WARNING…. FLAME FEST SPOILER ALERT!

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I cannot wait for this years Flame Fest. My wife and I are looking forward to another getaway! We get to get away from all the hustle and bustle, the kids enjoy time with grandparents (hopefully), and we get to enjoy quality time alone as well as time with great firefighters and their wives/girlfriends from all over. Come join us at Flame Fest 2015 in June! – Rhett Fleitz

The Fire Critic crew is really excited about participating in this year’s Flame Fest event hosted by FirefighterWife.com – the only event designed to help support the lives and marriages of Fire Families. This year’s event will take place June 4^th – June 7^th at the beautiful Glade Springs Resort in West Virginia (you can learn more about this one-of-a-kind event here). It’s designed to be an adventurous getaway for firefighters and their hot flame – filled with hands-on workshops (topics include health, nutrition/fitness, financial planning & intimacy/marriage), expert speaker panels, networking activities (Touch-A-Truck relay activities sponsored by Fire Critic!), social events, and more – all designed bring fire families closer than ever.

One new program we are really excited about is the “Fire Marriage Academy” – a series of fun, helpful and romantic (yes, all 3) certification tasks designed to strengthen the bond and intimacy between you and your spouse. For every activity and game you complete, points are rewarded with options to redeem some great prizes. Last year included turn out gear, massages, wine, jewelry and other fire items. And… you have a chance to win Flame Fest BONUS MATERIAL for those couples that complete everything! That means you leave Flame Fest with dedicated materials and specific tools to continue to nurture your marriage all year long.

Now don’t worry, the academy is not as strenuous as what firefighters have to endure. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the certification tasks you will be required to do:

Never Leave your Partner Behind – address “deal breakers” in your marriage and how to get past them
Date Night Rescue – Brainstorm romantic and spicy at-home date night ideas for after the kids are in bed
Communication Protocol – Identify the signals and signs to correct bad patterns in your marriage
And SOOO MUCH MORE!

We’ve partnered with FirefighterWife.com to give you more fun, more romance and more hands-on strategies to nurture your marriage this year, so stay tuned for some inside facts about Flame Fest that we will be sharing over the next few weeks. Be sure to check out our social media sites for these exciting announcements (click here to follow us on Facebook, click here to follow us on Twitter).

Flame Fest is an opportunity to prioritize yourself, and your marriage. There are a limited number of spots available; to guarantee your place this year, make sure to register here today!

Not convinced Flame Fest is for you? Read what past attendees have said about this impactful event below.

My husband and I credit Firefighterwife.com as playing a role in saving our marriage. Flame Fest 2014 was the first opportunity in our almost 6 year marriage that we went away for 3 nights without children. It gave us the environment to focus on what can get pushed aside in the busy of work, kids, and other commitments. Flame Fest facilitated the opportunity and encouragement to connect on a deeper level, remind us that our relationship has to be a priority and gave us tools to spark romance and adventure that we had lost. We were able to remember why we chose each other and learn how to stay connected while living this challenging lifestyle. We are signed up for Flame Fest 2015, because we have made the choice for our marriage to be a priority. – Marie Sikich

One thing I liked was that people were really open about their struggles in marriage and to let everyone know it’s normal to have ups and downs in the relationship. I learned a greater understanding of the stresses my man goes thru on the job and how that takes a toll on his body physically, emotionally, mentally. It has given me a greater compassion for all he does. It has been awesome hearing stories of other women that struggle with shift days, jealousy about the fire house, especially when our kids were little, his grumpiness when he is home because his sleep schedule is all whacked out. The sessions on communicating, Low T and on sex were really encouraging to me to keep working, keep the fires burning. To have fun together, laugh together. Flame Fest is needed for fire marriages! There are too many temptations pulling us away from each other in a fire marriage, long hours, stress, sleep deprivation, ER groupie nurses. And sometimes you feel like a single parent, but then when he comes home, he needs respect also and support. –Beth Mears McMillan

Flame Fest is a worthwhile event because you have the chance to be around other couples who experience the same daily challenges and understand your life completely. It’s an event that focuses on having a positive foundation for your marriage/family to help get through the tough situations we can face as being a part of the fire service. My favorite part has been developing relationships with other women who totally understand things I go through with my husband’s job, and my husband has connected with men from other places that totally relate to things he goes through. Also, I have developed a bond with some women that will surely prove to be lifelong friendships. – Rhonda Samples

2014 was the first Flame Fest I attended. And it completely changed my life. I learned so many things about myself and my “sisters”. I had been struggling with some things personally and after spending 3 days with these ladies I can tell you I felt renewed and recharged. They showed me what true friendship was and what it was like to be a part of something so wonderful that words can’t even describe it. There was no drama, no one made anyone feel out of place and it was just what I had been looking for. It’s a place to just be you without judgment and without drama and bickering. The entire event was not only fun filled, but I learned new ways to reconnect with my husband. We learned how to truly be intimate with each other and how to be married again and not just parents to 2 teenagers and existing in the same house. I was afraid my husband (the recluse, who likes to stay to himself) would be miserable because he doesn’t like being around a lot of people but he made friends himself and had such an awesome time. I highly, highly recommend Flame Fest to all fire couples!!! You will NOT be disappointed. If I could have brought all my friends home, I believe the same atmosphere would carry over. We all just “get” each other.- Sabrina Henson