Gatorfest and Women of Faith

About 6 months ago, I got a call from my mom, with a request. She had attended a day of the Women of Faith conference, and loved it. And wanted to go again...with me. I had to take a deep breath and think about it. One quirk of mine is I'm really not into women's conferences. If it's a retreat with the women of my church, I'm all about it. But gathering with multitudes of women for an estrogen-fest? No thanks. Pardon my assessment, I know many women who love those conferences, and there is nothing wrong with that. Just call me a tomboy, I'm not into all the emotions.

Anyways, I gave in and planned to go. What I didn't realize is that the conference was all day Friday and half a day Saturday. I thought surely it'd be all day Saturday, half day Sunday..but, no. So, my sweet husband took the day off work to watch the boys for Friday so we could go. Then, I found out that Charlie's school has it's big yearly bash...you guessed it...on that Friday. Oh, what to do?!

So, Mom and Bubba (my brother Adam) came into town, and off Mom and I went to the conference that Friday morning. Mom was a trooper, she was having a hard time with all the walking, as she had recently been diagnosed with hypertension and was feeling side effects from the meds. But then we got to lunch time and Chuck calls. Poor guy, he said "I am running fever and feel achy and weak. I need you to come home."

So, we returned home, which meant we needed to get the kids out of the house, away from a contagious Daddy, and it all worked out perfectly: We took the kids to the school festival! It's called Gator Fest. It was a blast.

Chandler loved being swung. I remember loving this as a kid, too.


Chance, too.


Poor Charlie, he's too tall and heavy, ha!

I put Bubba on camera duty. Then we had a shoot-out.


The boys loved spending all their tickets on the various booths.


The kids also bought Silly String with their tickets and I caught 2 of Charlie's friends in action. Check out the boy on the right's eyes...


Granny and Chandler also enjoyed the silly string.


Despite the fatigue and aching legs, Granny still managed to play chase with the boys.


They had a dance party with the HEB Buddy. Note to self- teach the boys the Macarena.


Chandler got a little tired of dancing...


Chance found a dandelion.


Then it was back to the casa.

Charlie and Bubba. Bubba lived with us when Charlie was 10-18 months old, and they still share a special bond from that time, I think.


I still can't believe Bubba is 17. *sigh*


Anyhow, for Saturday, my dear friends the Jacksons and Morelands split taking the boys for the day and Mom and I again got to go to the Women of Faith. One special time was during the lunch break we went down to the Riverwalk and had a great lunch together.



Mom asked me for an assessment of the conference that we did get to see. I have to admit, it wasn't as emotion evoking as I expected and there was a lot of substance to the teaching. So, as usual, I was a bit humbled. ;)

And my sister Randi also came that weekend, so we returned home to Chuck on the mend from his illness, and Randi and the rest of the family. I was so grateful everything worked out and it was a wonderful weekend!