Carrie, Mike and Julie were always busy, and the booth was beautifully and efficiently set up so they seemed to have a lot of traffic. However, I did get to talk to Carrie a bit about using HOD through high school - she is so gracious and encouraging. ANYWAY, MN's conference had a teen track, so when the teens were released for lunch, my son and I went wandering through the exhibit hall. My son saw the HOD booth and said, "Wow, Heart of Dakota is sold here?" and then stopped in his tracks, grabbed my arm and said, "Whoa Mom, is that THE Carrie Austin? Like the lady on the back of my book? The lady who wrote the guide book and tells me what to do everyday?" 
I laughed and said, "The one and only. Do you want to meet her?" He suddenly got shy (and he is over 6ft tall so he doesn't pull the shy card very often.) and said, "No Mom, she is like a rock star. I wouldn't even know what to say!" It was SO sweet. When I told him I'd visited with her a bit, he was in awe. I earned myself some street cred with the kid. 
And as we walked through the exhibits and came anywhere near the end HOD was located, he would look that way to catch a glimpse. It was fun. On another note, using and loving the HOD curriculum made hitting the exhibit hall a lot less fun in one aspect... I wasn't on any desperate search for the "next perfect thing" that I just HAD to try.
I have already found it in HOD! I wasn't looking for anything to add to our studies to fill in a gap or supplement. It made for a very relaxed and enjoyable conference. Thanks Carrie!
