Welcome to Destin, Florida!!!!
This past October, my sister Kelly and I, made our way from sunny California to an even sunnier Florida to attend our annual conference with our certifying agency CAPPA (Childbirth & Postpartum Professional Association). One thing we can do to keep up our motivation to learn, expand our business, and prevent burnout, is to participate in our association conferences. Who wouldn’t want to do that in a place as beautiful as Sandestin Beach in Destin, FL?!!!!
Our adventure was not lacking in chaos as we traveled three flights where we encountered horrendous turbulence, a fake-out landing (you don’t even want to know), and an extremely entertaining taxi ride from a lady I can only describe as ‘feeling comfortable enough to tell us her ENTIRE life story!’. However, as we arrived at the Sandestin Beach & Golf Resort we felt right at home with our doula sisters, in a setting more peaceful that I can explain.
Our conference experience was pleasantly mixed with learning, socializing, networking, and experiencing Florida in true tourist fashion. We attended workshops on the impact of marijuana use by expecting and breastfeeding mothers, dynamic parenting education for millennial parents, perinatal addiction and neonatal abstinence, and much more! I had the pleasure of meeting my professional idol, Jan Tedder, the owner of HUG Your Baby, a program I recently certified in as a parent educator and an amazing education tool for parents and professionals alike. We reconnected with our trainer/mentor and made many new friends and doula sisters. As a way to help build the bridge of friendship among all of us professionals -and as a way to allow us the ability to let it all go and enjoy ourselves for one night- CAPPA hosts a social get-together for us all to talk, dance, drink, and enjoy other like-minded professionals. This year our party theme was ‘tacky tourist’, a very fitting theme to the iconic Floridian tourist population. All of the ladies donned their best flamingo outfits, fanny packs, and wild hats; then spent the evening letting loose and shaking off all of our hard-work from the current year!
On our downtime, Kelly and I took advantage of the AMAZING beaches with sugar white sand, turquoise water, and beautiful people enjoying the sun. We were able to sneak away to Baytowne Warf- the cutest village town I’ve ever seen- and explore the rest of the magnificent resort property.
Unfortunately our trip came to an end. The conference wrapped up, doula sisters went their separate ways, and Kelly and I headed to the airport. While it is always sad to leave our conferences and head back to reality, there is also the exciting announcement of next years conference location. Soooooo…..we said goodbye to Destin, Florida and we will see everyone at CAPPA’s 2017 conference in Portland, Maine!!!!
The Espresso Mommy 