Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Farwell to Del Sol

I am sitting here by the fire, watching tv, after a long day of cleaning. I havent had a relaxing day like this in a long time. A couple of weeks ago I had my last day at Del Sol after just over 5 years. What a bizarre feeling, but totally awesome. I dont start my new job until the second week of January so I have had 2 weeks to do NOTHING! I cant say enough how much Ive enjoyed it.
I think I could get really used to being a stay at home wife. Yesterday, I got up early, cleaned the house, met with the Comcast guy, went grocery shopping, did all the laundry, cooked a delicious meal, and had a great night! I feel so much more productive with all this time!
I was pretty sad to say goodbye to my friends at Del Sol, but so excited for the opportunity to work for this new company.
When you think about it, you spend more time with your co workers then you do with your family! I became really close to many at Del Sol and when I looked back through my pictures, I cant belive all the things that we've all been through together.
I have compiled a few (A LOT) photos of some of my favorite times at Del Sol. This is actually one of the longest posts Ive done. But, its 5 years of memories.
Golf Tournaments!!
Every year Del Sol puts on a golf tournament for all the employees. They have a fantastic incentives(Money & Prizes) to make puts and golf well. We look so young!
Angi & I
After 18 holes of golf they do a "putting challenge". They do various distance puts for different amounts of money. Angi and I were in line for a $500 put. I leaned over to Ang and asked her if she wanted to go in on a partnership and if either of us got puts, we would split the money down the middle. I thought this would increase our chances of walking away with money. Angi didnt like the idea so we continued putting solo. Right after that conversation I stepped up and sank a $500 put! Too bad for Ang, but I was sure happy about it!
On another year, I golfed with Ashley. Although she was much better then I am we often found our balls in the same place.
This is not a fun place to find both of your balls when doing a scramble.
I love to golf. My family is big into golf, but I am still terrible. For how much time Ive spent on a golf course I should be a million times better then I am. But thank goodness I have a stroke of luck because thats not all I won at one of Del Sol's golf tournament!
This year I had a great "foursome". Scott & Sheryl are husband and wife and both work for Del Sol. I love them and am so grateful to have met them and made such great friends.
Angi, Me, Sheryl, Scott
This year, I had a HUGE stroke of luck (no pun intended) and hit the "straightest drive" and won a new Kindle!! I love it!
Did you know you can rent books from the library for your Kindle? Its been a fantastic discovery for me.
Since we are on the topic of sports, another perk working for Del Sol was that I got to learn to play softball. I was terrible, but I finally found my nitch in softball at the very end when I got to fill in as catcher. I loved it! Its incredibly scary, but you get way better of a work out. You stand up and squat about a thousand times and you are more involved!
Yeah I probably just struck out again. I think Ill stick with Soccer, but I sure had a great time.
One of my favorite things about playing softball...was my biggest fan was always in the stands :)
I loved that the company really pushed for healthy living. One year the company paid for your entry fee if you wanted to run a marathon, or do a bike race etc.
A few of us decided to do the MS bike ride up in Logan.
At the time I was...overweight. I was like 30 lbs heavier then I am right now. When I signed up for the bike ride (45 miles) I didnt even own a bike.
It was a great experience and I had the greatest time, and we raised money for MS.
Heidi has also become such a dear friend to me. I love Heidi. She came all the way up to Logan to cheer me on! Thanks Heids!
I decided if I could stay up with my 2 guys friends Nate and Jason, I would be just fine. We rode the whole 45 miles together until the very end when Nate's tire went flat. He encouraged us to cross the finish line and he would be right behind us. It was a great experience.
A few years in a row they had our company Christmas party at the ESA during a Jazz game. They would draw a few employee names that were there and you could go down on the court to give all the players high five before the game started. My name never got drawn, but BOTH years my dear fellow employees gave me their spot on the court because they knew what a big Jazz fan I was. I loved it, and thought it was extremely sweet.
For some reason I have NO pictures of the annual Turkey Bowl. Its one of my favorite traditions at Del Sol and I will truly miss that this next November. One year before we were headed out to go play, my co worker Alejandra who is from Mexico, showed me thisvideo and we laughed and laughed. Its probably one of my favorite Youtube videos. If you dont want to watch the video, its a drunk man from Mexico at a party doing a hell of a dance. We couldnt help doing the dance to warm up before our flag football game!
Going to Lagoon is one of my favorite things of the year. We had a company party at Lagoon every summer and I looked forward to it all year!!! Lagoon never gets old to me. I love people watching, I of course love rides, I love Carny food and most of all I love Lagoon people watching. Its a great time and never dissapoints.
This year was the year I had the no-good-very-awful bang cut.

