The Return of the Trader Joe’s Bag Ladies . . .

You might remember this image from last year’s July show in Grapevine, Texas . . .

This was part of a group that has an annual retreat at a nearby hotel and spends their Saturday at the show – and last year, all of them came with Trader Joe’s bags.  They have been doing this for more than ten years, but I had never noticed before the bags appeared.

 

They have an annual theme – this year’s was “Vintage Patriotic” and they decorated the conference room at their hotel.

 

We have been planning ahead to do something special with them – I took these pictures Thursday evening while our friend Rita Barakat was conducting a class that we had prepared for them.

 

And yesterday they came back to the show.  I couldn’t get all of them together at one time this year, either.  But I did get a “first” – one of them left her giveaway ticket back at the hotel, and called her son to read it off for her so she could write it down!

 

I was invited back to their conference room for an informal cookout on Saturday evening – but a couple of them decided to come in formal attire matching the theme for the week . . .

 

Meanwhile, there was a show going on behind that black curtain that secludes our booth until the show starts and the toy store opens . . .

We were not immune to the newest craze – I “caught” three people playing Pokemon Go in our booth (they actually caught a few in the convention center).  I really thought I had seen the last of Pokemon when Ryan was about 12 . . .

 

Another appearance by the Canine Campaign – this time in a red state.  And no trip here is complete without a trip to In-N-Out, where I also picked up this year’s t-shirt.

I’ll bet you wish you could do this with your hair . . .