Well we're back from our first summer regional. I can definitely say that a good time was had by all.

Thursday morning we headed up to Crystal Mountain where we would stay for 3 nights. As we approached Cadillac it finally dawned on Jimmy the direction we were headed and he asked how much longer until we got to the Hampton Inn. We had to explain to him that where we would be staying was much nicer than that. When we got to the resort they gave us our room number and told us where to go to get there. Much to our surprise it was a 2 bedroom condo! When we walked in the door the first words out of Jimmys mouth were "Dad, this is no Hampton Inn!"


Mike had a meeting shortly after arriving and I had to join that meeting a little after that so the kids got to spend a little time in the pool. Any time both Mike & I were in a meeting (they had a little spouses meeting Friday morning, more of a get to know the other spouses type thing) and when we had the awards dinner Saturday night the company provided Kids Camp where they had a great time and got to know other kids their age.
The pool area was a lot of fun and we got to spend all day Friday and most of Saturday just hanging out, playing and working on our tans.

Mike & Mack took some time and did the rock wall climb too. Mack never made it to the top, her fear of heights got the best of her, but she gave it one heck of a try and got about 3/4 of the way up.

After Friday night's dinner we were supposed to have the Crystal Coaster to ourselves from 7-9pm. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to let loose a nice little drizzle right at 6:55. We were informed that the course became unsafe with even just a little bit of water on it due to the felt brakes on the sleds which become essentially inoperable when wet. The good news was they allowed us to use the coaster all day Saturday instead.

It took a lot of convincing to get Jimmy even onto the chair lift. I had to promise he'd go down with me (for some reason he just doesn't trust Mike in these situations...hmmm imagine that) and we'd go slowly down the mountain. He cried the entire ride up and still had a fit at the top. I told him there were 2 ways down walk or ride (at one point we had to do the walk because it started raining about 1 minute after we got on the chair lift so we had to ride to the top and then walk down the hill in the pouring rain...what fun that was!). The girl at the top was very helpful and had Jimmy sit in the sled by himself and showed hime what it was all about. I got in and off we went...after about 10 feet Jimmy was squealing with excitement telling me to go faster...go figure!

We rode it two more times before the rain came. Even though it only lasted about 5 minutes they had to hand dry the track off so it was about another hour before it reopened so we headed back to the pool. Jimmy was chomping at the bit to go back to the coaster, he kept his eye on the ski lift from the pool area and let us know as soon as it started to run again. We went down 3 more times and each time Jimmy kept pushing the lever to go faster and faster. He told me on the way down that this was the "bestest day of his life". He still has the wrist band on in case we go back there he can ride it again!



Believe it or not, in between all the fun, dinners and lunches provided Mike did learn a lot in his meetings and now he's at working putting all that information to good use. He also got a chance to go for a run two of the mornings. I'll let him post about that...the 6 mile run that turned into 9 because they got lost...and the Sunday morning hang over run.

I have to say this company is awesome. There were 79 FAs there this weekend with their families (approximately 70 +/- kids) and we got the chance to get to know quite a few of them. From people that have been with the company 20 years to some that are still in the study mode that Mike was in last summer/fall. Mack has a couple of new buddies that maybe she'll be babysitting soon, two little boys that live nearby really attached themselves to her. She also made friends her own age, of course they live on the other side of town.

Next years trip will be Mackinac Island where we will be taking over Mission Point Resort. The kids are already looking forward to it.