Hey Everyone,

I know some of you have been dying to hear all about my trip to Palm Cove for the Incentive Trip!!! Well all I can start to say is that it was AWESOME, AMAZING, FUN, MEMORABLE, and BEYOND MY WILDEST IMAGINATIONS!!!!

I have so many fun stories to tell you as well as soooo many photos that I will have to pick which to show, and which to cull, so as to either not bore you silly or make you green with envy.LOL!

So just to make it easier I will break the trip down into days, starting with day one…….(stating the obvious i know)

Okay so since I lived the furthest away, the other side of the country actually, Rod and I had to do the flight what we call the midnight horror. So we left Perth at 12.05am to fly directly to Brisbane. I flew with two other demonstrators, Ngaire and Donald and Sarah and Tim who are also both from Perth.

It was a great flight bar getting no sleep. We got a meal on the flight too, and I just remember thinking to myself at one in the morning, “why am I eating this meal of Chicken Stirfry right now??!!” Why they serve a hot meal at that time of night is beyond me, but it is always the same with Airline food, you just have to see what is under that foil lid!!!

We arrived and then transferred straight to the next flight to Cairns, which I managed to catch a couple of zzz’s. We were met by Christa who is one of the wonderful ladies from Stampin’Up USA who organized the Incentive Trip. We then were tranferred to the the Angsana Resort and Spa in Palm Cove.

We were met by the Hotel Manager, and the gorgeous Janeil the other lady behind the magic of the Incentive Trip. We were served with fresh, towels, and a chilled glass of Iced Tea…yum.

We were then taken to our rooms. Rod had gone in first to take in some bags and then I came in. I went into the main bedroom and was rather gob-smacked with what I saw. The room was HUGE, and it had two bathrooms!!! Here is a piccie,

and the window view….

I was so excited with this beautiful bedroom, and then Rod says to me, “go check out upsatirs”…..I’m like. “there is an upstairs?”….so off I went to explore and was so shocked with what I found! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got upstairs to find a huge family room, kitchen, dining, laundry, and balcony!!!

This is the Lounge / Kitchen shot…

View from the window….

This is the view from the Balcony looking down…

 The Resort was just beautiful, and had such a beautiful ambiance. I didn’t quite don the cossie and get wet, as I like it to be stinking before I will wet those toes of mine! Anyhooo some people braved it!!

In our room when we arrived they had a beautiful cd playing that was one of those relaxation cd’s and they had essential oils burning…..which really set the mood.

We also had two shirts  wrapped for us to wear to our night of Lawn Bowls. Each of the shirts that everyone recieved had coloured sleeves to state which team they were playing in…….I had my fears that I would be put in Yoyo yellow, or even Garden Green…BUT we got Basic black…..how cool was that!

We then went to the Far horizons restaurant to have a BBQ dinner before heading out for a night of Lawn bowls. It was great to share a Champagne with Yvonne at last!

Here we are having a little drinkie to loosen up the joints for lawn bowls!

Now lawn bowls was an experience and a half!!! So much fun!!! I totally can see how people get into this game, see …. I suprised myself again!

In our team we had Linda and Greg Higgins, and Kelly and Paul Bowen. We had to compete against Bravo Burgundy which has Craig and Alisa Tilsner, Martin and Yvonne Campbell and Jarred and Jaquie Pederson. And we didn’t win but hey that is okay. Here are some pictures of us having fun…..

Here is Rod and I in our team shirts….

Linda and Greg our other team mates….

And here I am actually going for a shot….

Not sure what Rod is trying to do here…….??!! LOL!

And here is Shelli and Stirling having a blast…..!

Our competition…. the cute Alisa and Craig

And lastly Yvonne showing us her magic moves!

What a fun night. We all heady home on the big buses and what we didn’t expect was a beautiful gift left in our rooms whilst we were out that evening.

Wrapped in a beatutifully decorated white box was a gorgeous little hoodie with the incentive Trip Logo!

I also made these little goodie bags for some of my friends on the Incentive Trip. I would have loved to make one for everyone, but there just wasn’t time!!!

Day 2:

Well it was up bright and early the next day for a Continental Breakfast in the Resort restaurant before heading out. The breakfast was deluxe!

We headed out to do the Kuranda train ride and then the Skyrail back down.

This was on the side of the train…

This is a side view of the train out of the window….

