A Vacation...or Something Like It

This past weekend we headed off to Amelia Island, FL for the annual Edward Jones Summer Regional. We went to a couple when Matt was with Jones the first time, about 5 years ago or so. We're really happy to be back with the company again. One of the things I personally like best about Jones is the Summer Regional. It's a time when all the financial advisors meet up to discuss various money things. The families get to come too and the company does a really great job making it good for kids. They had welcome bags for each family with lots of beach buckets and toys. Each night there was a nice dinner with a kids' buffet. One of the nights was a patriotic theme dinner, with prizes given for best dressed family, individual, and couple. Jack went as George Washington. Well, George Washington if he were somewhat of a pirate.

 The kids love going to the beach and the nice thing is we live close enough to go but not too close that it becomes mundane. Which is what happens with pools now that we have one. This hotel had a great pool (and then we had another smaller one outside our villa - that's right, we had a villa) but they were done swimming after awhile. Which I suppose it's easy to get bored when you have swim practice 4x a week for swim team and then swim in your own pool every afternoon.

I want to grab them by the shoulders and say "You don't realize what you have! Appreciate it!"

When I was a kid, swimming in a pool was heaven. We never had a pool so it was so incredibly awesome to have a friend with one. One of our neighbors in NY had one and I used to stand by the fence looking longingly at the pool, wiping the sweat from my brow and hoping they were notice me from the window and feel sympathy. They never did.

I imagine my parents did the same thing when they bought a brand new Ford Aerostar when I was a kid. New light blue upholstery? Headphone jack in the back? Ho-hum. The headphone jacks were quite nifty when we found them, but the excitement died when we realized it was just allow us to hear Rush Limbaugh or Dr. Laura (aka the Judge Judy of radio) in better quality. In fact, whenever I hear the opening bars of Limbaugh's show, I feel a little carsick. Which is probably a common occurrence for many people when they hear him...

Anyway, back to the vacation. Matt had meetings each morning but we had the afternoons free. We swam, we went to eat on Fernandina Beach, we screamed and cried because we missed naps and stayed up too late. In short, it was as fun as it could be with the toddlers.

On one morning, they had a spouses meeting (the company pays for really fun childcare for the kids at the hotel - snacks! movies! women caretakers nicer than mommy!). As soon as I walked in, I saw a couple nice totebags lined up on a table. Because I'm practically a magpie and love things, I wanted one. And because I'm super competitive, I tried to imagine games we would have to win to get a bag. So for the entire spouses' meeting, I worked on memorizing as many names as I could. I discreetly stretched a little in case we had to see who could jump the highest or something. In the end, they handed out the bags to the spouses of new financial advisors, which included me, as Matt is considered new since he just came back in October.

Yippee! I got a bag! Full of stuff!

They even monogrammed the bag and the cup inside, which is such a southern thing to do. And there was a note inside from Matt's boss, letting us know how happy everyone was to have us back (well, obviously - we're amazing) and wishing us a fun weekend.

At first, I was quite confused by the cup. What a terrible design. Not a lot of space at the top for a drink and the bottom is wobbly when you put it on a table. Then I realized it's one of those cups for putting in the sand at the beach. I have a fancy beach cup!

The bag also had a nice towel, gum, drinks, chips, expensive Neutrogena sunscreen, lip gloss, and a magazine called Southern Lady, which was filled with ideas for clothes and jewelry that cost more than the average American makes in a year.

On the last night, they have a nice dinner only for financial advisors and spouses. We have to wear cocktail dresses and suits and stuff. We dropped the kids off at the childwatch, where they happily ran in to make pizzas and watch Frozen and Finding Nemo. Then we milled around at an open bar, chatting with other Jones people and trying to balance on our new wedge shoes. Well, that last part was more me, really.

The dinner was definitely nicer than we're used to having. The salad was artistically wrapped with a sliver of cucumber, the main course was salmon and chicken with vegetables, the dessert chocolate mousse.  Unobtrusive waitstaff in black quietly refilled our waters and wines.  Matt and I cleaned our plates because we know we're headed home to spaghetti and grilled cheese. It floored me to see all the food left on plates. Entire servings of the delicious sliced chicken with cream sauce, whole portions of steamed salmon, fresh green beans strewn about.

"Matt, look at all the food left! We could take this home for dinner tomorrow..."
"Put some in your purse..." He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, while smiling at the person across from him.

A very classy end to the vacation weekend.