Convention Weekend

Thursday when I got off work, Brandon and I loaded the car and headed to Birmingham. We had a room at the Sheraton connected to the convention center, so we were looking forward to being able to park our car and leave it there until we left on Sunday.

After we got checked in and unpacked our stuff, we met Mike & Jeannie and their kids in the lobby and went outside to catch the DART to Five Points, where we ate at Mellow Mushroom. The food was great. Brandon and I had never been there. And it cost us each a whopping quarter to ride the bus and not have to worry about driving and parking. Nice!

Friday morning, Brandon and Mike went over when the doors opened at 8:00 and got us some seats, and then they drove to McDonald's for breakfast before coming back to the hotel. We ate and then walked over for the convention, which was themed "Keep on the Watch." It was such an awesome convention! And we loved being there with Brandon's family. Here are Hannah & Logan in their matching outfits on Friday.

When Friday's session was over, Hannah & Logan came back with us to our hotel room and spent the night. What a night! We ordered pizza and Brandon picked up a box of fried chicken for supper (healthy!), which they ate on the end of our bed while watching TV. After supper, we took them down to the indoor pool to play along with the other million screaming children that were already in there. Next it was bath time, and then the kids banished Brandon to the cot we had ordered up for them b/c they decided that they wanted to sleep in the king-sized bed with me. I'll just say that when we finally got them to go to sleep, all three of us slept on half of that bed...and I was clinging to the edge trying not to get pushed off. LOL

Logan played 52-card pick up while we waited for our pizza to arrive.


While Logan threw cards around the room, Hannah showed off her smarts with a game of chess on my laptop.


Enjoying a healthy dinner of fried chicken and pepperoni pizza while watching TV on the bed. We might not make good parents, but we're a fun aunt & uncle! ;o)

Logan playing in the pool.


Hannah played with our friend Rachel's daughter, Colleen.


Um...no...Of course they aren't jumping on our bed. ;o)

Saturday morning, Logan got up and went with Brandon to save our seats while Hannah and I finished getting ready. That day we all got to sit together for the session. The kids were good and took notes in their new notebooks I personalized for them. (I blurred out their last names for this post.)

Saturday evening, we went with my Aunt Mary & Uncle Jim, as well as our friend Shannon, to Jim 'N Nick's, which is an awesome barbecue place with a location at Five Points. We were able to catch a bus again, so that was nice. We really enjoyed our dinner with them. I'm glad they went with us!

Sunday was the last day of our convention. We had an excellent drama and lots of great talks all weekend. As usual, we got new releases, but it seems like we got more at this convention than usual. And the nature of the releases was pretty special. (I won't give anything away!) Anyway, when the convention was over, we took two of my honorary parents - Martha & Gerald - home. We stopped in Jasper and ate at Jim 'N Nick's again. Yum!