stampin4fun: Another Vacation!

Did you know that it's customary for Stampin' Up! to reward demonstrators with an all expense paid trip for two to an exotic destination each year? It's a reward reserved for those who earn enough "points" by the end of the Stampin' Up! year. Points are earned through a demonstrators business activities such as sales and advancements. ( Less than 1% of demonstrators earn this trip each year. )

I would look forward to these trips every year! It felt like a special form of recognition to be pampered by the company and it was great affirmation for all the "work" I put into my Stampin' business each year. I also love being able to treat one of my family members to this glamorous trip as thanks for their support as well.

Little did I know that the Greek Isles incentive trip in July 2019 would be the last incentive trip for a while! (Read the recap of that trip HERE)

We were told that the Maui 2020 incentive trip would be postponed until 2021. Those of us that earned the 2020 and 2021 trip would receive an extra 3 days extended stay and special extra experiences.

We all felt quite confident that this was a great solution because surely the pandemic would be over by then!

I kept moving forward with plans to attend the 2021 trip in Maui and booked my flights with the Stampin' Up! travel people and marked the vacation days in my calendar. However, as the pandemic raged on and the government put restrictions on international travel, it started to look like another incentive trip would be lost. The trip was supposed to be May 2021. I held on as long as I could hoping our vaccine rollout would be faster and travel restrictions would lift but no such luck. When I checked on my flights to Maui, I noticed that United airlines had changed the flight path tremendously and there were some issues. I contacted the travel agent and was able to get the flights changed to West Jet flights. I hung on to hope for a little longer but by around the end of April I finally decided to make the call and cancel my attendance. Sadly, due to the pandemic, no international demonstrators were able to attend the Maui incentive trip last year.

The flight change worked in my favour since I ended up with West Jet flight credits which could be used for future travel. Since West Jet is a Canadian airline, it seemed feasible that I could use these credits for travel in Canada.

When it was announced that Stampin' Up! decided to cancel the 2022 incentive trip and provide a cash payout instead, I felt sad to miss another chance to be pampered and socialize with my stampin' friends but hoped I could use the payout and flight credits to make my own reward trip.

I decided to go to Vancouver with Kevin and the two younger kids for the Easter Weekend. Our oldest didn't think he could get the time off work but in the end, he did so he came along too!

It was a quick trip and a little anxiety provoking for me as it would be the first time flying since the start of the pandemic.

We were grateful that we all stayed healthy and were able to fly out on Thursday night with no problems.

Here's a few photos of the fun we had together. Since I figured this was my incentive trip, I wanted to treat us to some nice experiences and didn't want to pinch pennies so to speak. My credit card was used a lot over four days. 😂🤣

I booked us a grand city biking tour. It certainly was grand! It was a 5 hour tour and we saw most of the key highlights.

Such big trees at Stanley park!

The following day was a University of British Columbia Campus tour. My daughter loves the outdoors and staying active so for the past year as she has been thinking about post secondary options, she kept saying she wanted the University of British Columbia.

I think the campus tour sealed the deal. It's now her number one application choice when applications open in the fall.

The campus has mountain views, ocean, beaches, japanese gardens and world renowned reputation. I had to agree with Michelle...what's not to like?

As her mom I would miss her terribly if she goes next year but I know she has to follow her own journey.

The following day was more walking in the great outdoors and more eating.

We arrived home yesterday to a SNOWSTORM!!!???

Our oldest son had some trouble getting back to Ottawa as his flight was cancelled and he was pushed to a later flight but fortunately all was fine even if he's a bit tired for work today.

I'm trying to shake off the vacation laziness and euphoria and get back into the groove in the craft cave. I've got some new catalogues to send out!

If you want one and haven't already let me know, make sure to register HERE asap!

Hope you had a great Easter weekend too!

April Online Ordering Special: Get 4 precut card packets free with your online order of $60 or more. It's like a free class in the mail! Shop online HERE. Make sure to use host code: 2EQKX7ME