Here is Rod and I whilst on the train….

And here is Rod with two of the other hubbies, Vern, & Warren…

The train stopped off at the Barron Gorge Lookout…

Here is a picture of Donald and Ngaire with us at the lookout…

When we arrived in the town of Kuranda which was the end of the train line, we all went to explore the townsite. It was just beautiful there, and we had a great time exploring. Ngaire and Donald and ourselves went to Birdworld and they had some beautiful birds.

Here is Rod trying to give the Scarlet Macaw a scratch…

 

After a yummy lunch at the Frogs restaurant it was time to head to the Skyrail to head back down the mountain. I am frightened of heights, so was a little anxious about how I would go, on the Skyrail!!!

We actually had the pleasure of being in the sky cabin with Shelli and Sterling and Robyn and Vern. Sterling thought it was the biggest joke that I was frightened of heights and was stirring me up the whole way down!!! He is quite a humorous man and was telling us some of the jokes he has done on Shelli over the years.

Here is a Beautiful photo of Shelli and Sterling together in the Skycabin…

And here is a picture of Shelli and I up in the air!

So that was the day trip out. And once again when we got back we were spoilt with another gift! We recieved a DVD of WOW presentations taken at the US regionals over the past year…….and it is FANTASTIC.

 

That night I had swaps that still needed to be finished off….yep didn’t quite get them done before I left!!! But hey what is new, doing them at the last minute. I even had to rope in some helpers, and hubby once again did wonderfully on the distressing this time, and cutting flowers out! Thanks to Robyn and Steph we got them all made, but not before 1:30AM!!!

We had Steph’s hubby as the, what did he call is, Oh yes….PRESENTATION MANAGER!….He put the finished cards into the plastic bags! He was very proud of himself…..see here!

Cute hey!

I didn’t have any of my swaps left so I will have to make an extra one when I get home to show you what I made as my swap…..Well after a late night it was off to bed!

Day 3:

Are you getting bored yet???

Day three began with Swapping and Stamping!!! Yay, just what us demonstrators love to do hey….To be honest it was a relief to finally get to my hands on a stamp after a few days!!!

We recieved some beautiful swaps, I just hope everyone liked mine! We of course got a cute Stampin’Up goodie bag with stamps and stamp pads for that mornings stamping!

This is what was at each ones place at the tables…

We recieved a new stamp set called ‘Ocean Commotion’ . It is a stamp set that hasn’t been released anywhere yet, and it will be appearing in the Summer mini here in Australia, 1st  December.

And here is the cute projects that we made…

Here are the lovely ladies that put up with me for the morning…..

Sarah, Ngaire,Yvonne, and Emma (NZ general manager) We had a blast!

After stamping we all lined up for a piccie with Shelli. She is so gracious to allow us to jump in on photos with her….She just takes one after the other and still shows us that beautiful smile!! I really would love to know her beauty secrets, as she is 18 years older than me and looks younger!! You would never guess she has 13 Grandchildren!!!

First I had a photo of Shelli with my wonderful friend and Upline Ngaire, and myself

Then one by myself….see what I mean about the age thing…..she is just stunning!!!

Okay so that was a really fun morning of stamping and swapping. We were then all called outside for a group photo. This was fun, squeezing into a stairwell, but I think the photo turned out really well!

Can you find me?

So we had the rest of the day to chill out. It was Rod and my 10 year wedding anniversary that day too……we really can’t believe how fast the years have gone. When I get home I will show you a couple of older photos of us, as it is just too much fun to remeniss (is that how you spell it????) So we just took the rest of the day really easy with a walk on the beach, and afternoon sleep….and went for a beautiful dinner together.

Here we are at a cute restaurant in Palm Cove called Colonies! The food was deluxe!!! We both had a Pina Colada to remind us of our honeymoon in Hawaii……yummo! And then we both had Thai green curry for dinner and desert to top it off. I was SOOOO full after all that! What a special time to reflect on how much God has blessed our lives! We have of course had our difficult times, but through it all God has cared for us and given us the strength to endure. Praise God!

Just backing up a little, in the early evening we had a knock at the bedroom door and it was the Resort Service guy delivering a huge box to me. Once I saw the green ribbon, I knew it was from Stampin’Up, but I totally did not expect what was inside!!!! I am still shocked at the BEAUTIFUL gift we recieved!

