Regional Wrap-Up

This past weekend, we headed up to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the District 5 LPA Spring Regional. We left immediately after school on Thursday and drove to Auburn, IN for the night. Ellie scoped out a Super 8 that she wanted to stay in rather than the brand new Hampton Chris had reserved. For some reason, Ellie thinks that Super 8 is THE hotel of all hotels...like it's the Taj Mahal or something. Silly girl! We got up early the next morning and headed to Grand Rapids. Chris went on a fishing expedition when we arrived so it was just the girls and I for Friday. We hung by the pool and was able to meet up with Mandy and Andrea.

Later on that evening, we went to the Mingle and was able to meet up with Cat and Owen. Let me tell you...Owen is one busy dude. He is cute as a button!! Andrea soon joined in and she was dancing the night away. I tried to get a pic with all the blogging mama's kids, but that is nearly an impossible task!

The next morning, the kids were off to the Children's Room so we could attend the Parents Meeting. It was very informative and I learned some things from other parents. The bad thing was that this was the beginning of my deteriorating voice. For some strange reason, laryngitis hit me hard on Saturday, deeming it nearly impossible for me to speak. Now, my kids loved it! But for me...I was wanting to talk, talk, talk to all these other parents but I just couldn't. It was really, really upsetting, not to mention frustrating. I guess this just means that I'll have to go to the next Regional, huh. Sounds good to me!

Saturday afternoon, we went to the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. What an amazing place! It is beautiful!!! We walked thru this huge exhibit that featured more than 6,000 tropical butterflies all fluttering about. It was spectacular!






That evening, we went to dinner with the Ehle's and had a great time at Longhorn Steakhouse. The food was yummy but the camaraderie what was made it so much fun. You know your kids are getting older when they turn their noses up to the Kiddie Menu, which is exactly what Katie did. Instead, she opted for a 1/2 rack of Baby Backs...and she ate all except 1! Thank goodness (for my pocketbook) that Maddie still opts to be a kid. Ellie could probably eat off the kid's menu for years.

After dinner, we headed to the Dance. We had a great time, but I, at this point, had NO VOICE AT ALL. What a bummer. We did get a photo opp with the other Bloggers in District 5 that were there. That was a lot of fun, too. There was a lot of dancing, a lot of drinking, and most of all...a lot of laughs.




From Left: Sarah, me, Cat, Mandy, Reenea', and Amy. Kneeling down is Tonya.

We left early the next morning just because of the long drive we had ahead of us. It took us only 7 hrs to get home and we were all completely exhausted by the time we hit the driveway. But, it was so worth it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat...these are important events for me to get Ellie involved in. I'm so glad to have finally met some of the ladies I've been 'talking' to for quite some time now. I felt like I already knew many of them, even though we had never met fact to face. I can't wait to meet more friends in October!