Orlando, Florida

Kathy Ireland, who has a line of carpet, was at the convention to promote her products. Roger and Tim got their picture taken with her.

The convention hall had an explorer theme complete with balloon art, characature drawing, live music, magicians, legoland for kids and, of course, lots of vendors with their products. The guys spent a day and a half here buying products and even signed up for a website - check it out at: concarpetinc.com.

One night, all 3600 of us (it took 75 charter buses) were taken to Disney's Animal Kingdom and we were the only ones at the park! They had buffets set up all over and we could go on rides, go to shows and even play the games for FREE! The adults were just as excited as the kids were. We were determined to play until we won something.

The first night of the convention was a welcome reception complete with lots of buffet lines, Disney animal characters, kids dance floor and Warren Buffet (who is the owner of Shaw Flooring as well as Coca-Cola and others - he's a multi billionaire!) The whole convention was geared toward the whole family and most everyone brought their kids (except us, we were reminded quite often by our kids).

The last night was the Wall to Wall Ball, in which we dressed up and were given masks that we could wear, as well as beads and light up necklaces. The live band entertained, as well as the jugglers, acrobats, dancers.....

At Animal Kingdom, we went to a Bug Show that was a 3-D movie - it was really cool! We also saw a Nemo Musical. Disney really knows how to do things top knotch!

Going to the Ball

Entering the Ball we were greeted by these Mardi Graus looking characters passing out beads and things.

The Shaw Flooring Alliance Convention was held at Disney in Orlando. We were scheduled to fly out at 7 am last Sunday morning, but because of the ice and snow our flight was cancelled. Roger's folks came up from Hutch to stay with the kids and we spent the night with Tim and Janet (Roger's business partner) since they live close to the airport. We decided to go to the airport that morning to try to find another flight even tho we were told we probably wouldn't get a flight until Monday!! When we checked in at the counter, the lady said there was a flight leaving in 10 minutes that would take us to Denver and then to Orlando. We took it and RAN to the plane, doubtful that our luggage would make it. After flying to Denver (it was really snowing there) and having mechanical problems, we finally arrived in Orlando, 7 hours after we were supposed to be there (and our luggage made it, too). But we weren't complaining! We found out that our flight out of KC was the last one before all flights were cancelled and we wouldn't have even been able to fly out on Monday - so we would have missed the whole trip!! We were blessed with nice sunshine and 80 degree weather, while KC was having another ice storm.