HSA National Reunion :day 3:

Hello, dear readers! Good news for you, since the reunion is a few months behind me, I no longer remember every little detail. But that's okay because I want to finish this and move on, so here we go...

Woke up Saturday to another gorgeous Colorado morning. Got ready and called home. Then ate breakfast. I'm liking this short version a lot better, how about you? :o) Had another Hymn Sing. The morning session was Eric & Leslie Ludy, who brought us a message about living your life, a sold out life, for Christ. It was awesome! Eric and Leslie touched our hearts and urged us onto higher spiritual plains. I'll never forget Eric's version of David fighting Goliath. I think there's a video of it on youtube, if you can find it watch it! Or I'll find it in a few days and post the link here.

the lovely ladies

After the message from Eric and Leslie, Jill asked a few of us ladies if we would like to go on a walk with her. So, we did and here are the pictures of the scenery and some of the girls. First pic is of the mountains in the distance. Second pic is most of my walking companions and the next pic was taken on our way back.

isn't Colorado stunning?!

Next thing we knew it was time for lunch and I'm sure it was yummy even though I don't remember what we had. lol! Besides, I was too hungry to care. After that I went to get ready for the second, and final, day of the Entrepreneur Expo. Which was less busy due to the Swing dance and a couple of "breakout" sessions. Oh well, it gave us a breather.

Afternoon session was the Roundtable Discussion. Interesting as always. Stick a bunch of homeschoolers in a room together and ask them what their opinion is on various topics and you're sure to get some new perspective to ruminate over.

Time to eat again! Our last supper at the reunion. After supper we took the group picture. Then we meandered over to the Bear Claw for the HSAIR Talent Show. One of my friends decided to mix things up a bit by declaring he would wear a kilt to the next reunion ECD and asked who would join him. *laughs* You can imagine the mixture of responses! One guy said he would, he already had a kilt and was looking for an excuse to wear it. Several guys gave flat out refusals. Girls, too, were a mixed bag. Some thought it would be cool, some thought it would be horrible. Anywhoo...the talent show was great, but the highlight of the evening came from somthing other than what was actually part of the talent show. So, the previous couple of days people had been nominated for several yearbook type questions with decidedly homeschool twists. To cut to the chase, one of them was, "Most likely to make people wonder why 'socialization' was ever a concern with homeschoolers." And the vote was Riley Spiller with 25% and Doug Plagemann right behind him with 24%. Well, Camden got the brilliant idea to have a dance off between Doug and Riley. And they did. We were in stitches it was so hilarious! I'll post the video link for this too.

Moving on, after the talent show a lot us stayed at the Bear Claw to hang out and listen to more awesome jazz music and sign more autograph books. I tumbled into bed just before midnight. About the same time, the chocolate party in our dorm was getting started. I thought about joining them for just a little bit, 15 or 30 minutes, but then told myself "yeah right, once you get in you're not going to want to leave." Wise choice. Not long after I turned in I heard singing drift up from the lobby. First it was "Sisters" by Irving Berlin, then it was "White Christmas", and then a hymn and I finally started to doze. I learned the next morning that the girls had stayed up until 3am singing! Since it was the last night of the reunion they decided to go all out. Whew! And it was just my luck that I missed their singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Who wants that stuck in their head as they try to sleep!?

Well, this is all for now. The next post will be the final day of the reunion and our trip to Garden of the Gods. Stay tuned...

Homeschool Alumni National Reunion 2009 {day 2}

Wow, have I fallen behind. But now I'm back. So, day two of the reunion dawned clear and cool. Great weather! First thing on my agenda, after a shower, was to call home. It felt so good to talk to Mama. Most of my homesickness went away after that. Now I was ready to face the day. After breakfast was praise and worship time. Some friends organized a hymn singing for those who didn't want to participate in the former. So, I headed over to the chapel for that. Ah, the sweet music of voices blended over the words of great hymns. Then it was off to the "Bear Claw" for our first session which was with Camden Spiller. Camden is one of the founders of HSA. He spoke on what we as homeschoolers can do to see the homeschool vision through to the next generation. Some great insights, thanks Camden! Had a bit of free time for hanging out before lunch.

here is the chapel on campus

After lunch I headed over to the expo hall to set up my table and do some finishing work before the Entrepeneur Expo opened. I missed out on some stuff, namely the Learn ECD session, since I had to stay at my table the whole two hours. But it was worth it. The girl that organized the expo this year, Allison, her sister Melissa came by and loved my stuff. Talk about excitement, Melissa generates it no problem. She bought a knitted cuff (which are coming soon to the etsy shop!) and a couple of my Pride and Prejudice Bracelets. One for her and one for a friend. I recently heard from that friend and she loves her bracelet! She blogged about it here - adored austin: kate spade/ great trade. Thanks Indiana!

