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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Our FREE Scentsy Vacation!

In January, I set some goals and earned the FREE "Rally in the Rockies" trip. On June 15, Scott and I, along with almost 200 other hard working consultnats and companions, left for our 5-day, all inclusive trip to Banff, Alberta Canada. This was a FREE trip that Scentsy gave to consultants that earned enough points during the qualification period. Every detail was planned out on this trip, and it was so wonderful that words can't even describe. We saw so many beatuiful places in Banff, made some life-long frindships, ate some AWESOME food, and came home with expiriences and memories that we will never forget. Scentsy is the BEST direct sales company EVER! Thank you for such a wonderful, amazing trip. I am excited to see what else Scentsy has in planned for us, and the growth that will happen over the next 5 years! Here are more photos of our AWESOME FREE TRIP!
 
My parents came to watch the kids while we were away and they seemed to have an enjoyable time. I tried to make sure that all the places they needed to go were programed in to the GPS, or they would get lost on these roads. Day one of our vacation, we flew in to the Calgary Airport where there were 4 charter buses waiting for us to board. It was nice as my stomach was growling, that there were plenty of snacks for our 2 hour bus ride. When we got the the Banff Springs Hotel, our luggage was waiting for us in our beautiful room. This hotel is AMAZING! We registered and were given some money for the few meals that we would be eating out on our own (Scentsy covered all the meals!). After registration, we were free to roam for a few hours. That evening was spent at the "Welcoming Dinner" in the hotel where there were some "to die for" treats. We had a small presentation, then wrapped things up for dinner. We got together with Becky and Kevin Preece, and Casie and Doug Stevenson to play cards in the common area of our wing (which was HUGE, 2-story level with a bar). We played until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. Before our trip, we were given options for different tours. There were almost 200 consultants and companions on the trip, and 5or 6 tours to pick from. There was the white water (too cold!), glacier national park (too cold, and a long bus ride!), bike and hike (not in shape for that one!), fishing (could have been fun), Lake Louise, and the photo tour -which is what we did since we have such an awesome camera. So day 2 was all about taking some awesome photos!
 
Check out the buffalo on top :) After our photo tour, we toured the Banff Springs Hotel (with Marty and Angie Chipps), then went downtown and had some dinner with a group of friends. After dinner, we did some shopping -we saw some really fun things, but just window shopped. :) I was too tired to play cards by the time we got back to the hotel.
 
The third day was spent going for a 3 hour horseback ride, and I'm happy to report that my thighs have finally recovered. It was a beautiful ride and we went with Becky and Kevin Preece. My horse was named Pedro, but because he didn't want to keep up, and had a mind of his own, I called him "Juanita". He just didn't want to keep up in line and it made all the other horses mad. Scott did awesome on his horse. After our horse ride, we went back to the hotel, changed and went for a ride in the Gondola. It was a 4 seater and only took us 8 minutes to get to the top. There was a resturaunt with huge windows and the most breathtaking views, and the food was wonderful (I had salmon with this orange sauce -yum!). After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to hand out in the hot tub for a bit. When we got in our room, we noticed a couple of cowboy hats and bandanas on our bed. They were given to us for the cowboy dinner we would be going to that evening -that was a fun find :)
 
At 6:30, we were all taken in the coach buses to a fun cowboy dinner. We started out with some virgin fun drinks and root beer. The meal was just some good ol' fashion downhome cookin'. After dinner, they had stuntmen come in and do a show for us, taking Orville (our CEO) as their "horse theif". We laughed quite a bit during that part of the show. Then came the line dancing, maybe not too good on a full belly, but it was a fun, great workout. It was good that we worked off some of our dinner because after the pie came smores outside. It was so beautiful to look up and see mountains all around us! We went back to the hotel on one of the first buses so that we could play some more cards. When we went to our room to get the cards, we noticed a top hat and a black and white boa on the bed with an invite to the Gala the next evening. SO COOL! I guess we got a little loud while we were playing cards because one of the guests came storming out of his room and yelled, "Are you guests here?" After we told him yes, he yelled to us "THEN SOBBER UP!". We told him were were so sorry for being loud, we didn't realize there were rooms where he was (up by the bar?), and that we didn't drink. He gave a small huff, then high tailed it back to his room. We were a lot more quiet after that. I felt a little like a rebel :)
 
Friday, the last day, we had breakfast at the hotel with everyone, then had a training session with Orville. It was great because there was an improptu panel discussion with Adie Mitchel, Becca Levie, and Diane Drayer. I learned so much, and it was so wonderful to listen to thier words of wisdom in how they are building their businesses. We then got on the buses and headed to an Indian Lodge for lunch. It was interesting food (I stuck with the salmon -again). We sat next to Becky and Kevin Preece, and Colette Gunnell and her husband. It was fun when Scott asked Colette a little bit about the Scentsy idea, and she told us the whole Scentsy story. Colette is so beautiful, and she is so humble and down to earth. After lunch, we were driven to the Fairmont Palliser Calgary Hotel where we would spend our last night and have our Gala dinner. It was so elegant! They had a "big band" orchestra and Scott and I enjoyed dancing by ourselves on the dance floor for a few dances. We were treated to 5 course meal, with about a 15-20 wait between courses. We took lots of photos, then found a connecting reception area where we had some beautiful chocolate covered strawberries and hot drinks. We rounded up a group of people and had one last round of cards with about 20 people crammed into a downstairs board room. We asked the conciers desk if there would be a quiet place where we would not disrupt the other guests if we to loud. He hooked us up. I then went up and aksed if when our Gala was over, if we could have the extra chocolate covered strawberries where we were playing cards. About 10 minutes later, we were given 2 platters! They also provided us with bottled waters :) It was a VERY fun last evening. On our way home, we got stuck in the Chicago airport that had closed down due to thunder storms and tornado warnings. So, this was really our last evning because we ended up having to stay the night in Chicago. We were going to sleep in the airport, but found one last room available. We actually found a few of our friends from our trip that got stuck in the airport as well, so they stayed in the room with us. I should have took pictures of how crowded the airport was -lines 4 hours long of people trying to get re-routed. It was okay though. I knew our children were fine, and I wasn't going to let a little airport mishap mess up, or foreshadow our awesome vacation! Join my team, let's set some goals, and you could be on the next BIG Scentsy trip with us!

4 comments:

little miss shortcake said...

wow. that trip sounds INCREDIBLE!
how smart of you to ask for a room where you could have fun and be as loud as you wanted AND get the strawberries!

Jenny @ Practically Perfect... said...

Just stopping by from SITS ;-)

I've heard that Banff is absolutely beautiful, and your pictures certainly attest to that! That's awesome that you earned it on points!

Dorkys Ramos said...

Oh wow, sounds like an awesome trip! You did so much and those pictures look great (I probably would've chosen the photo tour too)!

Melissa B. said...

Just LOVE these Superior Snaps! Dropping in from SITS to Share Some Comment Love...