Bed Bug
The Scott family has returned from an epic international adventure. Our trip started off in Cle Elum, WA for our annual staff retreat and then followed right into a family vacation to Vancouver and Victoria, BC. Let me tell you, 12 days is a long time to be away from home with a baby! In fact, 12 days may be the longest I’ve ever been away from home to date. Since our trip had 3 very different locations, I’m going to break this up into a three part blog! That way I can share more pictures and stories!
Staff retreat… oh, staff retreat. I didn’t make it last year because I was 37 weeks pregnant and I didn’t want to be far away from home in case I went into labor. Going back to staff retreat this year was an interesting experience. Since Owen is still nursing, he was invited in along. I knew going into the trip that it was going to be a challenge at times. Staff retreat can be a very serious time of discussion and planning for our church pastoral team. Babies don’t lend to serious discussion. The first day went great until bed time. Right off the bat, we realized that Owen wasn’t too interested in sleeping in his Pack’n’Play. If we didn’t want him screaming at night then that meant we had a bed bug. The bonus to the house we rented was that it had three stories so Owen’s screaming was only really heard by 2 other couples. However, I still struggled with letting him cry at night. Especially because we were all in the same room and that meant I wasn’t sleeping either. So… co-sleeping became the theme of the whole trip. I’ll be honest, I don’t sleep as great with Owen in bed with us. I love my little snuggle bug, but I also like getting solid sleep. The two don’t go together all that well.
Distracting Owen while the group eats dinner… He is seriously a monkey!
One of the main activities for staff retreat was a special business meeting to elect a new network leader for our Assemblies of God district. This was a big, important meeting. There was some tension with the election process, but in the end, I think we all came to a good place and a new network was elected. I was proud of Owen. He stayed in the nursery at unfamiliar church for 3 hours. That is longest I’ve left him in a nursery before. I gives me hope that in the near future, I can maybe keep him in the nursery for both gatherings at Bethel! Anyway, back to the meeting, I was grateful to be a part of the voting process. It was a long meeting and I was glad when we reached a conclusion in harmony. This day ended with an epic adventure for me. The big meeting was over an hour away from the house we were staying at. Owen was melting down at the restaurant where the team was having an important conversation. I decided to take off and drive back so Jeremy could focus on the task at hand. During my drive home, in the dark, my phone died so I had to get back to the house by memory! Without my phone I had to remember the door code and then because the front porch light was out, I had to enter the code in the dark with Owen in my arms! It was a bit zany, but we survived!
Cousin time!
The next day while the guys went golfing, Owen and I took a drive to hang out with my sister-in-law and niece and nephews! This branch of the family lives the furthest away, so anytime I get to spend with them is a special treat. I love seeing Owen play with cousins. It was nice to be a way from serious conversations and big meetings. The whole afternoon was very relaxed and I enjoyed myself immensely. Owen slept the 45 minute drive there and back, so my introverted side got some much needed quiet time as well. A win-win!
The last day was simply loading up and hitting the road for the next adventure. I learned a lot on this trip about work related things and traveling with babies. They don’t mix all that well. I was off with Owen keeping him from melting while the group had their discussions. I knew this was likely going to be the case, but I thought I would give it a try. In between the moments of keeping up with Owen, I was able to have some good conversations with the staff members and the food for the whole week was really good. Our lead pastor’s wife certainly knows her way around the kitchen! Overall, I’m not sure I would do staff retreat with a baby again, but… I was brave and I tried it. Sometimes you just have to go for it and see what happens. I know that Jeremy enjoyed having us around. It was great to visit with the team again, even if I didn’t get a chance to contribute much to the conversation. God is good and we are blessed to work with a fabulous group of people who love Jesus and love people.
Amy Scott's Thoughts 