Day two was AWESOME! So, after all the Blue Man Group festivities my family and I decided to go out to dinner to celebrate my Birthday before we turned in for the evening. It was already 11:00 pm. Why did I agree to that! I enjoyed a wonderful dinner, dessert and even birthday cocktail(s) at a local neighborhood Applebee’s. It was to my surprise that when you order certain drinks on the menu it’s two for one, so when the server came back with two drinks I looked at her and said I only ordered ONE! She said that it was two for one and against my better judgment I drank both cocktails. I had ordered a Malibu Coconut Rum & Pineapple Juice. It was yummy! We got back to hotel after 1:00 a.m. and I went straight to sleep and set my alarm to be up for breakfast by 8:00 a.m. and see the first keynote by 9:00 a.m. I had my schedule all planned out and was ready to have a great day AND then… I OVERSLEPT! I woke up after 11:00 am and got myself together so that I could do the walk of shame to our buffet style lunch! I asked my blogging sisters about what I had missed and to bring me up to speed and share notes etc. So, a HUGE shout out goes to Kim @KeystrokesByKim and Denise @Niecyisms ! I felt like a college student struggling at life when I asked them to text me the slides and notes they took. Lol! My girls set me straight for a few of the sessions that I had missed that morning and I had my fingers crossed that the some of the speakers would make their slides available to us after the Niche Parent Conference.
We had a great lunch that was sponsored by Painting with a Twist! After enjoying lunch with my family I took some time to review the notes that Kim and Denise had shared with me while waiting on our Niche Parent Conference closing keynote Gabriel Torres, Southeast Area Vice President for T-Mobile. The time had come to hear Gabriel Torres and I was looking forward to his speech because we were talking about “Trends in Mobile Technology†and connecting to the world. Gabriel shared that we should embrace technology and use it to our advantage. Technological trends seen today are based on simplifying the way we communicate through mobile access and Wi-Fi, giving us the ability to share information with others at any time. He shared that connected devices are everywhere around us from our phone, tablet, watch, car and house! Gabriel stated that losing touch… is simply NOT an option! Mobile communication is very important, I can agree with that because I have my phone all the time and it’s my only means of communication. I also work remotely and am set up to work from anywhere whether I am home or in the field. I am able to us my phone to make calls, check emails, and check reports among other things on-the-go! When I am going to be at a particular location for a while, that’s when I’ll pull out my laptop. Wi-Fi is all about access and enabling us to communicate with one another anytime! I am currently living this lifestyle, I would be LOST without my phone, tablet and laptop. Whether for professional or personal reasons, I go about my day to day life leaning on technology to communicate with everyone. Lastly Gabriel shared to conquer technology to simplify your life! #Unleashed #NicheParent14
I couldn’t believe it’s already the end of day three and we had our closing Halloween Spooktacular event at Sea World to end our amazing weekend! We had some down time before we headed to Sea World so I went back to the room to plug in all my mobile devices before we left. You know I always want to be on 100%! Once we left and boarded our charter bus we were greeted by these cute Sea World stuffed animal penguins in our seats. When we got to Sea World we were able to see some live animals before going into a special area to see a brief presentation and eat before we headed into the park for some Halloween FUN! My daughter LOVES owls and it was so great for her to see one and take a picture with it. There was a raffle drawn for a Sea World prize pack and I won! Woot! It was great to learn that Sea World is celebrating their 50th year! I also learned about Sea Rescue and got to see how Sea World cares for and rehabilitates animals before sending them home. It was also great to see how others got involved to help fundraise and donate towards saving an injured dolphin. Now, it’s party time! We went to explore all that Sea World had to offer. I absolutely LOVED seeing all characters in the underwater “fantasia†as we walked through the park. The kids were able to trick-or-treat while we were in route to fun rides. I think every member of my family got on a roller coaster at Sea World except ME! Even the six year old got on Journey to Atlantis and the Shamu Express roller coaster in Shamu’s Happy Harbor! My husband and older three got on the Kraken & Manta roller coasters while I waited patiently on the ground. Lol! We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to visit Sea World again! I had a ball at my first Niche Parent Conference and can’t wait to see what next year will bring!
