The Great Melaleuca Picnic

So, today was the great annual Melaleuca Family Picnic. My company has a picnic every year for it's employees and their families. My company has about 2,500 employees, and let me tell you this...they know how to put on a party for their employees!!! We have our picnic at Mountain River Ranch, which is a beautiful ranch north of Idaho Falls. MRM puts on a fantastic BBQ for us. Then we're talking Melaleuca brings in great entertainment! There's climbing walls, carnival rides, trampolines, those big blow up games, volleyball nets, a water zone, and a dunk tank. There's cotton candy, slushies, popcorn, drinks, etc. All of this is provided as a free benefit for employees. What can I say? I love my company! How many companies provide this kind of benefit for their employees?? So, of course, to make Jenni happy, I have taken tons of photos!




So, let me explain this picture by saying that James' preferred mode of transportation is sleeping while someone else is driving! Since MRM is just over an hour from our house, James was asleep within about 5 minutes. Had to save his energy for all the fun he would have once we got there, I guess! Josh, on the other hand, prefers to spend the travel time playing games on his i-pod.

So, we got there early to secure our usual, primo place in the shade. As fantastic as the picnic is, MRM can get very hot this time of year. But, if you secure a place under the trees, then you are in the shade for the whole day & there's usually a fantastic breeze. Today was the usual & it was wonderful under those trees! In the distance you can see the tents they set up for people to camp out under(it's always hot under those tents) & even further in the distance, you can see the inflatable toys & rides & jumps that Melaleuca brings in.

So the photo below was taken from our primo spot...you can see the fantastic shade...we had that all day! Anyway, this is one of the tents with the cotton candy & slushies. You can see my friend Misty with her darling little boy, getting a big ol' helping of pure sugar in the form of cotton candy!So I guess I failed to mention that in addition to all the great games & toys that the company provides for it's employees, they also have this HUGE prize drawing for us. They have everything you could possibly want! I mean we're talking trampolines, grills, tents, i-pods, phones, digital cameras, games, cookware, kids toys, basketball hoops, airline tickets, trips, tools, and I can't even think what else. You can't see all the prizes clearly, but here's a photo of part of the prize table. The president of our company is like a kid at Christmas when it comes to the prize drawings! He is always the one who announces the winners. He just loves it. How many large corporations have a president & CEO who is as involved as ours? He's a terrific guy. Below is a photo of the masses of employees gathered around during one of the prize drawings. Believe me, this is just a small portion of the employees there today!
Ok, so one of the best parts of the picnic is that there is a dunk tank!! The dunkees are members of the Senior Management Team who are nominated by their employees. While I love watching the dunk tank, I am always glad that I am a step below this group & get to be a dunker rather than a dunkee! Below is my old boss, Nate, taking his turn in the dunk tank! This was his first year & as always, Nate was awesome about it. Except for the fact that when he saw me standing to the side laughing at him, he kicked enough water on me to drench me! Lucky for him, the camera was fine--his wife is expecting photos!
So, my good friend Shauna is in HR, who puts on this picnic for us. Somehow, someone chose her to be in charge of the hose during the dunk tank. Not smart...she got a little heady with the hose power & as a result, between her & Nate, I was almost as wet when I left the dunk tank area as I would have been if I'd been IN the dunk tank! However, I found out later that James vindicated my soaking...while he & his friend Nick were at the dunk tank, they wrested the hose from her & completely soaked her. Gotta admit though--it was hot enough that the water felt really good!One of the fun things about the picnic is the fact that Frank, our CEO, takes the chance to mingle with his associates. He's so busy throughout his regular schedule that he doesn't get to spend all his time at the office & doesn't get to know the associates the way he did when the company was still really small. It's great to see him wandering around the picnic, talking to a lot of associates, getting to know them a little bit. Below you can see him in the green shirt, visiting with a group of associates.The picnic is nothing but fun. But all that fun can really take it out of you! Josh had such a great time, he had to take a break & take a little nap!
After another terrific time at the picnic, we got nothing but happy & slightly tired campers on the way home. How lucky am I to have not only a great family, but a great work family & the opportunity to work for as great a company as I do?!?!