*+*+*+*USAA SPRING FEST*+*+*+*

Every year, my wonderful company, USAA, springs for a huge event to celebrate it's employees. Last year it was cancelled because of the H1N1 virus going around. With such a huge turnout, I see how it could have led to a massive spread of the virus.

This year fortunately it was not cancelled, it did not rain, and the weather was perfect! We arrived around 6ish..once Aleena was well rested from Emerald Rainbow.

We walked up and silly me forgot the stroller, so we had to carry Aleena everywhere after a while. For being so light..she felt so very heavy towards the end of the night..

On our way to Springfest!

The event took place at the USAA campus. Most people already know that the USAA building is bigger than the Pentagon, but they don't know that the grounds is like a campus..complete with lakes for fishing, basketball and tennis courts, baseball field, running track, playgrounds, etc. It is stunning and beautiful.

Here is the schedule of events and the map...like I said...the campus is HUGE!

First stop...petting zoo! The petting zoo had calfs, ducks, chicks, and baby goats. Aleena got to feed the goats, but refused to get down and walk amongts the ducks that were as tall as her!

Our first stop was Little Italy! There we were greeted by men in stilts, guitar players and a plethora of food! FREE FOOD! You just walked up to the stand and got whatever you wanted..saugage on a stick, pizza, italian ice! It was crazy! They also had China Town (which had hot wings, egg rolls, fried rice) Matt was amazed that they had pallets of soda and water that anyone could grab at their liesure. He was surprised people weren't backing their trucks up to load up the soda. I told him that all USAA employees live by USAA's creed of Honesty, Integrity, and Trust. With everything to see and do...all my husband cared about was the soda . Can you tell he's deprived at home! LOL!!!

We continued on after grabbing some food and met up with the Spurs Coyote and USAA Eagle

We stopped for some quick photo ops along the lake

After a quick break, we headed to the fire trucks. Aleena got to climb inside and see what they were all about. Fortunately, she is overcoming her fear of the big red loud sirens which is a huge thumbs up! Progress is good!

Next stop, the military first aid helicopter. We arrived just as they were inspecting the helicopter for take off. We stood just a few 100 yards back and got to watch the helicopter take off directly in front of us! Aleena was amazed. The wind and sound was so intense, it took our breath away!

After the take off, we headed up to the Kidz Zone!

But not before stopping and getting some yummy roasted corn! Complete with butter and whatever seasoning you wanted..chili, garlic, salt, pepper, whatever! MMMM! Aleena enjoyed some watermelon while I smacked down the corn.

We then headed to the bounce zone. It was rediculous how many bounce houses they had for all age groups! What a blast!

They had 3 of these bungee jumping platforms..I didn't get on it this time.

Aleena decided to crawl through these tents..we later learned that it was a Lazer Tag field..oops...thankfully she didn't get trampled

USAA really thought of EVERYTHING! They even had wii's, PS3's, and Xboxs setup in cars comlete with surround sound and flat screen TV's....craziness!

In the Mexico world... performers were dressed up in beautiful dresses. The food overflowed with tacos, chalupas and nachos.

We then visited Eagle One....the USAA Catastrophe bus. This bus goes out to areas impacted by devastating losses such as huricanes, floods, fires, snow/winter storms, tornadoes, earthquakes etc...This is a claims processing hub complete with everything necessary to process and pay claims quickly for members who are impacted by these grave catastophe's. I was happy to get to walk inside and see it first hand.

Military Pride....USAA can't have a function withought being represented by all branches of the military. They displayed all sorts of military weapons to include guns, grenades, tanks, planes, etc.

As the evening winded down, Aleena played in the park and we captured a picture of her posing.

We met up with some of our friends. Andrew got an awesome spiderman face painting.

Chris and Maris were hanging out and we were lucky enough to hang out with them for a while. Here's the amazing couple with our little bit!

As the sun set and the moon rose, we paraded towards the live music band..Rotel and The Hot Tomatoes..that had been playing all through the night. I loved them! They rocked the 70's & 80's music and sounded fantastic! All of the kids were around them dancing and following along. Fun! They remind me of a band we used to visit at Harlow's in Downtown Sac called The Cheeseballs! Loved them... this brought back memories!

We met up with more friend, the ladies of the Firsich Family!

Aleena's cutie boy "friend" Tommy

Playtime while jamming to music from The Hot Tomatoes and waiting for fireworks!

The grand finale....FIREWORKS!

Aleena had such a great time...she was being silly, singing songs, wearing her sun glasses in the dark eating a lollipop. She had so much energy..there was no way she was crashing anytime soon! Too bad because mommy and daddy were pooped from our long day~

What an amazing day! I am so blessed to work for such an amazing company that does so much for its employees and community. I LOVE USAA!