & the fun began!
The first night was arrival and everyone was exhausted from traveling. Some drove, some flew, and others carpooled. But none the less, we all got there in one piece, ready to have a good time. We played a game called "Fish Bowl." And let's just say that I stink at it! haha!
On Day 2 we had a morning workout session. We did a Turbo HIIT 15 with the whole group (even mom!). And once that was over, some of us stayed around and did T25 Speed 2.0 just to get an even higher calorie burn <3
Then we all got showered and dressed up! It was time for our photo shoot! We were actually supposed to go hiking on the second day, but the weather was so gross & rainy, we decided to push it back to day 3.
Around 2:00ish everyone was done with their photos and we all dressed down in jeans and Chucks and headed to Ober, Gatlinburg! For those of you who have no idea what that is (because I know I surely didn't) it's like a mini town inside itself on the top of a mountain! It has slides, shops, rides, food, ice skating, singing, and anything else you can think of. And this, my friends, is where I ice skated for the first time & didn't bust my butt!
We only skated for about 30-40 minutes before everyone's ankles were shot and we had enough even though we had bought a 3 hours pass! HA!
After skating we went eat at some fancy smancy BBQ place. And guess what I got. Chicken fingers. Oh yeah. :p
Once supper was done, we walked and explored downtown Gatlinburg. Shopped at a few of the venues on the street, ate some ice cream, and created amazing memories. Around 7ish we decided it was probably best to head back before it gets too dark. The roads around there are SUPER windy and scary. Like going to die scary. So it's best we didn't stay out too late and have it turn pitch black on us.
And when we got home, the acro-yoga tricks came out the hat. Don't hate on us cause you ain't us :p
Trust me. They look harder than they look and created WAY more laughs than these images can capture.
Day 3 was hiking day & like fools, a few of us decided to get up early and workout before we went hiking. If you're reading this and you're contemplating that decision, DON'T DO IT. HA!
But about 5 of us did INSANITY MAX:30 Sweat Intervals and Maxed Out at 30:00, which is a feat in itself!
A quick change in clothes, a little freshening up, and out the door we went. We arrive at Mt Leconte around 10:30. We got to the halfway point around lunch time and came back down the mountain at 2:30.
10 miles of pain. around 7,000 ft elevation. 5 hours of craziness. But we DID IT!
Before we knew what kind of craizness we were going to attempt. the ladies in front of us at the restroom actually told us that we were crazy. That we didn't have the right gear or shoes to get to the top. Well, I suppose we proved her wrong ;)
The view from the top wasn't so great. But the feeling of accomplishment was more than anything I can describe to you.
And then there's the FitBit telling me I'm NUTS for everything I did that day. Yeah. It's safe to say I EARNED this pizza party <3
And then on Day 4, everyone headed out! We left at 7 AM and got home around 6:30. It was long. It was tiring. But it was SO worth it.
Will you be at the next Leadership Retreat with us? Will you conquer all fears and surpass what you thought you could do? I'm MORE than ready to help you get there. Let's do this!
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