Rough day at the office

Well, actually we weren't at the office today. And, it wasn't that rough. Once a year our department has a retreat. For the last 8 years, we've spent two days at Aspen Grove (a BYU alumni camp just above Sundance.) I look forward to it every year. We go in the fall when the aspens are a bright golden yellow and the rest of the mountain glows with reds and oranges and the vibrant signs of fall. It's usually in September as well, when there's still an annoying heat in the valleys, but the refreshing cool to enjoy in the mountains.
Our department wanted to shake things up a little this year: a change to the location, a change to the month, a change to the format. Usually there are classes all day. We've had some fun adventures around the Aspen Grove camp (tackling the obstacle course, competing in a speedway tire change reenactment (yes, my group won, I used the air gun to remove and replace the nuts - oh, I felt the power), my yearly run up to Stewart Falls and back, and other fun activities.
This year, we went in October, we went to Thanksgiving Point, it was one day, and there was one speaker. Now let me preface, we all have our different learning styles and tastes in teaching methods. I have one major issue with some, not all, motivational speakers - and by stating this, I'm almost going to sound hypocritical, but it was true of our speaker today. He had 6 hours to present to us. He spent the first four hours breaking us down, meaning he focused on negative stuff, brought us down. I do not like negative. I try so hard to stay away, and if it's presented, I try to change the direction of the conversation. I was so uncomfortable in the meeting. Fortunately, there was a book that accompanied the seminar. So I started reading. And I read the whole book well before his whole seminar was completed. It took me a little less than four hours. So I basically read over the negative. And then when he got to the positive I started to participate. Please know, this is just my opinion. But I am not motivated by negative. My experience with such meetings has shown that the presenter asks you to think of a bad thing that happened to you or a bad thing you did. "OK. Now turn to your partner and share." So one partner shares, then the other does, and the next thing you know, the room is full of people trying to one up each other on "bad" stories and there is a negative feeling. This pretty much happened for 4 straight hours. Just not for me. I didn't want to get up and leave, so I was so happy for the distraction. And the book was good. I recommend it: Leadership and Self-Deception. You can borrow it if you like.
The experience I look forward to each year was almost ruined for me today. The other saving grace, and this actually tops the book, since it was at Thanksgiving Point, we were given 90 minutes at lunch to enjoy the gardens. It was bitter cold with the winds today (and I forgot an elastic, so I'm sure I looked LOVELY after finishing my stroll) but Vampirate and I enjoyed it. Here's some pictures:

This is the building we met in that overlooks the gardens

Here's Vampirate peeking into the Secret Garden

The cherub that watches over the Secret Garden
Don't want anyone stepping on Lily's flowers

You can't see too well, but they've given the Secret Garden the feeling of age
with walls missing bricks and the overgrowth of trees and such

Last time I toured the gardens it was in May or June a few years ago
Since we've already had snow this year,
you can see the roses for example just didn't seem to be in top shape.

Though there were lots of pansies to be seen, everywhere

My favorite is the Italian garden
This is just the top half of the fountain, but it's my favorite
Oh, to have a fountain like this in my own yard some day
(oh, to have a yard some day)

It wasn't the best time of day for photographing the statues
And since
"No [plant life] were harmed during the [capturing of images for this blog entry]"
I just couldn't get a non-shadowed angle of the little girl taking a dip in the stream.

And finally, we did spot some wild life... sort of
(note the brochure proving we really were there)

Next year, my vote: return to Aspen Grove... please!