Summer Vacation-Day 16

We bought some new blow up toys for the kids to use while at the lake.   

James would not sit still to take a picture.

He was so mad that we made him sit in his new Batmobile for a photo.

Today was "bring your kid to work day" and so of course Microsoft threw a huge party.  The Microsoft campus is like a small city.  It employs 35,000 people right her in the Redmond/ Bellevue area.  Just think of the building in the picture below and multiply it by like 30 or 40.  The campus is so big, that Microsoft provides its own shuttles to take people around campus, either by car or bus.  It's like a free private taxi company.  If Brennan has a meeting across campus, he just makes a call and a car is out front waiting for him.  Anyway, they also have everything you could ever need on campus like MANY restaurants, hair/nail salon, musical instrument stores, a doctors office/ pharmacy, soccer fields, and sooooo much more.  I wasn't kidding when I said it was like a small city.  

I just had to get a picture of James in his new TMNT shirt :) So cool.

Here is one of the 5 bouncy houses that were provided by Microsoft for our entertainment.  They also had live bands playing through out campus, those cool balloon guys, free food samples from different companies, video games stations and a whole lot more.  I'm not sure exactly how much more, we didn't really want to stick around for it.  We wanted to go to Brennan's building instead because he works in the Xbox division, so you can imagine that his office is pretty cool. 

Xbox

In the lobby they have these dioramas of one of there video games.  I'm only guessing that because we aren't into video games and they didn't have a sign up saying what it was, but I think it's of the game Gears of War.  The kids thought it was really cool and in person it really is pretty cool.  The picture is not that great.

Then we got to see Brennan's office.  You can't see it in this picture, but the doors in this building are all glass and they slide.  Not like a cheap cheesy sliding door, but really nice ones.  (I know it's funny that I'm sharing this, but if you know me, then you know it's something I'm interested in)  You walk down the hallway and you can see into everyone's office.  We walked down one area where a group of people were congregated into one large space.  Their desks just faced each other.  I asked Brennan why it was like that and he said it has to do with programming.  People who program need to speak with each other frequently, so they all just have one big office.  It was a lot cooler to see than I'm describing.  I thought, "Cool!  This is where the magic happens".  They looked like they had a lot of fun and the room was decorated with cool nerdy things.  

After the visit to his office, he took us down the hall to a game room where you can play video games, ping pong, table soccer, or stare at some statue of a guy from a video game...

This is awesome.  Everywhere you go at Microsoft, and I am not in the least conservative when I say this, EVERYWHERE you go, they have these fridges full of every kind of drink and it's all free!  I'm not a huge soda drinker, but it is nice to get a free cold drink whenever I'm around.  They have them in the cafeterias too, so you never have to buy a drink.

Our last stop was to this area where Microsoft displays every product they make, from phones to computers to video games, blah blah blah, you get it.  Here Hailey is playing the new touch screen computer, which I actually think is really cool.  I wish Microsoft would give us one of those for free, but Brennan doesn't work in that division. 

There is never a shortage of video games at Microsoft. 

And afterwards everyone was handed a free cookie.  See, now doesn't Microsoft seem like a nice company to work for?  

James and Franco have been getting along great.

So great, that James eats meals with him.  It's so funny because as soon as he sees me coming to get him, he hurries up and shoves on last huge handful into his mouth.  He won't eat normal food, but he will eat dog food.  Go figure.