All you Del Sol peeps, if you EVER need a Lagoon buddy in the upcoming years, you know who to call. Well, anyone for that matter.
We also got to go to the Bee's game as a company.
Nothing like a yummy hot dog, kettle corn, fireworks and great friends to make baseball bearable.
One year, Del Sol surprised us all one summer day by announcing we could have the day off to go to a fun summer activity. Angi, Missy and I went to Seven Peaks for our day off! It was my first time going and I had a blast with the girls.
Working near a Chick Fil A calls for some great times. I love Chick Fil A. Their food is fantastic, and they give away so much free food! Every year for a whole week in a row they would give out free breakfast. Angi and I attended this week faithfully.
I always say its amazing what people will do for free stuff. I guess I now know! There was cow appreciate day where if you dressed like a cow you got a free meal!
While Russ and I were in Thailand, Del Sol did their annual "kick off meeting" where we talk about goals, go over last years goals and there is a drawing at the end! There's a drawing for quarterly goals, and then the big yearly goal which I WON!!!! So the second I stepped off the plane from Thailand I was checking my phone to find out I had won $2,500 to visit one of our stores!
For those of you that dont know what Del Sol is... No, it is not a restuarnt or a tanning salon :) Basically, we sell things that changes color in the sun. We have over 100 stores all over the world, usually in tourist destinations like Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico, Australia..etc.
The corporate office is in Utah, where I worked in the accounting department.
In winning the $2,500 you are supposed to visit one of our locations so I took my parents and Russell on a Caribbean cruise! Thanks Del Sol!
One of my favorite memories about Del Sol, is the companies love for Halloween. I love Halloween and dressing up!
They have pumpkin carving contest! My department won 2 years in a row!
Ale and I carving the first years winner, a fish bowl with real life fish!
The second year, we had a pot smoking Bob Marley!
Costume contest's!
Heidi, as a Cereal Killer
Tyler, as the Lamp Chop lady
Angi, as Dolly Parton
I loved being a Roller Derby girl, I got to skate around the office all day!
This last year we won the consutme party as Despicables!
Another year of Halloween with Heidi!
Other favorite memories from Del Sol and DS Peeps:
Del Sol also let us have a day off to play in the mountains! They would pay for us to either go sledding, skiing, or they would give us money to shop!
This is one of my favorite pictures of Emilie...she rocked that hill.
Camping Trips!
Doggy play dates!
Sushi Nights!
My friend Deepti from India did Henna on a few of us one day.
Emilie and I became really close while working at Del Sol. She was very brave and decided to move to California to start a new life. I was so proud of her, but miss her dearly. We had a fun going away party for Em!
Heidi is also someone at Del Sol I became very close with. One of my favorite memories of Heidi at Del Sol, is how she was always so thoughtful to send emails asking about certain things in my life, and leaving me notes..
And she knows I love the peach muffins from Smiths, so on numerous occasions I would come to work with peach muffins on my desk. Thanks Heidi!
This year after I put in my 2 weeks at Del Sol we had our annual Christmas party. It was a good chance for me to spend one last fun time with all my friends. Our Christmas party this year was up at the Canyons. Angi and I were on the party planning committee so we went up early. It was fun to ride the ski lift up to the cabin.
Dan, Angi, Me and Russ
The best lookin date up there :)
I have made so many great friends and had many many fun times while working at Del Sol. Its been a great opportunity for me over the last 5 years, but unfortunately I am not able to get to where I want to be professionally and to advance to where I want to be. I will miss my friends so much and the comfort of knowing all the ins and outs.
Thanks to my friends for throwing me a going away lunch:
It will be weird/scary starting at a new company with all new people, but I am so excited to start new and fresh with the new year.

PS. On a side note, I credit Del Sol for helping me find my way to Russ. One of my co workers introduced me to one of her friends. We became really good friends after that, and she invited me to a summer dinner party she was throwing and guess who happened to be there? Mr Russell himself, the rest is history!

4 comments:

  1. What a great post! What a lot of fun memories we had... huh :) It was fun to read and remember all the fun times. You did a nice entry, where mine was just... Good Bye Del Sol. If it weren't for Del Sol though... we wouldn't have probably become such good friends. Love you girl.. a ton! Congrats on the new job! you'll do awesome!!!!

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  2. Sheesh! Is Del Sol hiring? Just kidding, I really like my job. Seems like you'll miss it and they'll miss you!

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  3. (My previous comment is dumb. I needed to add to that...)

    But congratulations on your big adventure to a new job! How exciting.

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  4. Chels, reading this made me miss DS friends and everything fun they do. Too bad even though Ty works fr them, we don't get many of the perks happening in Utah.

    Can't wait to hear about your new job and how much you love it! You're going to do awesome!

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