Hi there. π It’s been a while.
Lemme catch you up on some pictures of our booth at the state homeschool convention!
Okay, more like, a LOT of pictures. π

I’m not going to do this post like I did the one last year— I don’t know how. So I’ll just throw a bunch of photos at y’all, maybe tell the stories behind some, and hope that’s good enough! XD
OH! I started a Facebook and Instagram for GenRising and posted real-time stuff during AFHE, so take a look!
Those of us who could, gathered at the Cyr’s house to go over convention details and mock-up the table design. Then afterward we took off to meet Tanner at a grocery store and eat cartons of ice cream, yum.




Thursday
Set up night! Paul picked up Malachi from work, we loaded up the car and Tanner picked up the bookshelf, and we joined the others downtown at the convention center.





Gorgeous table, counting book stock, and hanging out fun. π
A few of us burst into song once and poof a dude appeared and tried to recruit us for the state choirs he was doing a booth for nearby in the exhibit hall… we figured they would get tired of us by the end of the convention. lol






Also, french fries and shakes are happy things.
Friday
Day 1 YAY! Kate and I arrived earliest and got the booth ready and laughed about weird things together and stuff. π My shoes were killing me so I went barefoot a lot and ran around the exhibit hall looking for our people and it was a cool day.
We had 10 members (13 books and their 7 authors) at AFHE this year!










Our writer friend Micah Mayer PUBLISHED, and I maybe let out a little scream when he showed it to us!! Maggie brought her typewriter, and we all wrote silly add-on stories.
Having running inside jokes with strangers-now-friends is probably the coolest thing, you guys!!
Most everybody ended up wearing Malachi’s West-MEC hat at least once during the convention; it kinda got passed around somehow lol
I got to meet the sweet Ani of “Ani’s Books” in person!!
Frens are cool. And so is food… which I forgot to eat until the end of the day in the parking garage.
aand I can’t remember much else from Friday.




That sunset tho.
Oh, and we were greeted at home by our cool family with ice cream in hand. They’re the best. π
Saturday
Day 2… I was tired and talked too much. π But twas fantastic.
We three amigos got stuck on the wrong side of the street minutes before the exhibit hall opened thanks to the trolley, so we waved and waved at all the people in it and they actually waved back! π Also, we took to shrieking as the parking garage elevator plummeted down to ground level… fun times.






I only crashed once thanks to a soda and fries getting me through the second half of the day, Dad and Mom packed me a joke lunch (ask for the story in the comments if ya want π ) , I had a blast talking with a bunch of super great readers/writers/return-fans, a book club bought copies of Kate’s novel, and me and Mal and Tanner went to a cool session by Chuck Black about how fiction impacts hearts!
People would come up to our booth and be like “I remember you guys!! We loved your books! Are there any new ones?” and we’d play it cool… but I’d be screaming with excitement inside. π







