SPRING in Salt Lake...

Aren't they beautiful!!?  In Pennsylvania, we call this bush Forsythia.  Apparently, in North Carolina, however, they're called yellow bell bushes.  At least according to Sharon and Karen...

Patti, Sharon, Karen and I attended the Regional in Salt Lake last weekend.  We got to see the new catalog AND purchase items from the Sneak Peek!

The Regional was great, as always - and was held in the picking area of Stampin' Up!s Distribution center - what fun!

We had Shelli all to ourselves!  All 375 of us...

And what are we celebrating thoughout 2013?

Yep, making a difference for 25 years!

I can vouch for Stampin' Up!'s having made a difference in MY life!  It's been a creative journey I would never have imagined for myself 23 years ago - but what FUN!

But I'm getting away from the title of today's blog entry - SPRING!

Most of the plants I took photos of do not do well in Southern California - but they are plants I grew up with in PA, so I had a blast taking pictures and trying to remember what their names are...

First of all - snow in the mountains!  It was beautiful all around us, since Salt Lake is in a valley between two mountain ranges...

Can't forget trees with blossoms - I THINK this is a flowering plum...

And tulips!

And LILACS! 

This is one of my favorite bushes and they just don't do well where I live in San Diego...  We had three or four lilacs in our yard when I grew up and I STILL love the smell of them...

The gals at the hotel told us this was a flowering plum.  Quite beautiful in person!

And I can't forget the fun we had while we ate and gabbed! 

The REQUIRED visit to Olive Garden!  Sharon and Patti here...

And our step out of our normal box - T G I Fridays...

We had a BLAST!  Thanks Stampin' Up! for giving us a "getaway weekend" to do something we love!

What?  OH - new product?  Yep, we got some...  New catalog?  Yep, we got one...

BUT - I can't show it to you just yet!  I know - what a tease, huh?

You're just going to have to be satisfied with SPRING in Salt Lake for this blog post...   I'm working on my This And That journal and making it "My Stampin' Up! Journey" - so next time, I'll show you some of what I've been doing with that...

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!