A beautiful Robe with our initials embroidered into them!!! I will treasure this gift whenever I wear it. I can totally visualize wearing this whilst trying to keep warm at my stamping desk……just have to watch I don’t have any accidents with my Real red Stamp pad….hmm maybe it isn’t such a good idea afterall!

A little while later I got a phone call from Ngaire to come down to the pool area with my robe. I had only just gotten out of the shower! So I had to really quickly throw on my underwear, don the robe and run down for this……….picture!

How funny is this photo!!! We were all dressed in our robes. Can you spot me? This was great fun, and we were all laughing our heads off. We certainly got a few looks from other guests in the Resort!!!

So that was a fun day…..many of us were saying by now, how we can’t believe how fast it was all going and that we were sad that it was almost over!!!

Day 4:

So this day was my Birthday!!! You know last year was the big 30! And it really is amazing that another year has passed in a blink of an eye. I was so anxious about turning 30, but have totally accepted it now, and really it is no big deal and to be honest I now feel rather foolish about worrying about it! Your age does not define who you are, and so being now 31 is great!

I started off the day with a beautiful breakfast with Ngaire and Donald and Alisa and Craig in the resort restaurant…..which was just DELUXE by the way……I don’t dare to jump on the scales to see the damage that these yummy breakfast do! The boys were working out what to do for the day as it was free, and in the end Rod and Donald settled on hiring a 4WD to go on an adventure!

They had a great day and got most the way up the coast. I think they were a little dissapointed that the tracks were a bit tame, as I think they were hoping to get down and dirty!!!

Me?.. well I had a top to toe package booked at the Day Spa!!! What a treat that was!!! I had a Body scrub, a Body wrap, a Facial, and a Massage!!! It was devine, and I totally was walking on clouds when I walked out of there!. I have had the odd facial, and pedicure, but never a whole works package before, so that was a lovely birthday treat!

Being the last night we had our Farewell dinner which was going to be at the Cairns Wildlife Safari Centre….hmm that was an adventure and a half! As we were getting ready for that another knock at the door………I was starting to get used to these! Yep the delivery man again bearing gifts! This time a beautiful bag…….and how appropriate considering where we were off to that night!

How Gorgeous is that bag!!! And do you see the embroidery with my initials on there too!!! Talk about SPOILT!

So we all headed out in two big buses. Rod and I were on the “Party Bus” ….because we had Kareoke!!! Nicki and Vicki arranged an assortment of songs, and it was soooo much fun to sing along….then they got the bright idea of getting some of us to come down and sing! Well not being a big kareoke fan, I didn’t intend to join in, until they played Cyndi Lauper’s song ” Girls just want to have fun”…well I was out of that seat and singing before I knew it…..loudly too  (hope everyone’s ears have recovered!) and here is the evidence!

How funny is this photo!!! LOL!!!

We even got Ngaire up there and on camera! She sang Dancing Queen by Abba, which she very quickly changed the lyrics to Stamping queen, doing sponging and buying that set…..it was just too funny!

As you can see she is putting her heart and soul into singing…..I hope she doesn’t kill me for putting this photo up here, but it is too much of a ripper not to!

So we arrived at our adventurous dinner…..at the Safari centre. First we got to have a drink and nibblies by the Hippo pens and learn all about hippos! After that we went for a walk and was greeted by a very interesting fire swallowing guy…..a little spooky looking with all that make-up, but pretty good body with all that swinging around he did!

You won’t believe it, but we ate dinner in a little pen that was sourounded with fences that had Lions in it! Rod was in is absolute element, where I was scared half to death, especially when they were getting grouchy! They had heaps of feed out for the lions, and when they opened the gates for them to come out, man they really went for that food!!! Even up a tree there was a chook and to see that lion jump for it was rather cool ( I do admit)

So we ate dinner by candle light sourrounded by lions! My camera didn’t want to co-operate but Ros and Jayne have kindly emailed me a couple of photos so that I could show you.

The daddy lion

The mummy lion

There was this groovy car in the food bar area that they converted. It fitted in with the whole Safari theme!

Love that striped ute with matching tablecloths!

The dinner was great although a little scary for me! I also got a wonderful birthday phone call from my brother calling from Greece where he is touring at the moment with his girlfriend. I can’t believe that you can chat from mobile to mobile around the world and get such great reception! amazing!

