2010 Stampin' UP! Convention Memories

Elkmoose and baby

old faithful

park entrance

ground squirrel

Loretta and geyser

Convention 2010 proved to be a great adventure.  Loretta my downline and I set a week early; rented a car and drove to Idaho Falls.  We stayed overnight there and the next morn traveled to Yellowstone National Park and took the Old Faithful Loop.  We saw plenty of geysers and wildlife.  Then we traveled over to Jackson Hole WY and visited an Arts and Crafts Festival and attended a wonderful Play "Annie Get Your Gun" and also rode down the snake river on a river raft ride.  We arrived in Salt Lake city a day later and toured a nice garden at Red Butte.  We also found some nice shopping at the Quilted Bear and the Gateway Mall area.

at Candy Factory with our candy maker hats on

cheese cake factory

Riverton home office

getting our groove on

Me, Shelly, Sterling and Michelle

Barb Loretta Michelle and ME

 We met up with my upline Barb and sideline Michelle at the Shilo hotel on Tuesday afternoon and went to tour the Sweet's Candy Factory.  Yummm.  Wednesday we got up early and 3 of us were able to get into Momento Mall without waiting in line because we each had a recruit in July. After Momento Mall we picked up our convention bags with our free stampsets.  We headed out to Riverton after a nice session taught by our key note speaker Sue Rushe.
It was nice to see the Riverton headquarters once again.  Felt more like going home.  The Stampin' UP! people are all very nice and treat you just like family.  
     Wednesday night was the big Flower Power Party.  Peace man and Far Out.  What alot of fun that was to see the staff and all the demonstrators getting into it with some far out costumes.

Loretta our convention virgin wins a prize of material and Christmas stamp set and wheel.

Thursday our first day was long but very rewarding.  We wore out hats and T shirts for our team spirit.  Wow did the hats ever get the attention!  Everyone wanted pictures of them.  We did our make and takes with time to spare and had a nice dinner before heading over to the awards ceremonies.  It was there that I learned I had made the finalist list for the Artisan Award Contest I had tried out for.  That means my entry was in at least the top 32. There were only 10 winners for this award so I feel I was very close in winning and will definitely try again next year.  After the Awards Charley Jenkins took the stage in a big way.  His big Red bus drove right through the curtain on the side of the stage.   How wonderful was his band.  All the members were very great at their craft.  I was most impressed by the petite little gal on the fiddle.  It was an excellent show.

Friday morning we were hard to wake but got there in time and found great seats. I wore my bee hat that symbolized our group the BIZ E Stampers.  on my way back to the hotel I was hit by the YOU crew and got a fabulous prize.  Ribbon and the owl punch and a scrapbooking kit and several pads of ink and in color markers. YOU HOO!

Hard to believe Saturday got here so fast but it is our last day of convention.  Shelly and her daughter Sara shared on stage what we could do with the fabulous material that will be available Sept 1 in our mini catalog for the holiday.  They were each wearing a tree skirt on them.  Sara took hers off and showed the trick of sinching it to make the tree skirt. Then in the afternoon session we were all amazed with a fabulous prize of the level 2 stamp set that is in the mini and cherry cobbler classic pad a the fabulous Christmas paper and some glass glitter.  wooo hoo again!  Shelly talked a bit about some changes coming and although she wasn't able to tell us those changes just yet she was preparing us for what is to come.  We ended convention attending a WOW demonstration hosted by the late night stampers.  This demonstration was wonderful and included 3 of the Aritsan Award winners that I was able to talk to and each encouraged me not to give up and keep trying for a winners title.  Here we also received some great prizes thanks to Sherrill and her organization of this event.

Barb and Michelle

Sunday Loretta and I and Erlyene a lady we met at our Friday night event with Linda Hanson went down to the conference center together and watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So beautiful was the music and very relaxing (yes I fell asleep).  We took in a tour of the Mormon History Museum after that and a trip to the Gateway mall again. You could say Loretta and I squeezed every moment of the day out of our trip and have some great memories and ideas to keep us going all  year.  We are both looking for recruits to take with us next year.  Are you game for the adventure of a lifetime?  Then talk to us!