Feliz Cumpleanos

This year for my birthday, I went to visit my former home!!! It was TRULY the most amazing trip!!!! I really cannot think of one thing I would've changed. Oh wait, I just thought of something--I would've taken more pictures. :)

I arrived Tuesday evening and surprise surprise both Anais and Matt picked me up at the airport, with a cold Diet Coke for all of us in hand! mmmmm Do you see why I love going there? Yeah well that was just the beginning....

Wednesday was my special day--and lucky for me, Anais is currently in the Day Club so we had a day of awesome festivities.....starting with a 2 hour chat w/Sina on Skype.com. Oh it was so so great to talk to her--none of us had talked more than brief emails since they left for Sri Lanka in early April. It was the perfect way to start the day.....and is this picture awesome or what?!?!

Next we took the party to the movie theater!! We saw Valentino: The Last Emporer. Loved it! Click the link if you wanna know more b/c I blogged about it on Movie Mavens. We followed that up w/some quick chips and salsa--sitting outdoors (the weather was actually beautiful) and met up w/Christy. Then Christy and I went to see Matt in Shear Madness @ the Kennedy Center. WOW WAS IT AWESOME!!!

I ended my special day with dinner @ my favorite restaurant...Rio Grande!!! BSGs reunited...Jill, Caroline & me....
...and a shot down the table....Caro, me (mmm quesadillas!), Lacey & Rachel...
...and the other side....Chris, Christy & Anais....

One of the things that set this trip apart from those of the past couple of years was the amount of time that I had with everyone. I got to see all my friends out there at least 3 or 4 times. On Saturday morning, we all gathered at Lacey's house for a Stampin' Up! party!! Robin Merriman, a demonstrator who lives in VA, prepped everything for us....

Christy and Lacey just having a ball....and then below is Amber, Carolyn & Caroline....I don't have any good pics w/Robin--so Robin you've got to send me whatever you have! :)

The rest of the week was filled with a billion other things...shopping, more movies, visiting, one more of Matt's plays (loved it!), Mr. Yogato, walks through the beautiful city & suburbs, late nights, fun tv shows, important CNN business, and then--my friends really spoil me by letting me go to my favorite restaurant as much as I want--even twice a day! This was the 3rd to last time I got to go there....

Anais, me, Lacey, Rachel & Christy....this picture includes a big portion of what I always called my urban family when I lived out there....those that I lived with, laughed with (cheesy but true), watched ALIAS with, etc...I spent some seriously amazing years in DC!!

And that's about the most of it!! Hope you aren't asleep by now because above all, I think this post was mostly for me and the "journal" side of my blog. I'm lucky to still have all these gorgeous people in my life!

Canberra, Part 2

And now for the actual event.....we started Friday morning VERY EARLY!!!! Here we are, in the last few minutes before 7am (that's what time we opened check-in and Memento Mall). L to R: Derek, Angie, Cindy & Amanda--the check-in crew.

In this next photo, you can see behind me there was a soda machine so I got my morning beverage for no less than 3 DOLLARS!!! That's right friends, a $3 can of soda (actually about $2 US). A 12 pack runs around $4....which makes it about $.33 for a can normally. Emma said $3 was cheap and she was right because a little later I found small bottles in the mall for $3.50.....anyway moving on....

Friday was filled with tons of fun activities--Main stage presentations....

...break-out classes (I taught Wise Investment w/a fabulous demo--Alison Charlton--who I somehow managed to NOT get one picture of!! DUH!), and we ended the day w/Manager's Reception.... Emma, me, Amanda...
Then Emma and I hit the shops---we had 1.5 hours until they closed--and that was only b/c it was the late night for shops (open til 9). Seriously--shops all close at like 5 or 6 on normal days. In 1.5 hours, I found 2 skirts, 2 pair of shoes, a fabulous pearl bracelet to wear to Lindsey's wedding, and a new pair of sunglasses. Plus we ran into the Western Australia ladies shopping too.....Skip, Ngaire, Me, Cherita & Jo....
Once the shops closed, we rendezvoused at Koko Black for some extremely delish hot cocoa (Amy Ealy, me & Emma)...

The other side of the table: Jeanette & Clare who are two of our contact center agents in Sydney. They all arrived Friday night and it was so great to finally meet them too!

And the end of the table: Hollie (facilitator in AUS) & Angie.

Saturday was equally awesome....we started w/breakout classes--this time my class was Demonstrator Theatre where I taught w/Makeesha Bye and Marelle Taylor--again no pictures. Booooooo! Then during the general session the Workshop Wow demonstrators presented--I got to work with them to help them prepare and so while we were setting up, we snapped this picture....Nicki Tidbold, Ngaire Anderson, Michelle Habib, moi & Shelli....

Of course I am not the tallest person in the world, but it's pretty rare that I am the shortest one in the picture! And I don't think anyone had heels on....

After general session, we cleaned up, packed up, then had a quick change in the bathroom. It was a frenzy of hairspray, glitter & of course flashes (from cameras of course).....
I did manage to obtain a picture w/Makeesha at the awards dinner....

It's tough to say what my favorite part of Convention is--but the actual awards ceremony definitely ranks towards the top. Just seeing the amazing accomplishments from the past year of all different demos makes me a bit emotional! This year I got to hand out some of the prizes---here's me and Amanda where we greeted demos as they came off stage and congratulated them with prizes....

That night, I finally fell into bed around 2:30am....to be awakened by my alarm @ 5!!! I was in the lobby by 5:30 and we were @ the airport by 6. They even put us on an early flight to Sydney because our 8am flight was going to be delayed....so we sat on the early flight....and watched the 8am flight leave us behind. That's right--delayed already! So it was back to the airport where we snapped this photo: Back to Front and L to R: Jason Gerber, Dave Baugh, Derek, Jason Hatton, Cindy, Pam, Jill, Amy, Deb (a demo from Melbourne), Shelli, me & Emma...

I finally got home around 5pm on Sunday--so the delays weren't too bad. But my luggage didn't show up til 4:45am on Tuesday morning (yes, they did call and wake me up). But at least it arrived!!!

And now to complete the story....Monday I went to lunch w/Hill & her two youngest--to one of my favorite spots--Einstein's Bagels--where I got 32 ounces of complete deliciousness for a mere $1.79!!!

And p.s. pretty much all soda in Utah is refillable--so it's really all-you-can-drink....but I can walk out w/32 oz. in hand! And that's why $3 cans shock me. :)

And here are 2 more awesome things that I got to experience at Einstein's....

Is that an amazing welcome home gift, or what????

Canberra

Last week, I went to Canberra, Australia on business, for our annual AUS/NZ Convention. IT WAS AN AMAZING TIME IN SOOOOOOOO MANY WAYS!!! Here are a few highlights....

I left here Sunday night, and after an hour delay, we finally left LAX. I have to say that I am TOTALLY OVER Qantas Airlines! Everyone always gushes about them--and even if we did have a mini-convenience store in the back of the plane, there are TOO MANY DELAYS! Of my 3 trips to Australia, I have been majorly delayed EVERY time! This time we were delayed on the way AND the way home!!!

So now I will step of my soap box and introduce my beautiful room....I love the rooms over there--they always have so much character--swanky and modern all in one.

Would you believe I didn't even turn that flat screen on all week?

Emma got in about the same time from Auckland--and we met up w/Teresa Dabrowski--a demo that I met last year. She took us all over town and showed us a fab time. We went to the War Memorial....

The poppys are a tradition on ANZAC day--which was just before. They put them near the name of a loved one.

We saw the old and new Parliament houses (afterall, Canberra is the capital city)....I love the official seal or whatever they call it--with the Emu (I think) and the Kangaroo...

Then we went up Telstra tower for an awesome overlook of the entire surrounding area....L to R: Emma, Teresa, me.

Then we found a big ole pack of Roos--here's me and Cindy. There is a fence between us but they are "wild" and just roam wherever. We saw tons of joeys and my favorite--watching them run. :)

Wednesday morning we had a couple hours before starting to set up so we grabbed a delish breakfast @ Dobinsons which was already our favorite place at this point. I mean just look at that toast! ;)

Once set-up began, we didn't really have a lot of time for play....we did however catch some dinner w/a bunch of demos on Thursday night. Here's Yvonne, Ngaire & Keesh....

...and then the other side of the table: Cherita, me, Teresa....

...we went to this awesome place that had a funky name that I already forgot. In fact everywhere I ate was completely delicious!!! The area we were in had tons of shops and restaurants--it was perfect!!!

And it was so much fun this year catching up w/friends--and still meeting lots of new friends too! Each time I go I love the countries and the demos even more!!

For me, one of the best highlights of the trip was meeting this gorgeous girl:

After working with Amanda for 3 years, meeting was looooooong overdue!! Amanda--I love ya girl! Thanks for being one of my 9 followers! :) When my blog is as popular as Paris Hilton's--oops I meant Perez Hilton's, I will still remember that you were one of the first--maybe I'll even let you be a guest blogger. :) haha

Next post I'll move on to the actual event....had to have a way to break it up and quite frankly I am just too tired now to continue. :)

P.S. If you are an Aussie or Kiwi and have pics posted on your blog--leave a comment with your blog addy so I can see your pics and read your stories too! Thanks!