Get ready for the bragging, because I'm going to brag my little head off in this post.
Brag #1
To earn your first trip within the first couple of years with the firm is a BIG DEAL! It shows how hard my husband has been working to earn this. These trips aren't easily won. During the trip, they celebrate the "first timers" both publicly and privately. It's a big deal, folks!
Brag #2
When you meet other "first timers" on the Div Trip, you get to talking and learn about their offices back home. Most have taken over existing offices with more than $30 million dollars or even more in assets. Yes, Jay took over an existing office (and it was less than $10 million), but he earned this trip BEFORE taking over this office. It must be nice to have $30M or $40M just handed to you in 1 office. My husband has built this business up from scratch, from nothing. Earning this trip says A LOT! Is Jay good at what he does? CLEARLY! ABSOLUTELY! NO QUESTION! And I'm one PROUD WIFE!
Back to the trip…
We chose Jackson Hole because we thought it would be nice to leave the CRAZY HOT weather in Texas and head someplace cooler for a week in mid-summer. Jackson Hole offered the "cheapest" add-ons (Jay and I are taken care of by the company but we do have to pay for the kids). I only put "cheapest" in quotes because the extra hotel fees for our family were small, the upgrade to a minivan wasn't bad, but the airfare for the kids was INSANE! Such is life flying into a small ski resort town. Oh well. It all evened out in the end.
We also invited my mom and stepdad on this trip. Edward Jones allows us to bring a set of parents and we offered this to my family as a thanks for all the support they gave to us during our disastrous adoption journey.
This was our Quiet Tiger's first flight since coming home on an airplane from China. We weren't sure how she'd react. I secretly bought her a ladybug backpack from Target and picked up a couple of cheap toys for the plane and filled the bag with snacks. She didn't know about it or see it until the night before we left. She sat with Jay on the plane since he had never flown with her before. She did great! Not a tear. No nerves. No nothing!
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| In San Antonio, ready for her first flight since China. If this isn't cute, I don't know what is! |
Our plane touched down in Jackson right next to my mom's plane that flew in from Chicago. I watched my mom and stepdad walk off their plane onto the tarmac as I was waiting to disembark from our flight. We met outside the airport, got our rental car and drove to the hotel.
Oh my!
Hotel Terra is amazing! I fully expected to run into Jennifer Aniston or Adam Sandler or some other celebrity who frequents Jackson Hole! No celebrity sightings though. We had a 2-bedroom suite which also included a murphy bed for the kids. We had a balcony, a living room, a full kitchen, a dining room, and 3 full bathrooms too. Talk about exquisite! Everything was organic too. Organic soaps, cleaning supplies, robes and towels.
Spoiled rotten!
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| Dining room and kitchen. Dark doors behind Super C hide the murphy bed. Photo bomb courtesy of Super C and his Tepig from Pokemon. |
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| Relaxing after travel in the living room. |
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| Our room. |
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| Grammie & Rand's room. |
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| 1 of 3 bathrooms! Loved the double sinks. Two bathrooms had jetted tubs. The boy's bathroom had 1 sink and a huge glass shower. |
The first night we had our welcome dinner for all the Edward Jones guests. I'd say there were probably 100 financial advisors there, plus their spouses and any families that came along as well. Much to our surprise, the only bad thing we could say was that the food was bland that night. That shocked us and we hoped things would be better. We met advisors from all around the country, even from Hawaii! There was a good handful of homeschool families there too, and that made me smile.
The next morning, Jay had an early morning meeting and the rest of us enjoyed a provided breakfast. The kids went to provided daycare after that and all of us adults went to a meeting about what to do in the area and a few general rules and guidelines for the trip. Quiet Tiger, who normally fears the hotel daycares that Jones provides, did great. I brought along a bracelet for her to wear and she had to give it back to me when I picked her up. Although seemingly happy and not too stressed, her eyes wouldn't connect with mine when I dropped her off or picked her up. She still goes to that far away place, wondering if we really mean it when we say, "Mommy & Daddy always come back."
