1 hour down...12 to go!!

For our second retreat of the year, we traveled all the way to Valley, Washington (a 13 hour drive) for the weekend. Although it was a long trip, the drive through the mountains was absolutely gorgeous and made the trip worthwhile. It's always great to see more of western Montana and Idaho, and according to Harry, Wallace, Idaho was the best pit stop we've made all year!
This second retreat was centered around social justice, and it was really empowering to sit around as a collective group and talk about the injustices we see at our jobs, why we see these injustices, and what we can do to make an impact. I think many of us came away from retreat feeling relaxed, inspired, and hopeful.
In order to split up cooking for such a large group of people, Emily and Bruce put each community in charge of cooking one meal for the weekend. Ashland was in charge of cooking squash for Sunday dinner, and as usual, the prep time in the kitchen soon turned into a dance party as we all paraded around the kitchen in our aprons and hair nets. We turned what could have been a boring hour and a half in the kitchen to a bumpin' par-tay! James and Harry were most enthusiastic when it came to the dancing (naturally), while the women held it together to produce a delicious meal for everyone.