The Baranko Family: Business Trip

This past week I went on a business trip, which is pretty unusual for me (the lack of required travel is something I really like about my job). But this time it was welcome because my business in Phoenix & Vegas meant that I could tack on a weekend visit to Tucson. Yippee! It was just 2 days, but Katie, Kristin and I spent almost every moment of it together so it felt like we got a good visit in. With the beautiful mountains, resort-style accommodations at Kristin's and the great food/company - it felt like a girl's getaway! Loved spending time with those awesome kids and seeing Katie's growing baby bump:) Then the business part of my trip had me driving up to Phoenix for a couple days, then skipping over to Las Vegas for a couple more days before heading home. I was doing store visits as part of the Balance Rewards relaunch campaign I had been planning for almost a year. If you haven't heard yet, we relaunched our loyalty program so now members can earn 10 points for every $1 they spend in the store, and 100 points for each prescription. If you aren't earning everyday points yet, as in store or go online to add this perk to your membership! Anyway, sales pitch over - what I was doing was checking about 2 dozen stores at random in these two markets to make sure they were putting up their required in-store signage and that they weren't having any problems with opting customers in to the new benefit, etc. It was fun being out in stores, us corporate folks don't get to do that as much as we would like. Although the execution in store of all my carefully laid plans leaves something to be desired...we're trying to change that, though, so we'll just take it one day at a time. In the meantime, it was a great trip! Great job, Matt, holding down the fort back at home:)

Dinner at Katie & Joe's Friday night with these munchkins.

Pool time!! Seb loves the water.

He's gotten so big - eating real food and mobile. He's sooooo cute!

Love their backyard. Everyone should come take a vacation here.

I mean, come on! Look at those views! Those two kids on the chairs make this scene even more wonderful.

Isabelle is such a character, I can't get enough of her!

Love!

Swinging and smiling

Kristin went in the tortoise enclosure and got the three of them out of hibernation - so fun to see them!

Can't beat those AZ sunsets.

Their backyard from above

Sunrise the next morning - I had to leave for Phoenix at 5am, so got a nice view of it

My drive to Phoenix was quick and easy - with nice scenery along the way.

My colleague, Dave, and I had to go find the signage we sent the stores in the back room most of the time. Then we helped the stores put it up correctly.

Some like it hot in Phoenix!!

Dave & I hiked up Camelback Mountain one morning before work started for the day. We took a conference call at the base of the mountain! That beats the office, that's for sure.

Pretty views from the top.

Next up - the Vegas strip!

We have a lot of stores in the Vegas market. We didn't spend as much time at the Strip stores, though, since they are so heavy tourist they don't use our loyalty card as much. I saw a whole new side of Vegas, though, in the outskirts.