Annual Leadership Conference

The Savage Annual Leadership Conference was held in Salt Lake City this year--not quite as fun as going out of state but we still had a great time.  Kiki watched the girls the first day (Wed.), then Grandma came that night and stayed with them until we got home Fri. night (she spent the night here that night, too, since we got home at after 1am).

Wed., June 19--We checked into the hotel and went through all the company booths, racking up goodies and gifts (candy, anti-bacterial gels, water bottles, USB thumb drives, a car usb charger, etc.) along the way and ate the lunch that was provided.  That evening, we boarded a bus and were taken to This Is The Place Heritage Park, which Savage rented out just for our company.  We got to tour all of the old houses and buildings there, were fed tons of food, and were treated to a really fun live band.

Jared playing one of the old pioneer games

Getting an old-fashioned shave

The This Is The Place Monument

We stayed at the Grand American Hotel, which is Salt Lake City's only AAA Five Diamond Hotel.  It was really nice!  They even did a bed turn-down service where they left bath robes out for us, along with some chocolates.

 

 

 

Thursday, June 20--We had meetings in the morning until lunch, then were bussed over to Tooele to Miller Motorsports Park. We had such a blast watching a V8 truck race on the dirt track, riding in a Raptor (an off-road experience), riding in a Mustang Boss going 110 on the track, racing fast go-karts and riding on the zipline. Jared's co. is awesome for giving us these cool experiences with their leadersip conferences!

The truck race

The Raptor

Jared's Raptor ride about to start

Before my ride in the Mustang

The end of my ride in the Mustang

The original Savage truck (restored)

The zipline (not us on it)

I took this with my phone from the top of the zipline

Friday, 6/21--After breakfast, we loaded on school buses and were taken to various elementary schools in Midvale; I think the co. went to 8 different schools.  I'm not sure what all the other groups did at their schools, but our group swept and re-painted the hopscotch, kickball, 4-square, etc. lines on the playground pavement, cleaned the playground equipment, and built garden boxes:

Jared and I weeded

After we got back to the hotel, the employees had meetings for the next few hours while the spouses had free time.  I went with Aunt Cindy to pick up the tux Jim rented for the dinner that night, then we went to Walmart for a couple of things, after which we went back to her hotel room to just hang out and wait for the guys.  There was a really nice Black & White Dinner and Awards Ceremony that night.  We first had hors d'oeuvres in the hotel courtyard, where we were also able to have couples portraits taken by a professional photogapher (we were given prints after the dinner); we then had a really nice dinner in the hotel ballroom.  There were ~700 people in attendance between employees and guests, BTW.  Savage is growing so big!! 

Our friends (Jared's boss in Louisiana), Dave and Darlene

Jim and Cindy

It was a really nice conference but I'm already excited for next year.  They gave us clues during the dinner as to where it will be held next year--suckers on the table in the shape of a baseball, lobster, rubber duck, George Washington, etc. and dessert was Boston Cream Pie!  :D  Woohooooo!