My DIL and I have been waiting for a picture of us and the Pioneer Woman together; it was supposed to be emailed to us from the RootsTech conference… but it has not come yet and I decided that I would go ahead and do this post.  When the picture comes I will insert it later. :) 

This is a picture that she signed for me!

 I asked my DIL if she would consider writing this post and she very graciously agreed!  So this is her version of what happened that day!

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City with my mother-in-law, Rita. We were so excited to go because we are both die-hard geneology fans and we can’t get enough family history. Okay, that’s not true. Family history is great and all, but we just went because of our love for Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman. We were so excited when we found out she would be a keynote speaker at RootsTech and signed up immediately. We have been following her blog for six years and absolutely adore her,  her cookbooks, her show, her life, pretty much everything about her.

(Sorry about the poor quality of this photo from my phone)

Rita and I were some of the first in line and it was well worth the early morning efforts we made to get there. It was a huge treat to be sitting on the seventh row (the first available row after the reserved section) where we could see her expressions and really feel a part of the experience. Oh, she was so cute and funny! She focused on how she is preserving her family history through her blog and how the most meaningful thing she has created is the record of her children growing up. It’s true, I remember when her baby was just a baby! I have watched her gorgeous little girls turn into gorgeous teenagers. She told the story of her blog and how at first she was just posting for herself and her mom and one day decided to post a recipe and it took off from there. The thing that struck me the most is she said you don’t have to wait to be perfect to start recording your story. You don’t even have anything to say. Just start. Just get it down. That is huge for me because I tend to put off recording my family stories or posting on my family blog until I have “enough time” or something “important” to say. It was very inspiring to hear Ree’s point of view and I was impressed by how humble and down to earth she is. I loved how she said to just have fun with it. Nothing has to be serious or perfect.

Well, that was all fine and great and fulfilling, and we would have left as happy conferencers, but the greatest part was yet to come. We stayed in the auditorium for the next class, which, well, didn’t really hold our interest so we decided to check out the booths in the expo center. What did we find on our way there, but Ree herself, standing in the hall signing books and taking pictures with fans! Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. There she is! We hauled over there, only to be told that the last people had been let in and sorry, it was too late. Well, Rita isn’t one to be dissuaded by much in life, especially security guards standing between us and our dreams, and she told them, that’s okay, we love her, we’ll just pop on through, thanks so much. So, we ducked the tape and hopped in line, the very last ones to meet the Pioneer Woman!

Ree was so sweet! It was funny to actually meet her in person because I feel like I already know her. She took one look at my name tag and said, “Oh my name is Anne Marie, too! That is where Ree came from!” Pretty much that says to me that we are soul mates. Also, I think Rita qualifies for soul mate status because Ree/Ri-ta, we are all one big happy family. It was mean to be that we met. She gave each of us a hug and we posed for a picture and chatted for a few minutes. I told her how I had a Pioneer Woman Party  years ago and my friends and I all made food from her web site and loved it. Later I thought of a million other things I needed to talk to her about (like volunteering to star in the upcoming movie about her life if Reese Witherspoon doesn’t pan out) but alas, it was too late. At any rate, wow. How lucky are we? What a fun and amazing experience!

Rita and I followed up with a delicious lunch at Blue Lemon and then did some serious shopping damage, all without kids. Pretty much a perfect day in my book. Please don’t be jealous and hate me because I have Rita for my mother in law, and what could be more fabulous than that?

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Isn’t my DIL just the cutest?

Thanks Anne Marie for writing such a fun post and for such a fantastic day at RootsTech… we were both floating on cloud nine for quite awhile!

Thanks for visiting today!  Love Ya!

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Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

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