CEO Trip

Congrats to Jared for winning the CEO trip at his work in 2012! They take the top 4% of people. (something like 218 out of over 3000 - well, that doesn't add up - but it's something like that :)). In Jared's category there were only 4 spots. He was number one in December but then we were gone all December and we knew people would catch him during that time so we weren't sure we'd get to go - but we did! They gave us the ROYAL treatment. Oh my goodness! We drove the kids up to Raleigh to stay with Geep and Gran then the company flew us to Miami where we stayed at the Fontainebleau. It was beautiful!!!! Our room was a small apartment really on the 21st floor with a view of the beach and the city. When we arrived they had a driver take us (and some others) to the hotel and we checked into the event. They gave us a little gift bag with supplies for hanging out in the sun (hats, bags, sunscreen, etc), they gave us a very generous cash allowance to use while we were there, and then had us go outside and pick out Oakley sunglasses and took our picture. That night they had a come and go as you please dinner. Set up as a very nice party on the lawn by the pool with live band and buffet of delicious food. They served a beautiful breakfast every morning on the terrace and on Monday they paid for an excursion. This was a dilemma for us because I get sick on small boats so we didn't want to risk those and Jared didn't want to go to the spa :) So we ended up on the food tour which actually worked out to be really good. Monday evening they had shuttles for dinner and we got off at Lincoln road. But it was rainy and most seating was outdoors or in the hot inside and nothing looked appealing. We walked ALOT. ALOT!!!!!! Then we just took the shuttle back and walked another 5 blocks to Carrabas - but it was delicious! Tuesday after breakfast was a very long awards gathering. The CEOs all spoke and tried to make it go by quickly but in the end they read off all 200 and some winners names, say something about them, shake their hand, and get their picture. We relaxed that afternoon and took the shuttle for food and then that night they had a cocktail party on the terrace, immediately followed by a plated dinner (SO good. I usually don't like those but it was the most delicious filet and lobster!) followed by a surprise casino night until midnight. They basically gave us chips and you could play all kinds of games. The chips weren't worth anything but you periodically turned in a slip with your current amount of chips and the winners picked a prize. We won an ipad keyboard case. They had a live band and open bar (which they had since the beginning of the evening so everyone was crazy). Wednesday was relaxing and they had a private pool party in the middle of the day which was nice. We ate an early dinner and then watched a movie in our room. Thursday we packed up after breakfast, I went and got a pedicure, and then we sat by the pool until it was time to be shuttled back to the airport! They gave us turn down service every night, usually had something waiting for us in our room when we got back in the evening which was all so funny to me - but nice. They gave us a photo album that had kind of a yearbook in the front of all the winners and then blank pages in the back. There were professional photographers everywhere and at everything who immediately uploaded their pictures to an account. We can download the pictures but they also had kiosks where you could print whatever ones you wanted and put them in your book. On the last day they gave all the winners iPad Minis - so fun! When we got back things didn't go so well ;) We picked up the kids and within 10 minutes Jackson was throwing up. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us late at night and he got sick about 5 times and we made many stops. The next day he seemed fine and Jared had the day off which was nice. We had a lot of grocery shopping and TONS of laundry to do, plus I had LOTS of work hours to put in but we kept on top of it. Jackson is still sick apparently and we are just hoping no one else gets it. I'm glad we got to relax before the craziness hit :) Here are a bunch of pictures of the trip.... you will know which I took with my phone and which were the professionals :) First here is a video of Jared receiving his award. The guy talking is funny - all the others were leisurly and reading something their boss wrote about them. This guy makes a big deal about being quick and not wasting time. He was obviously skimming on what he said about people and talking so fast (he had a lot of people to announce) so he's hard to understand here.....