Convention Fun

I don't know if you know, but I'm homeschooled. Because of that, I can devote lots of my time to Joy. Also, we can take off and do socialization outings when other kids are in school! I love homeschooling! :)

Last Friday/Saturday/Sunday was the FPEA Homeschooling Convention at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando, Florida. I've been several times before but it's been a few years. Well, since next year will be my last year of homeschooling, (Senior, whoop whoop!) my mom decided that we should go to the convention.

So, of course, we took Joy!

Joy loved her first hotel. If you've never been to the Gaylord Palms, it's awesome. It has this HUGE center atrium that shows different areas of Florida, like the Keys, the Everglades, and St. Augustine. We stayed in the St. Augustine section, so we didn't go too far, I joked. You know, because we...live in....St. Augustine...No? Never mind.

The St. Augustine section of the atrium. Did I mention that
this thing is HUGE? Yes? Oh.

When we first arrived, I think Joy was a little confused by the atrium. Is it outside? Is it inside? We were inside a building...but now there are plants.......Very confusing stuff for a doggy. Joy had a couple of- Well, let's just say we weren't at our best...Yeah, let's go with that.

Joy in our hotel room

She absolutely LOVED looking outside the large window

See?

We brought her bed and she loved having something there
that smelled familiar

Oh yeah, and there was this brush fire that got out of control outside the hotel! Because of it, they closed all outside activities, like their cool, new pool.

We could really smell the smoke when I took her outside

I chose a nice grassy area outside as her designated "busy" area. Joy and I got to know it pretty well, seeing as we visited it frequently.

The "Busy" spot

The actual convention area was a little overwhelming for her. So many people, smells, sounds, Joy went a little crazy. First, she was hyper, sniffing EVERYTHING and stopping to eat EVERYTHING. Then, she got tired. Here's the issue when we're out somewhere and she gets tired (which is like 60% of the time): 1. She's hyper. 2. We walk around. 3. The hyperness dies down. 4. She gets tired. 5. We continue to walk around. 6. I stop. 7. Joy falls asleep. 8. I try to move on. 9. Joy does not budge. 10. People start laughing and pointing. 11. I become embarrassed. 12. Repeat steps 5-11 for another twenty minutes until we are done with the store.


So, yeah, that basically happened every time we wanted to stop and look at something. Which was like every two minutes. Eventually, I had had enough and I had to go put her back in the hotel room with my Grandmother. I threw some toys for her and then we ran around the tiny space for like five minutes (Sorry, people below us!). By the time we were ready to go back, Joy had collapsed on her bed and was out.


That night we had reservations at this absolutely amazing restaurant in the atrium called the Villa de Flora. It's like this big, awesome, delicious smorgasbord of food served buffet-style. Only, like, 5 star-restaurant-buffet-style. They had a make your own pasta section (Delicious!), a yummy vegetable section (Yum!), fresh fruit (Mmmmm) and, oh my gosh, the bread! Can you tell I enjoy eating? So does Joy...

A view of Villa de Flora

She slept through the entire meal, which for us was like four
courses and dessert...Oh, dessert!

 ANYWAY, before I start talking about the dessert, Joy was so well behaved. She always is in restaurants. The waiters absolutely loved her and would walk around behind my chair so they could look at her. None of the other families were even aware she was there until we got up! She even slept through a chipmunk rendition of Party Rock Anthem, something I could never do! (They were playing the new chipmunk movie where they're on a cruise ship or something on the Jumbotron near the restaurant)

All in all, it was a great experience for Joy and we all had a really great time. Nothing ever scared Joy, not even the Koi fish in the hotel's many fish ponds. I'm totally confident that she will do awesome when we go on our trip to Washington D.C., but that will be another post! ;) 

So, outside the convention area was this cool fountain.
I know a lot of dogs shy away from fountains so I let Joy
see it. We didn't even realize for a while that it said...

Jump for Joy!

Takin' a quick power nap! Joy actually slept soundly through
the entire night.

Joy was very interested in the Koi and vice versa...

It looks like they're conversing in this picture!

We had a truly great time ^_^

Peace, Love, Joy :)