Convention in Washington, DC

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!
Our recent trip to DC was for a Shaklee Convention. Shaklee is the largest supplier of natural vitamins in the U.S. We have used their products for over 30 yrs. The U.S. Olympic teams use their products as well as the Space Shuttle program.

It was held here at the beautiful and HUGE Gaylord National Convention Center.
Around six thousand members attended.

They have amazing cleaning products. Oprah has featured them two or three times on her show. The Basic H is one of her "Favorite Things".

The White House uses the products as well.

The convention center is located on the Potomac River. Beautiful location.

We had some interesting speakers in those 4 days. One of which was Captain Mark Kelly that had just brought down the Endeavor Space Shuttle on it's last voyage. He showed a film of himself and his crew in outerspace. It showed him taking his Shaklee vitamins.   So funny to see all their antics in outerspace!

He is also the husband of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford who was shot in the head in AZ last Jan. He told us she is making progress on her long road to recovery.

It was an honor to meet and visit with him.

The next day we heard from Aron Ralston. The name may not be as familiar but I'm sure his story is!
In 2003 he was hiking alone in a remote part of Utah and climbed into a crevice and a boulder rolled in on top of his right arm. He was pinned there with no cell phone for 5 days. He did, however, have a video camera and small knife. He recorded himself each day telling his feelings to his parents.

He had tried earlier cutting through his arm with a small knife but could not get through the bone. On day 5 it dawned on him to break the bones in his arm (yes 3 of them) and then he proceeded to cut his arm off........ At that point the girl next to my hubby fainted dead away.  Yep,  he had to hold her up in her seat so she wouldn't hit the floor.

Aron ceased his speech and the EMS were called.

Aron did get to finish after a 30 to 40 minute break. Long story short he hiked 8 miles back to his truck.

Having a mechanical engineering background, he helped design his new arm with a "claw" like hand. This a real pic of him trapped, taken with his camcorder.

He's sitting here on the edge of the stage with Roger Barnett, the owner of Shaklee, waiting for the EMS to transport  the girl who fainted.

Hubby with Aron.  Good time for photo- ops!

The last night was a gala dinner. In the nation's capital it was a patriotic theme, of course.

Check out the violinists.

This is the owner and his family.  Roger and Sloan Barnett with their three children.  They are the sweetest people.  
Extremely interesting family to research.

Sloan is an attorney, consumer advocate, journalist, author, and the green contributor to the NBC's Today Show.

We are Directors in Shaklee and part of the trip was awarded to us!   That was a wonderful perk and we were so glad to have the opportunity to go.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you're having a wonderful week!