AGM 2010 Marco Island, Florida

[note: I added the pictures after I wrote the blogpost, so I'm sorry about the lack of continuity]

AGM is the Annual General Meeting for all of the employees of the company Matt works for. It is the weekend to which the entire company looks forward. They pay for each employee and all of his or her family members to travel to a resort for a conference from Saturday night to Tuesday morning. It's pretty much a free weekend vacation with a couple of meetings for the employees.

SATURDAY

We flew to Florida. We had two flights and a -10 minute layover. They held the second plane for us because there were 21 of us wanting to get on the plane. Unfortunately, that left no time to eat anything so I was STARVING on the second flight. Scott was great. He slept for the first hour of each flight. It was a long day of traveling for all of us, but we did finally arrive at the resort.

Here's a view from our room (looking to the left):

After adjusting to the humidity, here's a view from our room (looking to the right):

And here's Scott on the landing. I took this because he had a bunch of sunscreen in his hair and it stuck up.

We arrived at the resort around dinner time. We got into our room, looked through the welcome packet and then went down for a great meal of shrimp, beef kebabs, various sauces and desserts. I had a special meal for all of the people with dietary restrictions. It was a vegan meal that was dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free. It was rice risotto with a great sauce and two skewers of roasted vegetables. It was surprisingly good, though I was disappointed to find out that I might be eating vegan for the next three days.

The best part of Saturday was that Scott slept from 9pm to 5am and then from 5:30am to 9am Sunday morning. Wow! I, of course, woke up momentarily at 1 and 4 wondering why Scott wasn't awake and to make sure he was still breathing, but I still got one of the best night's sleep in a long time. Happy Mother's Day!

SUNDAY

We had an amazing breakfast, where I got to eat meat! Sausage, eggs, ham, cheesy potatoes, pineapple, strawberries, melon, French toast, blintzes and our pick of 7 juices. Also, they had a huge table of necklaces where each mother in attendance could choose one to keep. So, that was a fun surprise.

Matt had to go to a meeting, so Scott and I went to the pool and then we all went to the beach before meeting up with a nanny to watch Scott during the adult cocktail party. The nanny was great. She was a kindergarten teacher, child development professor, and part-time nanny. She texted us several times during the party so we knew when Scott was sleeping and that he was being a perfect angel.

The party was impressive. We had a four-course meal (including filet mignon, yum!) and a bunch of live entertainment. I didn't like most of the entertainment, but the last act was awesome. There were a couple of acrobats that did some amazing balancing poses in slow motion. It basically blew our minds.

So, definitely not my typical Sunday, but it was good food and good company.

MONDAY

Another amazing breakfast. Another mandatory meeting for Matt.

The cameraman for the whole event took a bunch of pictures of Scott both days at breakfast, so I decided to take some at breakfast, too. This is the best picture of the event, in my opinion:

Scott and I took a nap during the meeting and then spent the rest of the day on the beach.

At first, I thought I could make a little hat for Scott:

But we decided to buy him one instead:

We were very careful to be sure Scott didn't get burned, so Matt and I got sunburned for him :(

Here's Scott in the sand. He was so interested in the water and sand, we never got him to look at the camera.

Here's a couple more from the beach:

The last event was a huge family party. Matt and I got to go out on a waverunner to see some dolphins. We found out that there are about 900 dolphins that live around Marco Island year-round, so there was a 99% chance that we would see a few, and we did! We saw probably 10 or 12 dolphins popping in and out of the water. It was cool. We couldn't take any pictures, so I stole this from someone else's blog, but I promise this is exactly what it looked like.

It was also fun to go on a waverunner--I had never done that before. There was a storm coming in while we were out on the water, so it was an absolutely beautiful sky. We also saw forests of red mangrove trees, which were really interesting and only grow in two other places in the world--Japan and Thailand--because they have no competition for such salty environments.

(Again, a stolen photo, but it's what we saw, I promise.) Their leaves soak up the salt and then they drop the salt-filled leaves back into the water. Pretty interesting.

Scott was left with one of Matt's coworkers and her husband and they had a great time with him. He was a perfect angel for them as well--he even fell asleep without warning for a few minutes. So, of course, when we got back, he let us know it was time to go to bed. Matt hurried to take part in the massive clam bake and I had chicken because I didn't see the clam bake. It was dark and raining pretty hard by then and it was all outdoors. Then we got Scott to sleep, and I went down the karaoke party in search of more food. There was a nacho bar, so I didn't go to bed hungry.

TUESDAY

Continental breakfast--kind of a let down after the previous breakfasts, but it was okay. Then we traveled home. Scott was fussy on the shuttle to the airport, but then he slept on both plane rides. When we got our luggage, some drama ensued: Matt's coworker, Lee, was forced to check his carry-on, which had his keys in it. Well, they sent it to airport code ABR instead of ABQ, so his keys ended up in Aberdeen, North Dakota or somewhere. So, we took Lee with us to Target to get babyfood and to our friend's house to pick up and drop off some things, and then to his girlfriend's parents' house, all while I sang "I Am a Child of God" to a screaming baby in the backseat who did finally fall asleep. You can only expect so much good behavior from a child of 7 months.

All in all, we had an awesome time, and can't wait for AGM 2011 at a resort in San Antonio, Texas.

And for your viewing pleasure, Scott's teeth: