Convention Festivities Continue!

So the first day of Convention actually started Thursday evening with General Session where Shelli Gardner CEO and Co-Founder opened up the 25th Anniversary celebration! She is an incredible and inspiring role model ... so tender-hearted and genuine... of course the tears flowed as she expressed her gratitude to us for our love of not just stamping but of helping others.. after all, that truly is why we are in this together... love what we do and and share what we love! Our theme to Be The Difference was obvious!

I got several pictures but because the place was so massive (almost 6,000 attendees!) ... good thing they had giant monitors to project the speakers .... look closely and you can see the tiny speck of a person on stage.... that's Shelli!

Here's the monitor view.... much better....

Shelli introduced a very special guest we had at Convention... Ronald McDonald... yes the real deal... he was there to thank us for all we do as they are our Charity.. he told stories of kids he visited who have had impact on him and others as well and know that the millions of dollars we've donated through SU sales and hours of volunteer service to the Ronald McDonald House has had incredible impact... needless to say there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd after he left.... Ronald included couldn't help but let the tears of gratitude flow... very very very moving! I'm so proud to be a part of such an organization....

Once the tears dried,  we were all then given the 2013 Anniversary SU Backpack.... the place went berserk.... here's what they look like.. and the best part was that it was jam-packed full with several free stamp sets and goodies.... including the 25 year anniversary pin and a SU theme pen.... 

Look at the smiles on these faces....

we were all pretty happy!

Prior to Convention we were all informed that they were going to try to break the Guiness Book of Word Records for the  Most Cards Send from One Location on One Day... so that evening an official from Guiness was there to document the event... we had only 3 hour window to mail our cards in order to break the record... the US Mail trucks were waiting for us in the room next door.... so once the  Session ended, after a few Prize Patrols where they give our free products... we proceeded to attend the Opening Social...  we first headed for the Postal trucks so we could be sure to participate...

Once they verified my card was hand stamped, signed, addressed and postage included.. I sealed it and sent it off.... actually I sent several but they can only count one per person for the Record....

You can see the counter while I'm waiting in line..

it's at 671 (we had to exceed 1000 to break the record)....

Here I go... dropping them into the mail basket....

See those two right on top????

Addressed to Pam and PK2...

wanted them to be a part of it even though they didn't get to attend!

(did you guys get your cards yet???)

(click on picture to enlarge)

This is our official holding the mail basket...

Once I dropped them in I glanced at the counter....

Then I caught Lynette not far behind me...

Once we made it through.. got a shot of us at the trucks...

was silly but was kinda fun just to say we did it!

Once inside the Gathering Place, we then got to enjoy several Demonstrator Booths, a gazillion Display Boards (which is where I spent most of the time taking these photos), Paper Pumpkin booth where we got a free kit to share with others (hummm.. .wonder who I'll be giving mime to....) The Social wasn't over until 10pm... good thing our hotel was only one block away.... remember this was just barely the opening and already did so much! Oh yes, and we found out the following night that of course we broke the World Record with nearly 3000 cards send in those three hours.... woo hooooo!

Friday morning we had another General Session, which included more Prize Patrols (by the end of Convention EVERYONE one something!!!), announcements and some stage demos.. which were awesome!!!...and then we spent most of the time in the Gathering Place Expo  Room.... watching demos, gawking at the Display Boards,

Oh and one of the free sets we got in our backpack was

Gorgeous Grunge... I wasn't too excited about it...

but Lynette was over the moon.... can ya tell?

After we looked at the board with samples... 

I changed my mind... this is gonna be an awesome set ....

Mind you, here's just a small section of the miles of display boards..

these with Lynettes fav....

.. .and not just cards... projects too....

For now, I'll end with Spit Happens..  with Grunge of course!

just too cute...

Watch for more display cards and swap pictures....

coming soon!