Anyway we were all far too knackered to be singing on the way home, and then all off us crashed as soon as it was back to the hotel……even on the last night!

We all had to say a quick farewell to Shelli and Sterling as they had to get up at 3am to leave for the airport. They had a little grandaughter born that day and were anxious to get home to meet her! It was starting to feel really sad that this wonderful trip was coming to an end…..a few tears were shed

Day 5:

Well with Shelli and Sterling gone, it was up early for the Perth people to leave. Now we would have been with them too, but considering it was our 10 year wedding anniversary Rod and I had planned to stay on for some extra days just togehter by ourselves. But we got up early to say our good-byes to Sarah and Tim, and Ngaire and Donald. Oh and of course we had to take some photos too!

Here we are…..the Perth Incentive Trip winners…

And here I am with Aaron Scott, Stampin’Up Australia’s General Manager, and Ngaire in front of the Resort sign…

After they left, everyone else was due to leave at 11am, so there were lots of last minute photos and LOTS & LOTS of HUGS!!!

Here is a picture of myself at Breakfast with Kim (on my left) and Robyn. Rob and i have been friends since the beginning of Stampin’Up here in Australia and have caught up at each Convention, but it was soooo great to spend more quality time with her this time. AND then there is Kim…..you won’t believe it but we are almost twins! Yep she has 4 kids as well, is the exact same age as me. Her kids are all the same ages, and we worked out that our firstborns were only born days apart!!! Over the few days, we found out about all these quirky things that we both do the same….like don’t eat salmon, love chocolate, and oh….so many other things, it was truly amazing. She is so much fun and a real sweetie.

Here I am with Joanna and Jayne, both gorgeous girls and lots of fun!

They are both from Sydney.

And my gorgeous friend Steph, who I am known to chat to for like 3 hours at a time on the phone….! It is her that does all the talking! hehehe…NOT! - She is from Brisbane

My wonderful friend Yvonne who is always is inspiring me and great to chat with! She is from Melbourne.

And very sweet Vanessa Webb. It was so great to finally meet Ness after our emails back and forward!

The very talented Claire Daly, also from Melbourne

And here I am with the most sweetest gal….Linda Higgins, my lawn bowls partner! Again I really enjoyed meeting Linda and getting to know her. She is the loveliest person and she is lucky enough to live in Central Coast NSW too. Her hubby Greg was fab too!

And here are the funniest ladies I have ever met!!! Teresa and Jane. They had us in stitches of laughter the whole time. They actually call each other by the names Porky and Fatty! It is so strange to hear them yell that out to each other in public! They certainly made it heaps of fun, and I will always remember them for sure!

Each day we had the opportunity to spin a prize wheel too! There were prizes if you landed on the Certainly celery squares, and a booby prize if you landed on the Chocolate…..but really it wasn’t all that booby because it was chocolate…..hey if anyone is giving chocolate away it is a good thing!

Here I am on the first day having a spin. I managed to win on the green everyday and was spoilt with these great prizes!

Pretty cool hey……Pockets and Pieces, Rhinstone Brads, Ribbon pack, and Rub-on’s! YAY!

 Well I think that was about it for photos…..I bet you can’t believe it. I hope this hasn’t been too long winded for you…it has taken me about 4 hours to get this post together, and really I can’t express enough how wonderful the Incentive Trip was. Stampin’Up really treated us like royalty whilst we were there and we got so spoilt. I am so grateful and really it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the hard work of these two amazing ladies…….

 I will get a bigger piccie asap to show you.

From the accomodation, food, tours, prizes, stamping, badges, etc…… they made it happen. WOW what a job that would be! But knowing what it was like putting together the Stamp a thon for 1 day, I can just imagine how much work would have gone into orgnizing a 5 day event in another country!!! Now how is that for amazing!!!

And they are the sweetest gals you will ever meet. I was just to amazed at the wonderful job they did and really really hope they know how much we all appreciated their efforts.

Well what can I say, it is over for this year! Palm Cove was an experience I will never forget. I met new friends, got to know others better (especially Sarah, Kim, and Alisa, which was great) and to really feel that us top SU demonstrators are in this together to encourage, share, and enjoy our love of Stampin’UP. Now who wouldn’t want a job that allows you to be so rewarded!!!

 Thanks for your patience with my very very long post, but I really hope you managed to capture the fun and Excitment of the ‘08 SU Incentive Trip!

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