My First Award!!

This week I got to go on my very first business trip! For the past two months I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get 8 new prototypes ready for the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. I am proud to say that I work with some amazing people who continually make miracles happen. The hard work is going to be making these products actually come to life in a matter of weeks post show! Wish me luck!!

Anyway, we got to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. WAY NICE! Being the only girl I got a whole room to myself which I was pretty stoked on. Our rooms overlooked the pool. PS, if ou ever go to Vegas this is definately a pool you must go to. It had a few nice sandy beach areas where the sand would lead into the pool. There were a bunch of cute cabana's for sunbathing or sunhiding depending on your skin type :).

We got in wednesday afternoon (a day after the show started) to go roam around and see what new stuff was coming out this year. When we reached our booth we were greeted like rock stars! Apparently one of our older projects had won an award the first day of the show and everyone was asking who was behind the project. Tada! I'd like to say it was us, but we caught the tail end of the project as a few others left the company. Either way, it's always fun to get an award!

This is a photo of our Innovations group. Me (the coordinator), Ryan (the engineer) and Steve (the industrial designer). Huge group eh? You'd be suprised what we can do! We constantly suprise ourselves :)

Many Trips to St Gerorge

So as you know I am married to a man who gets cabin fever during a 10 min rainstorm. Being inside is NOT his favorite thing in the world. I think it's rubbing off on me, because I seem to be more antsy about life now too. I used to be able to sleep a full day, and now sleeping in for me is waking up between 7:30 and 8 am!! Never would I have guessed I'd be a morning person :)

This being said, in order to maintain sanity we take frequent trips to the warmer climate of St George as soon as we hear the snow has melted. Brian checks the weather forecast daily to make sure there is no rain for 2 weeks so we can have clear trails to ride. Trust me, pushing a bike 12 miles through mud isn't the sort of thing you'd like to do on a vacation (Trust me!! Experience is the worst way to learn these things. I nearly threw that 100 lb bike caked with mud and clay off the top of a cliff. Luckily my sanity grabbed a hold of me as I realized I was NOT going to die of starvation on a trail only 15 miles from a city).

Needless to say, I'm still an average mountain bike rider. Nothing too special here. I enjoy going, and occasionally kicking my butt trying to catch up with those boys cruising 25 miles per hour down those trails (Not sure if that speed is accurate. In fact it may be too slow! I will track it next time for a more concise number. Either way, they go too fast).

I am always impressed at how brave these boys get when it comes to jumping. Brian has been eyeballing a few of these jumps since our last trip down. Luckily we ran into the most carefree rider on the trail this trip. I wish I would have taken video of some of the drops this kid took. He didn't even flinch! He would look at it, smile, shrug one shoulder, throw on a helmet and race to his death. Oh to be so bold.

I finally caught Brian on tape some random jumps. My angles make them look a lot less scary than they are. Standing at the top of these you would be SURE you'd break a few bones. But then they take them and they look so smooth and easy.

While he was jumping abroad I was daydreaming and noticing the cool colors that form on the rocks! I'm a dork. I wish I was a better photographer, I'm sure someone out there has the skills that would make this look really cool!

Anyway blogger friends, I will try to be more vigilant in my writing. Mind you, this event was at the end of February, so I'm not too far off :)

Laters!