Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Vay-Cay

So Paul and I just got back from our vay-cay...here we are, spending a little quality time on our African Safari hanging out with the Pride at their rock....
and catching up with a few of the giraffes having lunch....
Okay, so we were only on African Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Oh well. Frankly, I think that is about as close to a safari as I really want to get. I'm more of the tropical beach kind of vay-cay gal! I was very happy to be able to tag along with Paul on his last travel itinery though. His company is a sponsor for Children's Miracle Network, and his district happened to raise the most donations for them this last year. As a reward, the company sent him to the annual Children's Miracle Network Celebration in Orlando, Florida. This is the 2nd year we have had the opportunity to attend the Celebration, and it was just as fun and exciting as last year. Every year, CMN chooses one "champion" child and their family from each state to attend convention. It is a full paid vacation for the family. They get to attend convention and share some of their amazing victory stories with all of us, and then they get a great Disney World vacation and a trip to Washington D.C. as well. This year, I understand President Obama was planning on greeting them in person. It's quite an event for them, and it is so neat to meet all of them and cheer them on. They have a medals ceremony for them where they introduce each of them and have them come out on stage to receive a medal. It makes me cry every time! They are so precious and have such amazing stories of overcoming some really incredible things. Many of them come out jumping and cheering like it is the Olymipic games. Last year one little boy came out just overcome with emotion...crying and hugging everyone. It was really touching. When the families walk with them at the champions parade, many of them are crying and thanking you as they walk by. It is such an incredible experience. It makes me so grateful for healthy children and for a 1st class facility like Primary Children's to take our children to when we need to. And in that regard, it is a little more personal for us since we spent a lot of time there with Justin and his club foot after he was born. Because of that, we are big supporters of CMN, and are glad that Paul has the opportunity to help in some way with his business being a sponsor.
As part of our trip, we were able to spend 2 days in the parks at DisneyWorld, and we had a great time! We enjoyed the beautiful weather, the pool, the hot tub, and all the fun events at Celebration!
This is a picture of Paul and one of his General Sales Managers with the Utah Champion and his family.

Thank you Golf Galaxy for another great trip!

5 comments:

kris said...

You and Paul are the king and queen of Vay-cays! Lucky!

DeAnna Dahl Kemple said...

Thanks to Paul for all his hard work in helping others not only at his job but also in our neighborhood. We are lucky to have him here.I am glad you had a chance to travel with him and have a change of pace.

Kimmy said...

What a fun vay-cay! I love the safari ride at animal kingdom, and I have to agree, it's probably the closest I want to come to a real safari!

alisha said...

always nice to get away...glad you guys could have some fun in the sun!

The Mom said...

Oh I'm so glad you guys got to go and have such a fun time. I agree with Kris. You rule when it comes to Vay-cays. Did you bring any sunshine home with you???