Teachers Take Vegas {Part 1}

Hey yall!

 

So I've been back from Vegas for about 2 days now and I'm already thinking about next year's conference. This past week has truly been one of the best weeks of my life.

 

I'm linking this post up with Deirdre at A Burst of First.

I got a chance to meet her in Vegas and she is pretty awesome :)

 

 

I've got lots of pics to share, so let's just jump right in.

{Although these are not all my Vegas pictures, you can see those over on my IG @teacherytidbits}

 

I arrived on Wednesday morning, hours before any of my roomies, and full of NERVES yall! I have never done anything like this before, so to say that I was a bit nervous is the understatement of the year.

 

Flying halfway across the country to meet hundreds of people I've spoken with online, but never met in person? Yikes. Talk about anxious.

 

But here is the one of the reasons this week was so amazing, yall - within minutes of arriving at the airport, I had already met two adorable teachers that shared a shuttle with me to the hotel.

(Oh man, I just realized I never took a picture with these two!)

 

 

Karen from Mrs. Jones Kindergarten and Karen from Kennedy's Korner

 

Because my roomies weren't scheduled to arrive for several hours, the Karens sweetly offered to let me store my bags in their room and then we all went to lunch.

 

After awhile, my sweet roomies all showed up and hugs were passed around. I've been talking with these ladies for months online, but we'd never actually met in real life! Somehow I ended up with a room full of Texans, yall!

 

Cheryl from Crayons and Curls, Farrah from Mrs. Shipley's Classroom, Katie from Keep Teaching and Planning, and Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B

 

That night was the HUGE blogger meet-up hosted by Rachelle and Natalie from What the Teacher Wants (with a little whole lotta help from their friends!).

 

There were over 500 blogger/followers there, so it was a bit overwhelming. But I got a chance to meet some of my very favorite teacher bloggers!

 

Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants, Amy from Step into Second Grade, Deanna from Mrs. Jump's Class, and Cara from The First Grade Parade

 These ladies have all been such a HUGE inspiration to me!

 

Cara was the first blog I really followed and she is just my bloggy idol! And talk about a doll! The best part was when I stopped her to say hi, she squealed my name and gave me a big hug! Made my day, yall!!!

 

Rachelle is such an inspiration with her fitness journey. I want to be just like her when I grow up :) I told her that next year, we'd both be skinny minnys!

 

I didn't get a chance to talk to Amy very much, but I did tell her how we shared the same last name (Lemons is my maiden name). I like to think that we are long-lost cousins or something :)

{And yes, I realize that's just her married name, but a girl can dream, right?}

 

Do I really need to tell yall how amazing Deanna is? I already respected the heck out of this lady, but after this week, I took it to a whole nother level. But we'll get into that in another post... :)

 

Hadar from Miss Kindergarten, Katie from Teacher to the Core, Jenny from Luckeyfrog's Lilypad, Tessa from Tales Outside the Classroom, and Shelley from Teaching in the Early Years

Tanja from Journey of a Substitute Teacher, Kelley from Teacher Idea Factory, Stephanie from Falling into First, and Dana from Prepping for the Primary Gridiron

 

I also got to meet the amazing Amy from TPT!

 

 

The next day we checked out the SDE booths for the I Teach K and I Teach 1st conferences. We got some awesome swag, and met even more friends!

 

I found myself some Georgia girls....finally!

 

Tara from And They All Fall Down and Stacy from Funky Fresh Firsties

 

We went down to do early check-in for the conference and picked up our swag bags! Of course, we ran into even more of my bloggy buddies!

 

Tamara from Mrs. Russell's Room, Haley from My Silly Firsties, and Vicky from Teaching and Much Moore

Jennifer from First Grade Blue Skies.....I was BEYOND excited to meet her! She was one of the first ones to ever follow my blog and I'll love her forever for that! Not to mention she's a pretty great blogger herself :)

Angela from The Daily Alphabet. We started blogging around the same time and she is just too funny!

 

That night, we went to a nice dinner and then to see the Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show!

It. Was. Amazing.

 

 

You notice how I put a little {Part 1} in that title up there?

Well, too much happened for me to cram it all into one little post, especially the conference itself, so I decided to split this baby up.

That means there's also a {Part 2}...coming soon!