That afternoon we were surprised by an offer for lunch. One of the product partners who worked with Lincoln Mutual who co-sponsored the trip, offered to take all of us out to lunch at the resort. The kids ate buffalo sliders and I had my first Banh Mi (Vietnamese pork sandwich) that is my new favorite sandwich in the whole wide world.
The rest of the time was really ours to enjoy.
We visited downtown Jackson. A great town full of shops, touristy and all, surrounding the town square. The big hit was the candy shop where we loaded up on Salt Water Taffy. Jay found a gallery and bought some artwork for his office back home (I'll probably blog about it later). We searched for shirts and hats for the kids. I bought a bracelet for me and an ornament for our Christmas tree, something I'll do with every Div Trip Jay earns so we can remember our travels. We bought a gift for Jay's assistant who we love! We stopped off at Albertson's for groceries so we could cook in our hotel room and enjoyed looking for moose along the way back to Hotel Terra.
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| I love a ski town! |
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| The town square. |
We hiked Jenny Lake in the Grand Teton National Park. How amazing! I'm a nature girl and I so badly wanted to hike all the way around the lake, but there was no way my kids nor my mom and stepdad would have done it with us, so we hiked about half way and my stepdad offered to buy us boat tickets back across the lake. The boat was one of L's highlights. Water girl.
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| Hiking! |
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| Oh, the beauty of this place! |
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| The falls at Jenny Lake |
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| On the mountaintop for dinner. The only reason L isn't pictured is because of the edge and no one wanted her to fall down the mountain. |
Thursday we just stayed local. The boys did a bungee-trampoline thing at the resort. Thanks, Grammie for the tickets! We went back into town for a few more groceries for a picnic the next day. We cooked some frozen pizza for dinner back in the room.
Friday, we drove all the way up and through Yellowstone National Park. We saw Old Faithful, the calderas, the mud pits. We saw buffalo, 1 black bear cub, a pika and elk. The kids did a quick program at Old Faithful. We didn't hike much. It was a LONG 14 hour day in the car driving from place to place but so worth it! What a HUGE park! America's first National Park!
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| Old Faithful. So much more majestic in person than in photos. A must see! |
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| The colors at the caldera were amazing! |
On Saturday, Jay and I took the boys hiking Taggert Lake Trailhead, leaving Quiet Tiger with my mom and stepdad for a few hours. Taggert Lake was by far my favorite hike! I found myself choking back tears over God's awesome creation. I couldn't think of one Bible verse, one line to a worship song, anything to praise Him. Yeah, my spiritual pathway is clearly nature. Once we hit the lake I was able to regain some composure and I can't tell you how many prayers were uttered on the rest of that hike. LOTS of prayers for Lily. Prayers for Lynette. Prayers for Hilary. Prayers for Beth. Prayers for Jeanine. Prayers for Laurie and so many other friends. My boys made the 4 mile (approx.) hike too and were just about to begin fading when we reached the end and gobbled down our picnic lunch.
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| The falls at Taggert Lake |
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| Our picnic view. Doesn't get better than that! |
That night we had our farewell dinner back at the hotel, complete with cocktails for the adults and face painting for the kids. The food was amazing! Much better than our first night. The adults ate all the ice cream on the kid's buffet. No joke! We were sad to see it all come to an end.
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| 2 Dragons and a Butterfly |
We returned home tired but relaxed and happy to see our dogs and our home and our clean pool again! [Editor's Note: Our house sitter Kaylin ROCKS!!!]
What a blessing to work for such an amazing company that honors its employees, the spouses, the children and the families! Thank you, Edward Jones! Jay can earn up to 2 trips a year. Maybe our next one we'll leave the kids with family and enjoy a getaway on our own. Maybe we'll venture out as a family again. Our kids are good travelers and I'd love for them to see as much of the world as possible while we have the opportunity.
Where will we go next?
Who knows?
Stay tuned!
