Day #3 of the Stampin’ Up! Founder’s Circle retreat

Rise and shine! We were on the bus at 6:50 AM and we returned to the hotel at 9:30 PM. We went from St. George to our beloved Kanab, Utah manufacturing facility (1 1/2 hours by bus), we had lunch there then another 1 1/2 hour drive to Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. We rafted down the Colorado River in the most breathtaking scenery. It was a full but perfect day! (even when you factor in the sweet but goofy raft guide who stopped twice to strum his guitar that he whipped out of nowhere while singing… it was a wee bit unexpected).

This is how we get welcomed by the amazing staff at Kanab who say they wait all year for us to come. Trust me, it's a love fest when we're there as we love these hard-working folks too!

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Patty Bennett and I toured together.

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Love seeing our CEO, Shelli Gardner's, private family quarters on the 2nd floor of the manufacturing plant.

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Six of us from our Advisory Board 2010 posed at the rock sign at the entrance. Check out the blue skies!

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Stampin' Up! surprised the 120 of us with a 3-hour float trip down the Colorado River starting at Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.

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Gorgeous scenery.

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And even a stop to see some petroglyphs!

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Dinner in our own bag was waiting for us on shore.

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And upon our return, after having been gone 14 1/2 hours, we had this striking framed photograph of our float destination today waiting on our bed. It was a great day!

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Day #2 of the Stampin’ Up! Founder’s Circle retreat

Day 2 was pretty light and easy. After returning the rental car and a trip to Dillard's, I pretty much sat in the Gathering Place all afternoon working on our Make & Take project which is a 20-page 8×8 album. While in there, my 5th level up upline, Jill Olsen gave me the two gifts below. Super, super cute! The fabric gift is a shoulder purse.

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I sat at a table with our CEO Shelli Gardner and her lovely daughter Sara Douglass. The two most photogenic people ever.

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After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. We have the whole place!

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Always love spending time with one of my very dearest Stampin' Up! buddies, Patty Bennett.

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There was a guy making Cinnamon Almonds and they were served in these. How cute!

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Our pajama party is just beginning. We go from snacks and gathering to hearing 5 business tips from fellow demonstrators then we swap.

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For the 1st time, we were gifted special totes to collect our swaps. Some vignettes of business tips were compiled into the cute little My Digital Studio sampler.

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And here's the loot! Here are my 120 swaps that I am just about to savor and look through, one by one. At first glance, though, this is the best bunch of swaps I've ever received at a Founder's. What's sort of ironic is that we were asked to focus on a "2-layer" card rather than the WOW cards many tend to bring. I think it was challenging for high achieving demonstrators to scale it back but, I think it was brilliant. I see more truly demonstratable cards than I've ever seen in a swap. I'm so excited from what I have seen so far and now back to business…. Good night!

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