I went away with three wonderful homeschool mommies to the Florida Parent Educator's Association yearly State Homeschool Convention. We left early Thursday morning for Kissimmee, Fl. We were all really excited to stay at the hotel where the convention was being held, the Gaylord Palms Hotel. It was gigantic, fancy, beautiful and probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The Gaylord discounts the cost of the hotel rooms for FPEA members and holds the convention there and pretty much caters to the FPEA members needs. They set up a cafeteria, movies for kids, tons of kids' programs, open the pools for all, had face painters, balloon artists, etc. They really do make it a family oriented environment. You see lots of dads walking around with lots of kids assuming their wives are in the exhibition hall or a seminar. But I don't really think that the dads mind much...there is so much to do! There were three major areas in the hotel, the Everglades (lots of bridges, waterways, fish, etc), the Key West area (a restaurant on a boat inside the hotel, more water with fish) and the St. Augustine area (replica of the fort, water fountains, fish, streams)...it was all beautiful!
Four very excited mommies on their way to the exhibition hall to see all the vendors...boy were we overwhelmed!
Outdoor family pool!
As soon as we got there, Abbie noticed that EVERYONE had a cart that they pulled around..well she was sold and bought one right away (of course a vendor was there selling them). Well it took me a few hours longer to be convinced but all it took was buying a couple of big books and lugging them around in my arms and/or in my purse and I was sold...plus another friend mentioned using it at VBS and co-op so I, too, bought a rolling cart! I think probably 85% of the people there had some type of rolling bin, luggage, etc that they carried all over the conference...it was the joke of the weekend really...OUR BOXES got lots of attention!
The more adult pool...where we spent part of Friday and most of the day Saturday.
The vendor hall...literally hundreds of vendors. It was nice to touch and look through all the books and curriculum choices that we have researched online or read about. And they usually have very educated vendor representatives there to answer questions. We all bought our share of books!
We also got to hear some amazing speakers, encouraging, uplifting, Godly, long time parents, writers, educators, and seasoned homeschoolers...really I feel very prepared and ready for next year! Above is Retired General Boykin, one of the first members of the elite Delta Force with over 36 years in the military...he was amazing and so spiritually grounded..I cried through the whole thing! It was so worth it and I'm so glad that I got to enjoy my time with three friends. We discussed about every topic there was to talk about! :) And I came home to my sweet family and wonderful hubby ready and re energized to start the week and enjoy summer! Thanks John!
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