Wavetronix Family Reunion at Snowbird

Wavetronix holds a dear place in my heart.  My dad has worked there for some time, and I worked there for a short time shopping for and stocking the break room, and my sister worked there in the manufacturing department. 

Wavetronix is a company that builds sensors and software for traffic forecasting.  Every high speed stoplight in Utah has one of their sensors by law, and there are many other states that use their products as well.  My dad is over the team that writes the software programs.  I admire this company because they really treat their employees well, they have high standards, and they care about families.
This year, for their company party, they held a family reunion at Snowbird Ski Resort.  Employees and their families living at home were paid for, and they even paid for up to 10 other family members for each employee.  After that, employees could pay for additional family to come up.  It worked out that my family got to go and we saw almost all my family that lives in Utah, all except Trent's family.

This event took place over 3 days.  Day one was an open house lunch at Wavetronix.  They introduced everyone to their products with a hands-on, real-time demonstration using a wagon for the kids, and they had a sensor set up in a truck that tracked their movement in the parking lot and displayed it on a computer screen for us to see.  It was really quite fun and cool.  All the kids got a plastic Wavetronix helmet to wear.

 Inside their building, they had a room set up like a mini movie theater where they gave us popcorn and a water bottle and showed us a creative and funny movie that showcased their employees and the work they do.  It was about 10 minutes.  Then they had a pizza buffet for us with booths set up around the perimeter where you could learn more about the science behind their sensors.  You could also go on a 20 minute tour of their workplace, which we did.  We got to see their new manufacturing department where they make the boards with all the microchips and build the sensor.

I thought big red emergency buttons were only for the movies, but nope!  All their big machines had these buttons.

When we walked by a secretary's desk, this Dilbert cartoon was posted and it reminded me how much I love Dilbert.

Day 2 was at Snowbird.  We could do all the Snowbird activities and rides from 9-noon for free, that included the mountain roller coaster, alpine slide, tram ride to the top (tunnel and museum up there), ropes course, trampoline thing, bounce houses, sky glider thing, rock climbing, and maybe more that I'm forgetting.  We had a lot of fun doing those activities.

Steve actually hated this thing because it was painful on his legs.  He ended up asking to be released after 2 minutes even though he was entitled to 5 minutes.

Amara liked this, but she was a little scared of the height.

We congregated at meal times with our extended family and ate together.  The meals were always really good.  They fed us lunch both days and dinner on day 2.  Employees and their immediate families had a special formal dinner at a restaurant at the top of the mountain the first night, paid for by Wavetronix.

The afternoon activities were elaborately planned and the first day, everyone was given a new name and occupation and we were to go on quests to earn points for our team.  It was really fun.  There were crafts, games, and entertainment. We all belonged to team Avalon.  Things were themed medieval and it was an absolute blast.  Wish they did this one both days because there was so much to see and do and not nearly enough time to get to everything.

The girls both pulled the sword from the stone.  They had to solve riddles and puzzles to get the code to unlock the box that held the key to the sword in the stone.  You really couldn't pull it out without the key.

This rock chuck wasn't afraid of anyone.

The next day we rode more rides in the morning.

Having fun on the mountain coaster

One of my favorite things we did was take the tram to the top of the mountain.  It was beautiful up there!

The hills are alive on the top of the mountain!

There were so many beautiful wildflowers up there all in bloom!

There was also a game room set up with tables and lots of board games.  We spent some time in there.

There was a photo contest the second day and both Steve and I won!  Steve got the grand prize for overall best photo and got a $150 Amazon gift card.  I won a $75 gift card for my photo in the event category.

The girls were freestyle walking in the parking garage.

We had such a great time at Snowbird with all the activities and playing with our families!  Many thanks to my dad and his employer, Wavetronix!