I flew out to Washington DC for a Down Syndrome Leadership Conference on behalf of our local Down Syndrome organization that I am Parent Outreach Chair for. How extremely lucky that my best friend had just moved out there with her family almost exactly a year prior. Of course I had to see her while I was out there!!!
I flew into DC on Wednesday night. After I got to my room at my awesome hotel, I got a knock at my door from the bellman. He gave me a bag. I thought it was from the conference committee that I was there for and that is what they gave to everyone who attended the conference. I'm looking at the tag and card and they are personalized with my name. I thought that was super nice of them to be so welcoming and have everything so personalized. Once I read things closer, I realized that this was from JENNI!!!! It made me feel so good and just flabbergasted that she had thought to do this. (Although, it didn't surprise me at all, that is just her). It was so much fun going through all the goodies she put in there for me.
She is THE most thoughtful person I know. She makes me a better person, by just being around her. Truly inspiring.
This was the most funky, modern, up-to-date hotel I have ever stayed at. The Renaissance Hotel by Marriott. I just loved it.
My absolute favorite part was they had Aveda products in the bathroom!!! I freaking love Aveda. AND the housekeeping left another set each day so I got to stock up!!! :)
Thursday morning Jenni picked me up and surprised me that she didn't have any kids with her. Her hubby wasn't feeling that great that day and stayed home from work and kept the kids with him! How wonderful was that. We had the whole day to ourselves and boy did we make the most of it. Jenni already scouted out a Vegan restaurant for me that wasn't too far away. They had just opened and we were the first customers of the day.
Besties!!!
This place was a dream. The food looked so great!!!
Look at ALL THESE SALADS!!!I seriously couldn't decide. It is so nice to go into a restaurant and be able to order anything off the entire menu instead of other restaurants where they only have a couple options to choose from.
Green juice drink! Kale, Celery, Ginger, etc... yumm!
I had a fake crabcake burger. OMG it was delicious. You would NOT be able to tell the difference between the real thing. Lots of green sides!
In DC they have these smart cars that you can rent. You sign up with the website it will tell you where the closest one that was left is and you just go get in and drive it anywhere and leave it. Weird.
We went to this cute stationary store with all things up our alley. Then Jenni took me to Lush. It's one of her favorite 'bath and body' places. All the products are handmade and natural, vegetarian, not tested on animals, etc... We don't have one in Omaha. The closest would be Kansas City.
We got a free hand treatment scrub. It was so nice.
Then we went to have tea.
They had these delicious cupcakes.
This was Chaider. Chai and Apple Cider mixed. OMG it was so good!
Lemon raspberry cupcake. Seriously, the best I have ever had.
My very funky hotel!!!
Jenni and I went to grab a quick bite for dinner at a Tapas restaurant. This was brushetta.
Mushrooms
My conference mingle party. I LOVED the hotel walls.
They had this salad bar that was really, really good.
One of the leading Parent Outreach moms in the country. Sarah is from Boston and gave some of the presentations I heard over the weekend. Very sweet lady.
Our Omaha gang.
Starting the first day of the conference.
Rob Snow a comedian and a father of a little boy with DS. He was so freaking hilarious. We were rolling on the floor laughing. We want to have him come out to do a show with our families.
Jenni picked me up for dinner the second night. She took me to this place called Co Co. Sala with a chocolate theme running though every dish on the menu both the savory and sweet!
We got fun drinks.
We had a great, great day!
Photos in the hotel.
I loved the art.
And the hotel lobby bathroom sink. AWESOME!
We went as an group from Omaha with the president of DSAIA (Down Syndrome Affiliates in Action) and the Vice President of NDSS (National Down Syndrome Society) and a whole bunch of other people to dinner at Legal Seafood.
Sweet & Sour Califlower. Holy crap this was so fabulous. I NEED to find out how to make this. It was delicious!!!
Veggie dish. Yummy!! Their presentation was neat. They had a Chinese take out container full of the food and they sat the bowl down and plopped that upside down and removed the box.
Our Omaha group. Me, Anne (our Executive Director), Luke (Fundraising Chair), Sherri (President of DSA).
Here we are with the new president of DSAIA - Sterling.
My new friend I met at the conference, Cheri. She has a son that is about Vollen's age. She lives in Florida. We had a lot of things in common. I was so glad I met her and now I know someone who lives in Florida!
