Convention - more fun than I realized!

This weekend my hubby and I traveled up north to go to our state homeschooling convention.  His parents were wonderful and kept the girls to make it easier for us.  We only went to the curriculum exhibit, but we still had a lot of fun!  I was amazed at how many companies were represented!

Our first stop was the My Father's World exhibit.  It was wonderful being able to see all the curriculum laid out, and the people there were so friendly and helpful!  Even though we knew we wanted to buy from them, we decided to wander around the exhibit hall before coming back and making our purchases. 

At first I was a bit nervous, as there were so many people there!  It was a bit overwhelming.  But God is good, and within two minutes of walking  in to the convention center we saw another homeschooling mom from our church.  We visited with her for just a couple of minutes, but that really helped to make it seem not quite so overwhelming.  She said this year they had the biggest turnout they have ever experienced.  That's pretty cool!

As my husband and I walked around to see the different vendors, I commented to him that it was kind of like walking around at the fair, only most everyone there were Christians.  I loved it!  And my husband said next year he'll have to try to get both days off work, so we can go to the entire convention.  That will be so much fun!

There were some really fun exhibitors we visited.  There are a couple of creation science based organizations in the Pacific North West, and it was fun to see the different tours they offer.  There is even a creation museum up near Mount St. Helens!  We would love to take a trip up there someday with our girls.  It's several hours away, but that would be a wonderful field trip someday.

We finally made our purchases, although most everything we bought will have to be shipped to us, as by the time we went they were out of some of their packages.  We were going to take the Light Rail back to our car, but it was such a beautiful day my husband and I decided to walk.  Saturday was really a wonderful day!

Yesterday after the girls came home we showed them the few things we brought home from the convention, and they were so excited!  Each of the girls will have a  pretend passport this year, and each time we visit (learn about) a country they will get a flag sticker to put into their passport.  They both thought that was so cool, so last night when they were talking over the computer with my parents, my oldest had  fun showing Grandpa her new passport.  It was a lot of fun, because then he was able to show her his real passport.  She was amazed at how similar they looked, and how real her passport looked!  :-)  The girls were also really excited to see some of their new language arts books, and thought they looked like a lot of fun.  I've had some reservations about the LA recommendations, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try this year, and if we don't like it we can try something else next year.  But my oldest was so interested in the book  she curled up in the recliner with hers and started reading!  I think she's fascinated because it is a reprint of a book that is almost 100 years old. 

All in all, Saturday was such a fun day, and now we're even more excited to start school in a few weeks.  In about a week or so we should be having our "box day," so we'll have a lot of fun going through our new books.  I wish we could start school sooner (and so do the girls!) but my oldest will be away from home for 2 weeks next month, so we'll need to wait until she's home.  She'll be going to camp for a week, then the girls will be be with their grandparents for a week so they can attend VBS and Grandma and Grandpa's church.  Once they get home we'll start school, so that will be July 25th.  We're all anxious for that day!  And I look forward to having some fun topics for my blog, once we start school.  :-)