Shannon picked a pretty great time to start working at ripe. Not only does she get Wednesday off next week for the 4th, but she was also lucky enough to snag a week of vacation right after starting. We’re still not quite sure how she managed it.

She’s been involved with a high school youth group called FISH for years, both as a member back when she was in school and now as a group leader. At the end of every school year they have a big trip to Assateague Island on the Maryland coast, so Shannon got to spend last week on the beach hanging out with 60 kids (which may or may not actually qualify as a “vacation” in most people’s book).

However it sounds like she had a blast. Despite Shannons’s apparent inability to set up a tent, they camped out on the beach, hung out with the wild ponies, swapped stories around the campfire and played large group games. When it got really hot in the middle of the week they spent a lot of time cooling off in the ocean which, according to Shannon, “felt magical.” She really loves doing it so we’re already guessing we’ll lose her for another week come next summer. But hey, what better way to start off your third week of a new job than with a beach vacation?

Special thanks to Andy Colwell and Zachary Maser for letting us use their images in this post! (Shannon was afraid of getting her camera all sandy… excuses excuses.)

Tomas also spent some time out of the studio recently, albeit for business events rather than beach-fun-time. He attended AMA DC’s year-end membership appreciation event which was held on the top floor of the Waterview Conference Center in Rosslyn, home of the Corporate Executive board. The great venue was thanks to Rory Channer of the CEB (thanks Rory!), and it was pretty fantastic. Not only is the building itself amazing, but it has beautiful panoramic views of DC all the way from Georgetown to the Pentagon. Tomas snapped a couple of photos which we stitched together below. (click for a larger version!) Alas, iPhone shots through a super-thick, polarized pane of glass look just a tiny bit funky.

We’ve been working a bunch with AMA this year, so we’ve gotten to know a bunch of the board members pretty darn well. AMA bid a fond farewell to the current president and long time pal o’ ripe, Mike Gardner, and welcomed the incoming president Doug Reed who we’ve had the pleasure of working with on multiple occasions. The ever-upbeat Brian Rutter was the MC for the evening, and all in all it was a really great event. It’s actually a really exciting time for AMA DC as they’re celebrating their 80th anniversary this year, and we have some exciting related projects currently underway. We can’t wait to share them!