Last year around this time my family was in Maui. But this year the Stampin’ Up! 2022 in-person Incentive Trip was cancelled. The plan had been to be on a Royal Caribbean Southern Caribbean cruise in May. But a majority of the achievers when surveyed over a year ago didn’t feel comfortable being on a cruise ship quite yet. So Stampin’ Up! instead did a virtual event about a month ago, sent us a big box of gifts (that included a plush white robe, two beautiful mugs, a Capri Blue candle, an achievement pin, AND apple airpods!), and gave each achiever a “cash out” to use as we wanted.

My family decided to use this cash out for a summer family road trip out east. And we just returned from that 13-day vacation last night. What a fun time we all had!

Saturday, June 11
We drove from Andover MN to Chicago IL. Our first stop was at team member, Karen Meyer’s place. She and her husband Richard hosted and had a meal that included deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s and lots of other food and drink. Another team member, Leslie Francis and her husband JR came, too. It was fun to finally meet Karen and Leslie in person, and we had a great time together getting to know each other more!

This is the beautiful view from Karen and Richard’s place.

A couple hours later after checking into our hotel, we explored on foot and walked to Cloud Gate (the Bean) and to the Navy Pier. It was very scenic walking through the park areas and past the yachts and boats on the Lakefront Trail.

We road the Ferris Wheel and had lots to eat on our visit at the Pier.

Sunday, June 12
Karen picked us up in our van in the morning and we dropped her off at her place. We were able to say good-bye one more time. And they saved us some money (about $70!) on parking by keeping our van for us overnight. It’s pretty expensive to stay right in the heart of Chicago.

It was another long day of driving as traveled from Chicago to Bee Springs KY. We made it to our AirBnb in the early evening. It was a cute place called the Bee Hive and was decorated everywhere in a bee/honey/hive theme.

Monday, June 13
We visited Mammoth Caves National Park. I LOVED this part of the trip and was excited to see and learn about this amazing place. Mammoth Caves is the longest connected underground cave system in the world at 420 miles long (and growing)!

We lucked out with sunny weather and very few drops of rain our whole trip, but it was a hot couple weeks in most of the places we visited. And Sunday was the start of the hot muggy weather. Here I am with Nick waiting for one of our cave tours to begin. You can tell by my hair and face we are experiencing some heat.

The caves were incredible and much cooler inside! So that was an added blessing.

We loved staying at the Bee Hive in Kentucky even though Tim looked like a giant in certain areas of the house. Hahaha! And we were sad to leave.

Tuesday, June 14
But we needed to get back on the road. So on Tuesday we traveled from Bee Springs to Gatlinburg TN. On the way, we stopped for a buffet lunch at a chain restaurant common to the area, Shoney’s. Luke pointed out that we couldn’t seem to get away from the theme from the last AirBnb pointing out the word “honey” in this restaurant’s name.

We arrived at our second AirBnb in the early afternoon. This time our place was a small condo on the 4th floor. It was nice inside, but the parking lot was steep and it took us a lot of energy and patience to get all of our luggage upstairs. We unpacked, made and ate an early dinner, and then ventured out on foot to see the town. We encountered two black bears leaving the condo though. This one was far away, so we took photos and video from our 4th level. The other was crossing the parking lot when we were. We stayed back needless to say.

Gatlinburg was quite fun…lots of shops, attractions, and tourists. We took the Gatlinburg Skylift to the top, walked across a long hanging bridge with a clear floor in the middle, walked another path which included a structure called the Tulip Tower, spent some time in the gift shop, and then took the lift back down.

Wednesday, June 15
This day we started out super early and visited the Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove to many of the lookouts.

But our favorite was the one that include a 1/2 mile walk to Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the Smoky Mountains. We were proud of ourselves that we NEVER stopped to rest on this all-uphill trek! This is a photo of our sweaty selves at the top.

We returned to our AirBnb in the early afternoon for a quick meal and rest. And then went back into town to see more sites, shop, and people watch. Tim sampled Moonshine, we tried lots of other treats, and we ate dinner at a place where the wait staff treat you unkindly on purpose (Dick’s Last Resort) – not my kind of place, but Luke was curious and wanted to experience it.

Thursday, June 16
We left Gatlinburg and traveled to Charlotte NC this day and stayed two nights at Mariah and Dan Williams’ home. Mariah and I have been friends since college. She has flown out to see me many times, so I owed her! LOL

We had a wonderful, fun, and relaxing stay – laughed, reminisced, ate good food, slept in, enjoyed the pool, shopped, watched The Accountant, played many games (UNO, jackbox games, and Sorry),…

…and ate out at Caba Fish Taco Baja Seagrill.

Saturday, June 18
It was painful to say goodbye, but we left Charlotte and traveled to our third and last AirBnb in Atlantic City NC. Here are a couple photos of the outside of this fabulous mobile home retreat. We stayed near the water (just a short walk to the pier), but we drove to the beach on the other side so we didn’t have to walk those blocks with our umbrellas, chairs, boogie boards (provided by the owners of the AirBnb), and cooler.

Here is Luke (before his sunburn) enjoying the Palm Trees.

And here we are enjoying the beach on that first full day (Sun., June 19). I DID get in the water, but I didn’t Boogie Board like the other three did. Yes, even my husband Tim caught a few waves as you can see.

