The Washington Homeschool Conference and Home Sweet Home

On Tuesday evening of this last week, I flew back into San Antonio from a wonderful (short) vacation with my family up in Washington. We have the annual family tradition of attending the Christian Heritage Homeschool conference up in the Seattle area. Vision Forum always gets a booth and sends a few reps up there, and I get first dibs since it’s my home state. This year I went up there with Perry Coghlan, the warehouse manager at VF (and a super-fun guy).

This year they had two keynote speakers – Ken Ham and Kevin Swanson, both men I very much admire and look up to. I got to attend several of their general sessions since the vendor hall was closed during that time, as well as one or two of the breakout sessions when there was a lull in the action at the booth.

As I had expected, I came away encouraged, reinvigorated, refreshed, and so grateful for the opportunity to see so many old friends and make some new ones.

After the conference I was able to take a few days off work to spend with my family. We played volleyball, bad mitten, The Farming Game, and some others that are slipping my mind. I got a tour of the chicken and duck operation, walked down to the spring with the kids, enjoyed the crisp air and the REAL TREES, played guitar with Jonathan, held my niece and little brother, ate good food….I could go on and on. It was SO nice to be home again. I just can’t get enough of it.

We also celebrated Jonathan's 22nd birthday. Chelsea made a fantastic key lime pie (thank you!!), and we all had a great time. It's a family tradition on birthdays to go around the table and everyone mentions a few things they appreciate about the birthday boy (or girl). Kaylee got shy and didn't say anything, but it's clear she loves her daddy!

I hope you enjoy the images I’ve posted. They were all taken on my Canon 7D with my new 24-105 f4L lens, and processed in Lightroom 3 beta.