Kid Convention

Jordan and friends (yey!!)
Preparing for a lecture at the university

Lots of nasty microbes live in the Mississippi river - that's my professional scientific opinion after looking at the squirmy living things under the microspope
My little scientist

Please Mikailey... don't break anything expensive!!

If you want to know why Jord has that scared look on his face while examining his specimen under the microscope, you'll have to ask him what grew in his petri dish after he swabbed the keyboard of the public use computer in the hotel lobby (yucky... you might want to wash your hands after using public computers!!)

Hanger sculptures are good... although hotel staff don't like them so much:-)

We're back from the kiddo convention:-) We just got back from the educational convention in Minneapolis, and I thought I'd be all rested and relaxed after my very first time away from the twins, but I'm exhausted!! The whole thing was fun. I got to catch up with friends and meet some new ones from across the country that I've only known online until now, and the kids got to hang out with old friends and make some new ones. Of course the whole educational component was very exciting for the kids as well - what could be more fun than nanotechnology, microbiology, forensic science, geometry with zome toys, neuroscience, etc. etc. ? Mikailey got to hold a real human brain, which I have to admit is pretty cool. I wasn't in the class with her so didn't get a picture.... but that's something I've never done and not something many 7 year olds can say they did on their last vacation:-) Jordan was pretty excited about working in a lab with real doctors, and even better, the creator of a very popular computer game called World of Warcraft. I didn't get many pictures during the classes offered at the hotel because the schedule was pretty tight and I was running around the whole time, but I snapped a few at the university.

-

I have to say the most amusing part of the trip for me, however, was watching about 600 kids along with their siblings and family members completely take over a really nice hotel. Gifted or not, they are still kids. At any given time there were about 30 kids going up the down escalator or down the up one, the 100 person capacity pool was full with at least 300 kids, and the halls, lobby, and all open floor spaces were full of kids running around, playing games and having a blast. There were about 30 convention rooms in the hotel, all used by our group, and since the hotel was in Minnesota where it is often -40 degrees in the winter, there were massive coat racks outside each conference room. Since it isn't coat season, there were just a million hangers on racks. I'm easy to amuse:-) The coat racks were continuously turning in to different hanger sculptures all over the hotel. The staff would get annoyed, huff and puff, and hang the hangers up right again, and each time, by the time they were done, kids had already sculpted another coat rack in a different location. Hanger sculptures are good:-) This went on for four days. OK so it's silly, but I found this more entertaining than the microbes.

-

Anyway, now that we're back and I'm ready for a loooong night of sleep without Mikailey in a double sized hotel bed with me!!