After the expo was the afternoon session with Kevin Swanson. He is awesome, a very emotive speaker who literally uses the whole stage. He speaks with energy and passion. If you ever get the chance to see Mr. Swanson speak, go! You won't be dissapointed. His message to us was very encouraging. He urged us to use our lives and unique gifts as homeschoolers to follow Christ and be His light in this world. He also brought along one of the books he's written, "The Second Mayflower", for us at no charge. Free! Yipee!

part of the fun at the dance was watching the flow of traffic in the balcony

We ate supper next and then headed to our dorms to get ready for the dance! I called home again to talk to Daddy. Had to keep my parents up to date on all the stuff they were missing out on! *laughs* The ECD was a lot of fun! Even if there were more girls than guys. Danced a really fun dance that was new to me called "The Boston Tea Party." We danced from 8:00 to 11:30! There were a couple of breaks, but I was tired! Didn't take me long to fall asleep that night!

this is kinda blurry, but it's the "posties jig"!

More pictures and days 3 and 4 still to come...

{homeschool alumni national reunion} :day 1:

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in ages, life has been so busy! I got home a week ago from a delightful and wonderful vacation in Colorado with 200+ other homeschoolers. It was the Homeschool Alumni 2009 National Reunion. This was HSA's fourth reunion but the first time I was able to go. I cannot begin to tell about everything that happened over those four days, but I will give some highlights, funny moments, and my thoughts. The new song on the playlist, "Inside Outside" by Delirious?, became our unofficial song during the reunion.

Wednesday, August 12, I packed up and my parents drove me to the spot where my carpool had arranged to pick me up. We all spent the night at a friends house and hit the road bright and early on our way to Larkspur, Colorado. In the van were six excited girls and all our luggage with Justin following in his car. Driving through western Kansas is not my idea of a good time, but the company of friends well made up for the boring scenery. I switched to Justin's car about halfway to keep him company. He was so bored the day before he had resorted to singing songs in a Muppet voice. *laughs* We discussed a variety of topics so there was no need for Muppet voices. After getting lost, isn't that required on road trips?, we arrived safely at our destination.

getting closer to the mountains!

yours truly in the mirror

finally there! woo hoo!

The much anticipated reunion was under way! We hauled our stiff bodies out of the vehicles and headed for registration. I didn't know but a couple other people other than my carpool so they were very kind to "adopt" me. I had met most of them last year in Kansas City at a HSA mini-reunion. Therefore we stuck to each other like glue the first few hours until more people showed up and we could find some familiar faces. Mind you, homeschoolers are almost instant friends, it's the introducing yourself hurdle you have to jump first.

inside the "bear claw" for the opening ceremony

At 5:00pm was the opening ceremony and we all gathered at the main meeting place, which Riley renamed the "Bear Claw" (rawr!) [inside joke]. After that it was time for supper. The place that hosted us, Ponderosa Baptist Conference Center, has great food! Nothing to complain about there! By this time I was getting homesick. I had never been away from home without a family member before so this was a BIG adventure. I called home but nobody answered! Or the cell phone! So I left a voicemail telling them we had arrived safely and I would talk to them later. After that it was time to gather for the "Meet Your Team" session. There were eight teams and I was on the brown team. So we introduced ourselves and played "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" I sat out since I had never played it before, someone else sat it out too. Which was almost as fun as actually being in the game.

Then at 8:30pm we had a bonfire in the fire pit inside the "Bear Claw" (rawr!). Had live jazz music to add to the atmosphere, which was awesome! I stayed until about 10:30 talking to people and soaking up my surroundings. But a warm bed was calling my name so I headed out hoping the next day would be great too.

Coming soon! - Days 2, 3, and 4! Plus more pictures!