Luke got sunburned even though he applied lotion twice! I felt so bad for him. So he took it easy that evening (and for the next couple days). Nick helped Tim grill some food for our dinner, we played a game of UNO (Mariah and Dan gave us their deck), and the boys played catch with the football in the shaded yard while we enjoyed the evening outside.

From the pier right next to our place, we caught the sunset AND the sunrise. We really did have a perfect place to stay.

Monday, June 20
After breakfast we drove to the coastal and historical town of Beaufort (just a short drive away) to shop and see the sites.

We spent most of the day there and even went on a boat tour of the Rachel Carson preserve and waterfront. We spotted wild horses grazing and learned about the area and the town.

We had and early dinner at a place called Finz Grill so we could eat near the water.

Then we shopped a bit more before heading back to our AirBnb. I was pleasantly surprised to see the same candles Stampin’ Up! gifted us trip achievers (Capri Blue brand) at one of the shops there. So I bought another smaller one and some hand soap to match for our new kitchen!

Tuesday, June 21
We left early in the morning to get on the road for one of our longest days of driving. In fact we made the drive even quicker by eating from our cooler when we could. Here we are pumping gas and gobbling up a quick lunch.

Our quick stops paid off so we could make it to Linda and Butch’s house in Gassaway WV by dinner time. Linda Lancaster is another team member that I had never met in person until now. It was so wonderful to finally hug her spend time with her. We also got to meet their good friends, Jeannette and Frank.

Linda and Butch spoiled us with huge meals for dinner and breakfast the next morning AND with a table full of gifts! (Jeannette helped make many of the items too!)

Wednesday, June 22
Their home was amazing. We loved how it was so secluded in the mountains and completely surrounded by trees. They were wonderful and generous hosts!

Here is a photo that Linda took of Luke and Nick right before we left.

And here is a photo I took of their neighbor as we drove away down their road. Hahaha!

Our drive this Wednesday took us even closer to home. We stopped at 4 PM at the Olive Garden in the Castle Creek area of Indianapolis so I could meet up and eat with three more team members: Jana Murray, Carol Slaven and Diane Callon. I was so happy to spend time with these gals and finally meet them in person. Tim, Nick and Luke sat on one side of the round table so us four ladies could chat better. 🙂

Our last night was in a hotel in LaFayette Indiana. The boys enjoyed the fitness room and pool. And it was nice to have yet one more comfortable place to sleep before heading home.

Thursday, June 23
We spent many more hours on the road. But we made it home by early evening. We loved up our kitty, Lucky, unpacked, opened mail, and started laundry before crashing in our beds.

This is probably the last road trip with just our family of four. Our last one was 5 years ago, and we can’t fit one in next summer before Nick’s senior year. So we are a little sad about that, but we feel blessed that we were able to make all these great memories together these past couple weeks.

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KITS COLLECTION BOGO SALE!
Do you have kits from the Kits Collection on your wish list? Save this month with the Buy One, Get One 50% off sale that runs June 1-30, 2022. Click here for details. Click here to shop the Kits Collection. 

And be sure to check out this new Love This Memory Notebook kit that was just added June 1, 2022.

LAST CHANCE PRODUCTS
The 2022 Jan-June Mini Catalog will be retiring soon! Stock up on your favorite retiring/last chance products before they’re gone for good! AND…save up to 50% on some of them as well. Click here for more details. Click here to shop these products in my online store.

THE NEW 2022 JULY-DEC MINI CATALOG DEBUTS JULY 1ST!
Click here to request your copy.

THE NEXT SALE-A-BRATION HAPPENS THIS JULY-AUG 2022!
Every $50 order earns a free SAB product pick. And you can even earn level two product picks with a $100 order. $300+ orders earn the exclusive Host set: the Perfect Pomegranate Stamp Set. And those that purchase the Starter Kit during these two months earn a bonus free gift: a beautiful planner, stamp set, and set of notebooks…the Making Plans Collection (a value of $45). Stay tuned for all the details that will post on July 1st. 

THE NEW 2022-23 ANNUAL CATALOG!
Click here to view the online PDF of the catalog. Click here to shop the online store.

VIRTUAL TOUR
Our Virtual Tour of the Catalog Crew has put together ten videos that highlight bundles and suites from the 2022-23 Annual Catalog. Join my Facebook Group to see all 10 videos (1 released each day for 10 days – June 1-10) or add one of my host codes to your June 2022 order to receive the PDF that contains links to all 10 videos. Click here for more details.

NEW BRANDED MERCHANDISE 
Stampin’ Up! has added some new branded merchandise sporting the SU Logo, images and colors. Click here to see and shop all the offerings.

A PEEK AT JULY’S PAPER PUMPKIN KIT

“Seas” the day and set sail across the ocean with the Sending Good Thoughts Paper Pumpkin Kit! With beautifully designed nautical imagery, a fun message in a bottle motif, and sentiments that are “shore” to please, this month’s kit is full of warmth and fun. Each kit contains enough supplies to create 9 cards (3 each of 3 designs) that will have your loved ones feeling sand-tastic! Take the Sea if You Know Paper Pumpkin quiz to learn more about Paper Pumpkin, this month’s kit, and to be entered to win a 1-month prepaid Paper Pumpkin code! Coordinating kit colors: Balmy Blue, Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay, Fresh Freesia, Pacific Point, Poppy Parade (Ink spot color: Bermuda Bay) If you are not a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, I invite you to give it a try. CLICK HERE to learn more. CLICK HERE to sign up by July 10th for this next kit.