American Mothers National Conference

I got back from Disneyland in time to wash a few clothes, pack my bags, and head to Portland, OR for the National Conference of American Mothers. I went representing Utah as the Young Mother of the Year. I had so much fun!! Every mother should have the chance to go on a forced vacation for 4 days. We stayed at a really nice hotel and ate a lot of delicious food. I gave my speech "I am my Mother's
Garden" that I posted on this blog in February. It went well, I think. I liked listening to all the other speeches. Even though we all had the same topic, it was interesting that each talk was diverse and unique. I attended some amazing workshops that helped me learn better parenting skills. I ate some more. I went to training classes on the different parts of American Mothers. It really is an amazing organization. The more I learn about it, the more I want to be involved in it. I love that it is an interfaith, Christian organization. The motto is "Strengthening the moral and spiritual values of the family".
Thankfully, I am not the National Young Mother of the Year for this year. Her name is Kimberly Wright, from Nevada. She will do a great job. I don't know how she will travel around the country this year since she has 4 children. But she has a great husband and supportive family, so I am sure she will do great.
My favorite part was getting to know so many amazing women. I arrived there Wednesday night knowing two people there. I left on Saturday with 14 very close friends (the other Young Mothers from the other states) and many close acquaintances. Now I have friends all over the country. It's great.
I really didn't take pictures until Friday night and Saturday. I was too busy the other days. Lots of people took pictures throughout the week, so I am hoping to get copies. Here are some pictures of Portland. We went to the Rhodedundrum Gardens in Portland which were beautiful. We also got to go to the SAturday market and China town.

Disneyland

We just got back from Disneyland. We got to go as chaperones with Matt's school's choir students who performed at Disneyland on Wednesday. The students did a great job and were so well behaved. We had lots of instant babysitters who all wanted to play with Ginny. One student in particular, Lizzy, was so nice to hang out with all day and go on all the little kids rides with us. Ginny loved Disneyland and loved having so much attention. It was a nice time for our family to be together. Ginny got to be in one of the parades that go down Main Street. We were waiting for the parade to come by, when someone came up and asked how many were in our party. She then took us to front row seats right by the street. During the show, Ginny was able to go out and dance with the dancers. It pays to have a cute daughter. Here is a collage of our Disneyland days. We had two-day park-hopper passes. See if you can recognize some of the locations at Disneyland.Ginny's favorite rides were Dumbo, The Teacups, and Peter Pan.

Huntington Beach

We got to spend a day at beautiful Huntington Beach. It was a bit cold and windy, but that didn't stop us from running in the waves and building sand castles.

Free Math, Science and Reading Classes

I am the Director of a free Learning Center in Provo. If you have a 4-6 year old, and want to know more about these free classes, see my blog at www.watearlylearningcenter.wordpress.com. There is a link there on how to sign up. I am currently enrolling people for the waiting list for the fall. Hope to see you there!