Tear-down Saturday night was good though rushed, and I was only exhausted for the rest of the month after this amazing weekend!! lol
On the way out I stopped to talk to Mr Chuck Black (who remembered our booth and talking to us from two years ago. you. guys.) and thank him for his talk but then he ended up telling me “man what you guys are doing is cool and exactly the kind of books I was talking about in the session” and was super encouraging to keep going. Nope I didn’t melt into a puddle of happy tears… just almost. π
Sooo yeah! I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of the stories but…
AFHE 2019 was great, and I hope Generation Rising: Homeschooled Authors does it again next year!
Comment! Ask me things, laugh about things, tell me things. Let’s talk! π ~Anna
Mal’s recap: https://brainstormswithrain.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/afhe-convention-2019/
Kate’s recap: https://onceuponanordinary.wordpress.com/2019/07/22/thank-you-wow/
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P.S. I wrote fun captions to all my pics but for some reason they’re not working π₯ So ask me about any of the pics, if ya want!!
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Awesome post! Wish I could have been there! Love all the pictures!ππ beautiful sunset!π Haha! So what was the joke lunch?π What was your favorite part of the convention?πππ€
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Aw yeah that would’ve been cool if you guys had come, Kyra! Maybe next year… π
Ikr, it was special to get to see each sunrise and sunset during the road trips to that weekend. π
lol Ookay. So, the joke lunch. πππ I couldn’t hate any food more than brussel sprouts so apparently when dad and mom shopped to pack our convention lunches they decided to get Kate and Paul a yummy bag of snacks each and then when I pulled mine out it was BRUSSEL SPROUTS CHIPS π΅πππ which to me is 100% nasty and so fortunately it was a total joke and I didn’t end up eating any. π We laughed so hard at my reaction tho. ππ
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Ewww!! πππ
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RIgHT?!!!! π΅πππ
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*whispers* I like brussel sprouts…. but they were cooked in butter and salt so I can’t speak for brussel sprout chips. XD
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*whispers* Evelyn is an alien life form much more advanced than me. 0_0
jk π
They actually sound okayish prepared that way hmm…
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πππ
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Yes! Hopefully next year!ππ
Hahahahaha! Thatβs great! Gross, but funny!ππ
Glad you all had a good time!ππ
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Convention Story Detail Modification: Tanner didn’t wear the West-mec hat. π
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lol Truth.
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Aaaaahhhh, amazing post! I loved looking through each and every single one of the pictures! Actually, I opened each picture in a different page, until I had like a million pages open… XD Anyways, I loved seeing each of you awesome people, and I wish I could have been there at the convention! π β€ Oh, and that's way cool you got to meet Ani!! π (And talk to Chuck Black!!!!)
Ahh, this post made me miss you guys so much, lol!
Also… Can I hear the story about the joke lunch? ;P
Love ya lots!! β€
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β₯οΈ β₯οΈ
We had a BLAST.
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Haha That’s great Rosy, wish you could’ve been there and so glad you enjoyed the pics!! πβ€
Ah yes. The joke lunch. *gags but also laughs* XD I just now typed it out in reply to Kyra’s comment up there if ya wanna look ^^ Mom truly is a prankster when it comes to me in particular… I really don’t know why but it’s awesomely fun… I guess cuz I’m the one who does things like that to people so she knows I’ll crack up at it. Lol ππ
You too, girl.
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Man, looking over the pictures reminds me of all the fun we had! (Like that one pic where we were making the girl from AZGFD explain archery as if we’d never heard of it :D) Looking forward to doing it next year, Lord willing!
Aw man! You can’t read the Thankfully-Unthankfully in the pic! That’s actually probably a good thing XD
Poor Paul. I’m glad we were able to bring him around lol
Oh my goodness! Did Chuck Black really say that? That is absolutely epic!!! Wow. That’s awesome.
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Me too!! π
lol Uh huh, you’re welcome for that coincidence. ππ
Yup. Tiredness can be a terrible thing. At least he didn’t need an injection like you did last year though, right?! Jk
WHAT! I THOUGHT for SURE I told you!!! 0_0 I.sincerely.apologise. Yes Chuck Black really said that and yes it was awesome. π¬π
Here’s to next year! π
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Here here!
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Aww, this looks so fun! I love seeing all the pictures!! ππ And what’s the joke lunch story about? π
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Twas a very fun time. π
Heehee I just love it that y’all actually want to hear about the joke lunch!! ππ By popular demand, I put it in a comment higher up π Hope it gives you a laugh!
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This looks like so much fun!! Woahh I can’t believe you know Kate, I’m a big fan of Kiera :DD It’s so cool that you got to meet Ani!
