To be honest, I was somewhat nervous about the trip, as much as I was looking forward to getting away. My dear friend and upline, Mimi, who was supposed to be on the trip with me, ended up having to back out for various reasons just a day or two before I left. I kind of felt like a junior high girl, wondering if I'd find anyone to sit with, ha! Of course I knew who some people were, and there were a couple that I felt I had connected with from past events, but somehow it was different. Still, there was nothing to do but plow ahead and see what happened!
So Ted took me to the airport after an early lunch, where I met up with the Stampin' Up! staff that were waiting to put me on a shuttle to St. George. I was really expecting a bus full of demonstrators, since they had told us people would be flying in to Vegas or St. George. However, it was me and one other demonstrator in a big, black SUV to St. George, Utah! Thankfully Catherine and I got along quite well and chatted pretty much the whole way! I even helped her a little bit with her swaps.
Once at the hotel, the Courtyard Marriott, we were ushered into the Gathering Place, where we were swarmed by demonstrators waiting for their "missing piece." Each demo was given one piece to a Christmas stamp set, Deck the Halls from the holiday mini-catalog (page 20), and we had to find a group of other demos so that we made a whole stamp set. Once this was accomplished, we got to go to the table and get an actual Deck the Halls stamp set to keep! It was supposed to be a "getting to know you" game, but it was more like chaos, LOL. We were also given a Founder's Circle yearbook, the first time they've done something like that. Even though I'm not fond of my picture in the yearbook, it was GREAT to have everyone's names, pictures, and email addresses all in one place.
Finally I was able to head up to my room. (My OWN hotel room!!! That has NEVER happened!) The hotel staff had assured us that our suitcases would be waiting for us, and I was looking forward to unpacking and settling into my room, maybe getting a quick nap or at least some rest before our dinner at 7:00. I got to my room, found a darling name plaque hanging on my door (Stampin' Up! does everything well, right down to the tiny details!), and went in. My suitcase was nowhere in sight! I called the front desk, they asked some questions, and then the hunt began. Turns out it was delivered to a gal whose last name is similar to mine...took awhile, but I got it eventually. Whew!
I unpacked, enjoying all the space I would have to spread out, and took a short nap before dinner. Downstairs in the lobby I met up with Sarah, a demo I had met awhile back, though we had never really had much time to chat. We did have something in common--we both had to miss the Panama Canal cruise because of having babies around that time! We ended up eating together at a table with 4 other demos. Dinner was very nice...you can see our dessert in this picture. (Notice the silk tablecloths! Yes, that is a Stampin' Up! design!)
After dinner I headed back to my room to change shoes, as Sarah and I decided to walk to Target to get a few things. I went to the bathroom and about jumped off the toilet when I saw this darling bag hanging from the shower rod...was I in the wrong room?! Then it hit me that this was a gift from Stampin' Up! I had forgotten that on incentive trips, SU! places little gifts in our rooms! (Of course, it seems it's been so long since I've actually gotten to GO on one of the incentive trips, so no wonder I forgot, ha!) I took a picture of the bag but left it hanging...and later when we returned from Target and I got it down I realized there was STUFF inside of it!! A brand new, gorgeous stamp set that will be in the NEXT catalog, 3 brand new ink pads (Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, and Bordering Blue), plus a roll of double-stitched Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. Only my stampin' and scrappin' friends will understand the excitement that these products generated. :-)
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