Glad to be in Milwaukee

We just returned from our annual Northwestern Mutual meetings in Milwaukee.

Jay celebrates his 11 year Northwestern anniversary next week. I can't tell you how thankful I am that he works for such an amazing company. Honestly, it's one of the best companies in the world. The people who work with Northwestern are so committed to integrity and making wise decisions with their clients; to pursuing relationships with their clients, and to thinking of long term stability and financial security. I just don't think you can find another financial company with the same values. 

I also can't say enough about how proud I am of Jay. He works so incredibly hard. He is constantly pushing himself and challenging himself and giving of himself. He cares deeply about his clients and his staff, and he works so hard to provide for our family. We know that he is exactly where God wants him to be and it is exciting to see how God uses him in a "secular" job by counseling (both financial and relational) and praying with his clients. We also have the opportunity to get to know so many other great people around the country who are becoming like family to us. 

People think we are crazy when we say we are excited about going to Milwaukee. It really is a wonderful city and Northwestern plans lots of family events while we are there.

We did fly with all five kiddos to get there. They did great! Jay was actually already in Milwaukee because he had some committee meetings a few days early. So Marcy, Steve, Jay's assistant Melissa, and I traveled up with the kids on Saturday. It went as smoothly as it possibly could with five small children. When traveling with small children just remember 3 P's: plan, prepare, and persevere!

One of the annual highlights is the race on Sunday morning. Marcy pushed the babies in the 5k, jay and Steve walked with the big kids in the one mile walk, and I ran the 10k. I finished in 56:02, not bad for my first post-twins race!

We took the kids to the morning meetings on Monday and they made through about two hours. We had a babysitter and Marcy help us with childcare some so that I could go to meetings with Jay, which was incredibly helpful. 

We went to the children's museum there on Tuesday with some of our great friends from WV. Two years ago we had a combined total of four children; this year we have eight! God has blessed us both tremendously in the past two years!!

We really enjoyed having time with some Northwestern friends who Jay is in a study group with. Two of the agents also have five children each and we took them all out to dinner on Tuesday night. Yep, we put all the kids except the babies at a table together, ordered an XL cheese pizza, and enjoyed the chaos!!

On Tuesday night Tim McGraw performed for the company show. It was a very fun concert and a great way to end our trip. 

By the end of the trip, we were all a little tired. The kids love being there so much that they didn't want to come home yesterday and are already talking about being back next summer.