More evidence that I'm spoiled rotten

I had THE most amazing time at the Stampin' Up! convention this year! I was frustrated with the inconvenient timing of it all (i.e. Paul's birthday conflict), but somehow, I managed to have a great time anyway! The weekend started off by driving up early on Thursday morning to pick up my awesome, stampin, bloggity, fellow-boy-raisin' friend, Rachelle. She and I met last year at convention standing in line for the make-n-takes. She was there with her mother and the stars aligned for me to be standing right by them as we waited to enter the room. From hanging out with Rachelle and Zola throughout the convention, we became fast friends and managed to even build our friendship through emailing and blogging all year. I'm so glad I met Rachelle last year, because that made THIS YEAR'S convention that much BETTER! She is the ultimate companion for a ladies weekend away!

That Thursday, there was so much to see and do at the convention itself. We picked up our darling convention bags filled with stamps (ahhhh, new stamps!!!) and found seats for the first mainstage presentation. We were introduced to the new digital line SU! is coming out with and I was SOLD once I saw all the cute things I could do with it! We also got a big presentation about the new Build-a-Bear Workshop partnership line. I wasn't as JAZZED about that, but it's fun if you're in to teddy bears. We were able to look around at the THOUSANDS of beautifully stamped cards, projects, scrapbook pages, and decor items on display throughout the rooms. I went through 3 sets of batteries taking pictures of the things that inspired me the most. The convention day ended with our make-n-takes, where we get to pull out and break in our brand new stamps! I was more impressed with the projects we made this year than last.

Shelley and I grabbed some dinner at PF Changs and proceded to spend the next 10 HOURS or so just talkin and talkin! Maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not much! Rachelle can talk almost as much as I can, so I don't think there was a moment of silence between us that whole night til we FINALLY called it quits at about 1:30 am. Yikes! We were so tired that next morning, but we still dragged our butts out of bed to get down to the pool. I was able to get my first lesson in flip-turning. See, Rachelle is an awesome swimmer too (among her many other talents!). I didn't quite get the flip-turn figured out that morning, but I'll keep practicing.

We were both very impressed with the Friday morning presentations, but opted to skip out of the afternoon classes that focused on building your business. So, I apologize to all my customers... I'm sure I would've learned some great things to make my workshops better, but I don't regret playing hookie and proceded to have an ultimate, TAMN-erific (see the 'Seriously So Blessed' blog link on the right) GNO (girl's night out - even though it was all afternoon!).

No self-respecting girls day would start without a PEDICURE from some sweet, albeit rough, Vietnamese ladies! My toes are STILL smiling at me a week later!

Then we went shopping/browsing down at Gardner Village. It was really fun shopping with someone possessing a creative mind like Rachelle's! She's a big garage saler, so she would see something, examine it, maybe take a picture, and store that idea away for some future date when she finds the perfect item and can recreate it for a dollar! It was a very educational experience! Ohh, and all that candy we bought was for the kids of course (wink wink!)

Then we HAD to go get a pork salad from Cafe Rio... because, again... where else would we go!? I know the Utah facination with Cafe Rio gets mocked, but I'll be damned if that isn't the yummiest salad on the planet! I'm not embarassed about the fact that I crave that salad all the time and I DON'T apologize for eating the whole thing down to the very. last. black. bean.! So there!

We also fit in a stop at a mall, a Nordstrom Rack, and Target, since I needed to pick up some birthday presents for Paul. We finally made it back to the hotel around 9:00 and ate the rest of our salads at that point. We didn't stay up QUITE as late as the night before, but we still managed to find things to talk about until about 11:30 pm.

On Friday morning, I got up early so I could drive down to Springville and surprise Paul. He'd mentioned earlier in the week that he was mostly bummed that he would be waking up all alone with nobody to wish him a happy birthday. The boys and I gave him his presents and he took off to play some golf with his dad and brothers. I then jumped back in the car and drove back up to SLC to catch the keynote speaker. That Saturday also had some excellent presentations, but unfortunately, Rachelle and I didn't win any of the prize patrol prizes :(. It's immature of course, but I was a little disappointed that this was the first year I went home empty handed, aside from what came in the convention bag. Ah well... next year, for sure!

Once everything was wrapped up at the convention, I drove Shelley to the airport (where she proceded to wait and wait and wait for her 9:00 flight) and I made my way back home to catch the tail-end of a Croshaw family reunion. I was excited to see my boys again and to finally "check back in" as a mom. I came home from this convention with so many fun ideas that I can't wait to share with my stamp club girls. It's going to be a fun (and expensive) year for me since there's so much I want to get! Good thing a bunch of this stuff pays for itself, otherwise I'd have lot's of 'splainin' to do!

I want to shout out a great big "THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" to Rachelle for the awesome time I had with her. I can't imagine attending another convention without her. Hopefully next year, we can get her momma to join us again! So, with that being said... I can't WAIT 'til next year, girlfriend!