Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the EX gathering in Virginia Beach. EX 7 was wonderful! There were 21 EX’ers in attendance and 5 of those were first timers. We are always so happy to see first timers! The folks who came had quits ranging from about 5 months on up Giulia’s 13 years!
There were also several guests in attendance - including our EX administrator - Mark, along with Dr. Amanda Graham.
My sister, Chris, and I drove from North Carolina. (She lives in Denver, CO.) We arrived on Friday afternoon. We had dinner that night with most of those in attendance, although we didn’t actually see everyone until Saturday.
On Saturday morning we all met in the hotel. I wrote an earlier blog about the theme - “Message In A Bottle”. We presented “Paper Plate Awards” to the first timers. SkyGirl invented that idea. Although she couldn’t be with us, she asked me to read a blog of hers to the group. We were all touched by her words and we all missed her more than I can say..... We also carried on another Sky tradition, started at EX 1 - “reading of the blogs”. We did that again with the first timers. Later everyone wrote a message and put it “in a bottle” and then we shared each other’s words of wisdom. We also shared some special gifts - beautiful handmade soap from Missy Mandolinrain, “NOPE” buttons from Barbara Barb102, cookies from Daniela Daniela2016....and a souvenir small bottle and a special cupcake made by my neighbor. Hope I’m Not leaving anyone out....here - there were so many things being shared! Laura, Michwoman wore special cat ears in honor of our dear Sharon (Smorgy) who passed away on Tuesday. Laura and Sharon wore special ears during the entire cruise last year for EX 6.
Giulia wrote a special song for us to sing! “We’ve Been Working on Our Quittude” - to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”. It was perfect and she accompanied us on her guitar! We have a video of that - hopefully Mark can share that on the “EX 7 Weekend” group page. You will also find other blogs about EX 7 there.
We all went out to dinner that night at Murphy’s Irish Pub - great time! On Sunday we did yet another Sky tradition - created at EX 5 - “The Great Balloon Toss” - we had a blast! There should be a video of that coming soon!
The entire weekend was incredible! It is hard to describe how people who have met on the internet and often have little in common - can come together like this and become such great friends!
Laura is working on the photo album.
The following EX’ers were there:
Rick_M
pir8fan
Patty-cake
djmurray
JACKIE1-25-15
shashort
Brenda_M
Jennifer-Quit
ShawnP
Sootie
DonnaMarie
Stac2
Valerie30
elvan
jojo_2-24-11
Barb102
Giulia
Mandolinrain
Michwoman
Daniela2016
Strudel
We are currently in discussion about EX 8 - including having EX events in other parts of the country next year. Be sure to “stay tuned” - if there is a way you can attend some day - I promise you won’t regret it!!
