crown council 2011

so, i have failed to mention that i work at a dental office in provo called hammond & ellis dentistry. i love it. i am the "children's specialist", which means i'm not quite an assistant and i'm definitely not a hygienist, i'm just somewhere in between. basically i get to hang out with kids, ages 3-11 and talk about their teeth and draw, and watch movies and of course, take x-rays and do a little cleaning... it's a blast. 

so, this weekend, our doctors flew our whole team out to phoenix for the 16th annual crown council event. the whole conference was held at the arizona biltmore hotel, and it was love at first sight...

as soon as we got out of the car, i immediately thought this hotel reminded me of something that frank lloyd wright would've designed. so i asked the bellhop and he said it was designed by a student of wright's and it was definitely under wright's design influence. i was so proud of myself for recognizing it!

and then, we walked into the lobby and i almost completely lost it... frank lloyd wright's original "saguaro" was prominently displayed right inside the front doors! i've loved this stain glass work for a long time and i am even currently working on a 1,000 piece puzzle of it! i say i love it, but i didn't actually know where it hung, so it was a total surprise to see it! 

my coworkers probably got a little annoyed with me. i couldn't help but be obsessed with every little detail of this entire hotel. check out those lights built in to the overhangs on the ceilings... it's magical. the entire hotel was built with only materials found within 100 miles of the property. they call it "the jewel of the desert."

copper was a major material found throughout the place. i want this for my front door of my house i don't even own yet.

beauty

it was pretty cold when we got there.... 36 degrees to be exact. needless to say, we were all a little disappointed seeing as we were looking forward to getting away from the biting, breath taking cold of utah. it eventually warmed up a bit by saturday afternoon.

we got to enjoy a little sunshine.

just barely warm enough to take a dip.

lunch break was always fun

the days were filled with fantastic speakers; dan heath, rory vaden, jeanie robinson and shep hyken to name a few. you'd think that if you were going to a dental conference for the weekend, it would be the most boring three days of your life; listening to doctors talk about crowns and implants and new restorative materials... however, you are sorely mistaken! it was quite the opposite. it was a fantastic and exciting few days, learning how to better yourself and your office. loved it. and it was so totally amazing to see how much time and energy and effort went into pulling this event off and they do every year! next year's event will be held in vegas at the new M Resort! suuuuper fancy!

the BOSSES, dr. ellis and dr. hammond

the best part of the trip was our last night! it was a black tie event, 1920's theme. we didn't dress up according to the theme but it was just as fun to get all dutied up and fancy-like. i never get the chance to go to things like this! usually, it seems like i work for events like this providing the flowers, but this time i got to be a guest! there was an awards ceremony and a fantastic fancy dinner and plenty-o-dancing! i definitely cut up a rug that night. i loooooooove to dance. i love it, i love it, i love it! did i mention that i love to dance?

 demri, paula, kristin, hollie and i, and for a few minutes dr. hammond, were the only ones to really get into it from our group and we danced the night away until they kicked us out! it was the best to just be able to let loose and just be crazy. no inhibitions. it also helped loosen us up that 95% of the crowd was intoxicated. 

my roomies in the "life happens" room. aptly named by dr. hammond and dr. ellis

the whole crew at the entrance of the ball.

some awesome crazy ladies who broke in the dance floor for everyone

this was our "too tired to move picture" at the end of the night. apparently i was the only one who got the message.

he food was great, the learning was great, the entertainment was great, and the dancing was great. mucho thanks to dr. hammond and dr. ellis for taking me along for the ride!
i am tired now.