Petal's CCW Conference Adventure

Hi, Everyone! Petal here. Hannah said I could take over the blog for today and share about our trip to the Cascade Christian Writers Conference last week.

Here I am at the Air B & B we stayed at the night before the conference.

Check out that view!

Here are the crazy humans I stayed with. They're really nice once you get to know them.

At the conference, Hannah and I stayed in Room 202 with her friend Linda.

Here's the view from our room window, complete with a beautiful river!

Here are Linda and Hannah enjoying their afternoon on the banks of the river.

I got to sit by the river, too!

It was such an incredible place to relax and dream.

I think my favorite part of the conference was spending time with friends, old and new.

Here I am with my friend Skipper, enjoying the worship time.

Hannah and I got a picture with Skipper and his author friend Shadia Hrichi. And that's Sarah Sundin with us, another author we love! Unfortunately, Hannah and I were looking in a different direction than the others. Oops!!

I got to make a new friend, Faith the eagle! Her author friend is Amy Earls. Hannah is excited to read some of her books. Our human friends were coloring their conference bags with fabric markers, but Faith and I were too busy talking to color. I'm so glad I got to meet her!

And then I totally fangirled when I got to meet Ranger Bear of rangerbear_adventures! I've followed him on Instagram for a while and can't believe I finally got to meet him! I feel a little embarrassed because I was so excited I totally didn't realize Hannah was ready to take our picture, so I'm looking off to the side. Oh, well. Ranger Bear was super nice. I loved hearing all about his travels. His author friend Karen Barnett is really cool, too. She writes awesome books set in national parks and takes great photos!

Hannah had a lot of fun reuniting with her friends, too. She's made so many amazing friends through the years attending conferences. :) Pictured here are Lainey LaShay, Linda Howard, Sarah Clancy, Shadia Hrichi, Robynne Miller, Leann Barna, Helen Arnold, and Tara Johnson.

Hannah with Dawn DeWulf. Dawn is in one of Hannah's online critique groups, and this was the first time they got to meet in person. :)

This picture took them FOREVER because Hannah couldn't stop laughing! She's really bad at taking serious pictures.

Hannah and Robynne :) Hannah was embarrassed that she forgot to put down her donut for this picture. (It was a REALLY good donut, though.)

More goofy humans. I promise, they really do have moments when they're normal.

I love this picture so much. :)

Hannah was telling me she wishes she'd gotten more pictures with people at this conference. Sometimes she gets so busy just being at a conference that she forgets to take pictures with the people she meets unless they ask her to. She also says she needs to get better at taking group selfies. Maybe we can practice that skill before our next conference.

A part of the conference we both loved were the early morning walks we took with some of Hannah's friends. (I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the humans.)

Here are a few of my favorite photos we got from our walks:

Hannah and I decided that this one looked like something from Narnia or Lord of the Rings.

A perfect perch for a Zelf like me. :)

There were these really cool old cabins that are no longer in use. We loved the moss on the roofs!

An enchanted path.

This meadow was so pretty!

Hannah's friends decided it was a "Mr. Darcy meadow," and Hannah and I agreed, even though we both prefer the 1995 version with Colin Firth. ;) But we could definitely imagine Matthew Macfayden's Mr. Darcy appearing in the mist. Hannah said she had the 2005 Pride and Prejudice theme stuck in her head for the rest of the day!

I took a picture with this guy. He didn't talk much, but he sure was friendly!

More pictures from the meadow.

There were lots of places just the right size for me. I live in Hannah's house, but I always feel most at home in nature. I am a garden fairy Zelf, after all.

Hannah's friends said this looked like a tunnel for a Hobbit. Isn't it perfect? Hannah loved it!

Another enchanted picture.

I tried to hide behind this ivy, but Hannah found me right away. My pink and purple hair isn't great for camouflage.

I loved these pretty flowers!

Every photo we got seemed magical.

And the sunrise made everything even more enchanting. P.S. Can you spy Sarah's hoodie in this photo?

More flowers!

A perfect Zelf habitat.

Hannah got this picture of her friends as they were walking back to the conference center. Isn't it just perfect?

Another fun spot.

I want to move to this tree!!

Peek-a-boo!

I always love going to conferences with Hannah. We've shared many trips together through the years, and it's so exciting to see her learning and growing each year and spending time with her friends. I loved that I got to see my friends, too.

This conference had great speakers that encouraged all of us to keep dreaming and keep writing. Hannah and I especially enjoyed our classes with Sarah Sundin on scheduling writing time. We're already brainstorming on how to get Hannah some organized writing time each day. And we loved the class on book covers with Roseanna White. Now Hannah wants to try making book covers, too!

We won't have any conferences to go to together until 2026, so it'll be a while before I get to see my friends again. But I do get to go with Hannah and her family on her vacation to the ocean next week, so at least I'll have some fun travels between now and then!

I guess that's about all for now. I hope you enjoyed hearing about our conference together and seeing the pictures! I might try to take over the blog again sometime if Hannah lets me. :)

Until then, this is Petal, signing off.