Passport to Purity…Check!

Several of you have emailed me to find out how our P2P weekend went.  Well…the Monday prior to us leaving Friday, my van went on the fritz.  More narrowly defined, it wouldn’t let me put gas into the tank.  That is kind of a problem when you are about to drive 2 1/2 hours out of town.

So, about two days prior, I had to rent a car for the trip.  We ended up with a Ford Escape which was fully loaded so I pretty nice ride (bun warmers and all) for the trip.

I picked Jenna up from school and we headed out.  The program gives you a tentative schedule and because you know I’m a rule follower, you know I was trying to stick as closely to it as I could.  We mainly just talked and rode for a good part of the way.  Then, it was time for dinner so we found a Chinese buffet and ate dinner there.

Then we headed on to Chattanooga.  You are supposed to listen to the first session, take 30 minutes to check into your hotel, finish session 1 and then do session two.  I could not have timed it any better because we finished listening to session 1 CD about 15 minutes before we pulled in to the hotel.  Jenna was a trooper, but by bedtime, she was losing interest. 

The program is really great and during each session, there is an object lesson.  Here are a few photos of those…

I won’t give away the details of each of the sessions and object lessons, but they were each very good.  Saturday morning, we got up, went downstairs for a delicious buffet breakfast and then we got to the really…important part. 

Suffice it to say, Jenna was adequately embarrassed and grossed out, but she really did well and after those 2 hard sessions, you take a several hour break to do something fun.  Our activity was to go to the mall and have a shopping spree.  We did that and Jenna got some cute stuff.  After, since we had a little bit of time and were in the area, we stopped in to visit my friend Julie.  I finally got to meet her 3 children and told her I felt like I was meeting celebrities because I read about them all the time on her blog. 

Somehow, even though Julie and I take hundreds of photos (though she’s much better than I am with her camera), we managed not to get a single shot of us or the kids or…anything.  I did get a shot of this super cute shirt she made for Kylie.

We stayed about an hour or so and then headed back to the hotel to do our final session.  They know just where to put the break because after it, Jenna really opened up and asked lots of questions which is really the whole point of the program…to facilitate and open relationship with your pre-teen so when the hard questions come, they will come talk to you rather than their friends. 

After we finished that session (we were both ready for it to be over by then), we got ready to go to a celebratory dinner.  She picked Outback which was right down the road.  The problem was there was a huge cheer/dance competition that weekend and the place was packed.  But we stuck it out and after an hour of waiting, we finally got seated.  And boy was it worth it!

I even bought Jenna some dessert which, amazingly enough, she finished off.

After dinner, we sat in the car and face timed with Steve and Kylie.  By this point we both were missing them like crazy.

You wouldn’t know it unless you knew what to look for, but in the picture to the left, Kylie is flashing the sign for “I love you”….oh how my heart just melted.

Sunday morning we left bright and early and stopped for breakfast at Panera (our favorite place) and then headed home.  We got to church before the end of the second service so I went on in and picked Kylie up.  I wish I could say she was as glad to see me as I was to see her.  And she was happy, but not nearly as thrilled as we were to see her.

After church, her and Jenna hung out and played in the rental, which Kylie loves (to sit in the front).

All in all, it was a really great weekend.  It was something that I needed to do with my big girl for reasons more than just education.  And she has continued to ask questions.  I’m so glad we did this and fully intend to repeat this trip with Kylie when the time comes.  Jenna understands that if anything happens to me before then, the responsibility would be hers. 

If you have questions about this program, please let me know.  I’d love to tell you more.