Fun in New York!

Look! Finally pictures from my trip to New York for the swanky Highlights Writing Conference last summer in Chautauqua.

I just had to pose on these beautiful steps....

Yes, I'm aware I look like a dork. In fact, a dorky tourist. Whatever. In my defense, I took a red eye flight to New York and I was a bit sleep-deprived! Luckily I got a snooze in before the opening banquet.

Check out the steamboat! I didn't actually see this though. This is a shot of my friend's. But I heard it blow it's whistle. And silly me, I thought there was a train somewhere.


My utterly amazing and fabulous and stupendously great mentor, Patricia Lee Gauch....

She is the former Vice President of Philomel Books and an amazing author herself. She was one of the coveted mentors and I felt very very blessed and honored to score her as mine. I learned loads from this lady.

Okay. Could I own one of these houses? Please? That place was filled to the brim with beautiful homes with beautiful yards and beautiful flowers. Yeah, I just need a few million to make these dreams come true...

Check out the green stuff! I forget how brown Utah is until I get somewhere like this....

But I have to say. OY! How I did miss our mountains. And when I was on the plane ride home and we finally flew over some brown mountains, my heart smiled.

I loved all the flowers!

My view as I walked to breakfast each morning...

The famous Atheneum Hotel...

This is where we had our fancy dinners and amazing buffet breakfasts each morning. That place is simply gorgeous. I wish I could afford to bring my whole family back to stay. But not unless I sell a few gazillion books!

Here we were checking out the sweet house Barbara Santucci (picture book author) and Kathleen Hayes (editor of High 5--Highlight's magazin for the younger set) got to stay in. It was pretty pretty nice...

And we like to act like goofballs. So. That's what that picture is all about. :)

I made some really awesome friends. And we enjoyed getting together to swap notes about the different classes we were all attending....

Doesn't it look like I have the whole group just at my feet...waiting for my words of wisdom? heh heh. Pictures are so wonderfully decieving.

This is a great shot of the fun group I fell into....

We affectionately called ourselves 3 Men, 3 Mormons and Stephanie. These people are some of the greatest I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with. We all became friends so easily. It was super. (And we were such an interesting mix...an illustrator, school teacher, couple moms, authors and even a crazy Australian former professional rugby player...Ah, Jon, I love ya!)

I made so many great friends on this trip! You really get to know people fast when you spend breakfast, lunch, dinner, classes and trips with them....

Here I am with the cute and talented Candace Fleming and the Caldecott winning illustrator of My Friend Rabbit, Eric Rohmann...

These two are super fun and I'm excited they're coming to Utah in March for a conference at UVU. I've been thinking of going...but then today I was wondering about being that far from home and only 4 weeks left of this pregnancy. Hmmm....not so sure about that.

Hey look! It's me hanging out with Terry Hatcher...

LOL! Okay...it's not, but doesn't she totally look like her? But I bet Kim is a much sweeter person. :)

Check out my stalker grin while posing with the famous and amazing Jerry Spinelli....

GoodNESS. Could I be any more starstruck??!

Well, the trip was totally and completely worth the expense and the effort. I loved it. I learned loads and I made a lot of great connections with people I know I'll keep in touch with forever.

But I did miss my family like crazy and I was so happy to get home to them. It's always nice to go, but it's even nicer to return home!