Convention 2011

Oh. My. Word.

Where to begin... It's hard to recap or even begin to describe Stampin' Up's Convention.  It was thrilling, exhausting, exciting, ... the list could go on an on.

It started with a LOOOOONG flight (did I mention LONG?) to Salt Lake City.  I had a stop over in Houston, so that made my total flying time 8 hours.  GEESH-- next time, I'm going through Chicago!  OH yeah, that's right.. I said next time because it was so amazing that I've already started a coin jar for spending money next year, ha ha.  Yep, it was THAT GOOD!

Me, Joni and Ginny

I got in late on Tuesday, so I couldn't see anything except my bed.  My roomie and downline Joni kept a vigil until I got there.  Thanks, Joni.  The next day started off with a bang when we went to down to the convention center to pick up our bags and then hit the Stampin' Up Memento Mall for a little shopping... well, weren't we surprised when we received a bag FULL of goodies, including FOUR stamp sets. We met this wonderful Demo named Ginny who hung out with us and walked us where we needed to go and showed us how to attach our wrist bands for prize patrol.  Sorry to say we didn't win anything, but it didn't matter.. we still got tons of goodies.  Thanks for helping us, GINNY!

The line to get into Memento Mall

It's all such a blur now.. it went by so fast.  We tried to fit in as much as humanly possible.  We had a kick off party on Wednesday night.  Thursday was the first general session where we listened to an awesome performance and found out that the next incentive trip is FIJI.. yehaw.. now THAT is something to set your sights on, right?  I've always wanted to go!

We took a trip to Riverton (about 30 minutes away) to visit the Home Office and check out the Warehouse.  Who knows, maybe I got a picture of your order being packaged :)

 

We went to Awards night and saw some amazing gifts being presented to fellow Demo's who must work their tails off.  Honestly, one woman had $1.3 million dollars in career personal sales!  WHAT?  I was in awe.

We went to an awards after party where they had a DJ who played mostly 80's music (not my cup of tea) but we closed the place down anyhow and I watched Joni shake her tail feathers.

The view from stage, looking at 3,000+ people

Waiting to get on stage

The next few days were classes like intermediate My Digital Studio and Transcending Change.  They were all fabulous.  I learned SO SO much and met so many unforgettable women.  (And men, there were men demo's too).  

They have different "march's" during general sessions in which people walk across stage for certain achievements.  Joni and I got to walk across for this being our "first convention" which is the first time they've done that.  Very, very cool!

We received 3 gifts given to EVERYONE throughout the week... so amazing and learned all about the new holiday catalog and new products coming out.  These are guaranteed to rock your world!!  Wait until you see, I can't even WAIT to get my hands on this stuff.

We did make-n-takes, ate chocolate, talked to Shannon West and tried to get her to bring regionals to Sturbridge (wouldn't that be ridiculously awesome?), ate amazing sushi (who woulda thought you could get that in Utah), swapped about 100 card fronts, went to check out Temple Square, the heart of the LDS Church and so much more...

I have to send out a special thanks to all the ladies on the Stampin' Connection blog who helped us prepare for the first time.  They were a HUGE HELP and of course, my dear hubby who helped me be able to go! Mwua~

I have TONS of new ideas and projects for you guys.  I KNOW you will be as excited about these as I am.  In fact, the first person to book a party with me as of today will get a special hostess surprise :)  OOH.. can you stand the excitement? he he he... Now, whose it gonna be?

Shannon West and Santa