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Ohmyword this comment is great. XD Girl I know Kate so well I could give you all the embarrassing stories from when she was tiny to all the inside scoops about her latest story ideas to our inside jokes so complex and deep that we only have to glance at each other to break into laughter. She’s my sister πβ And I am SUCH a big fan of Kiera too so fist bump to you, Isabel!!!!
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Haha that’s awesome π Yess Kiera is the best
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YOU. GUYS. ARE. AWESOME. That is so cool! Your stand is cool! The books are amazing! It looks like you had too much fun without me! XD
Seriously tho, I’m so proud of y’all (I’m going to say y’all even tho I’m not a southerner XD)!!!
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Ooh! I forgot to ask something. What is Paul doing between Malachi and–wait, is that Tanner?–Tanner? It looks dramatic. XD
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Bwhaha you’re great ππ
First off, yes you got it right!! L-R is Tanner, Paul, and Malachi.
And Paul was tired. And being dramatic. It was sort of a trust-fall… more like an exhausted collapse. π
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Ah, trust falls. The best. If you actually trust a person enough. …which I totally would not. π On the other hand, I might not be able to stop myself if I was that exhausted. XD
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Oooh same. π We actually discussed that and some of us promised to never step out of the way of each other’s trust-fall but I still don’t think I could make myself do one lol
Yeah exactly! maybe I would if I were that exhausted π€
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Why thank you! π lol actually I AGREE!! My humans are precious. β€
Thou shalt hitchhike here next year. So there.
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Yes, I shalt. π
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We’ll hold you to it. ππ
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*chants* Joke Lunch! Joke Lunch!
ahem this makes me grin like no tomorrow. And wish I was there. AGAIN. XD
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Tsk tsk Jo I’ve been waiting for your face to show so I could grump at you for thine terrible thing of to not driving our state below.
… I have no more rhyming words. but basically you need to come next year!!! π
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Oh and it’s so entirely happy that this made you grin so goodly. β€
And lol yas I put the joke lunch story in a comment higher up and im too lazy to type it out again rn so βπ
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WELL, I WAS going to ask about the joke lunch, but someone else did so…XD
But really, it looks like y’all had SO MUCH FUN! (now I’m hungry for fries and milkshakes, lol)
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haha Hope the joke lunch gave you a laugh! It certainly cracked us up. π
Yep, it was a rather great time! (um, me too now XD)
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The convention looks awesome!! I’m glad it went so well! I love Chuck Black’s books!! =)
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Thanks, Mikayla, we had lots of fun! π
I have yet to read any of his books, but I hear very high praise of them from my friends all the time so I’d better soon. π Do you have a favorite?
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They are super good. His Kingdom series is my favorite, so Kingdoms Dawn is the first book. =)
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Epic. I’m gonna have to find myself a copy!!
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This was amazing. I’m going to have to plan a trip to AZ just to go to the conference to see the Generations Rising booth. *nodnod*
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OOOH YES!!! Please do, Amie!! That would be 100% a.maz.ing.
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All. Those. Books.
Oh my.
And all those authors who actually wrote those books, all in one place . . . I’m thinking it’s a good thing I live nowhere close to Arizona, or I would have driven all of ya’ll crazy by popping in a thousand times and purchasing one book at a time as I vainly tried to convince myself I didn’t need yet another book. And, we all know, buying books one at a time is much cheaper than purchasing them all at once π =P
That lunch though! Brussels sprout chips? Eww . . . I’ve grown to like those veggies only if they’re smothered in cheese. Or roasted with bacon — lots of bacon. But not chips. Just . . . no. Absolutely not =6
It looks like a book lovers dream, and like ya’ll had a ton of fun! I wish those captions on the photosβ were cooperating with ya! =)
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You can not imagine how excited I am to be in your blog post! Yes, that’s me photographed, the one next to the absolutely amazing writer!π cool. cool. very cool. eeeeeeeeee!
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Aww it’s my fellow princess!!! YAY hi, Aurora! So happy you found my lil blog. β€
haha You're the sweetest! π I loved getting to talk/fangirl with you at the convention, and um you better hurry with that Snow White retelling cuz I WANNA READ IT someday!!
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