Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Calvary Chapel Visalia women's retreat. Jeremiah and I have finally found a church that we love attending, and it's been really nice getting to know the community of people who attend there. The retreat was located at the St. Anthony Retreat Center in Three Rivers, just 5 minutes from the entrance to Sequoia National Park. We enjoyed deep and reflective teaching, great fellowship, and beautiful hiking trails. I had fun with our camera on the hiking trails, and here I've posted some of my favorite pictures. The first collection of pictures shows Sheri and her friend Shea (top left). Sheri was the woman who led worship during the weekend, and it was awesome getting to know her and Shea. The blond woman is Lizzie. She was my roommate during the weekend, and I feel so blessed for her friendship. She and I both had no hiking shoes, and wound up hiking in our work shoes! This was definitely a challenge considering the massive rainfall that occurred earlier in the morning! Both of our shoes got pretty wet and muddy, but Lizzie was fortunate because Sheri happened to have an extra pair of shoes that fit Lizzie! Here she enjoys modeling her new large (yet stylish) shoes...we tried to
shoot the last picture like a Sketcher's advertisement...
Well, enjoy the pictures. It was so beautiful there. We were so close to the snow-capped mountains, and we definitely loved being surrounded by God's beauty!
Today, Sandy had the most traumatic of days...first she was brought to the vet to get a rabies and a parvo shot, and then she was left at Petco for 4 hours so they could cut her hair! But, it was all worth it, because she looks beautiful! Plus, Petco had a deal going today- after the cut, Sandy had a professional photo taken of her, and they'll be mailing us a FREE 8 x 10 photo of her in about 2 weeks! They also offered us a $400 package of ALL the photos they took of her today... but we settled for the free one! So, what a happy ending to her day! :) 
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