Twenty staff members. Twelve significant others. Sixteen children ranging in age from six months to 10 years old. Five dogs: three big, two weeny. One bouncy castle. And a giant birthday cake. What could possibly go wrong?

As luck would have it, absolutely nothing. Despite our best efforts. No face plants into the cake. No bocce ball accidents. No adults in the bouncy castle, even with one of the company founders egging on the copywriter. (I did want to give it a try, but a cooler head prevailed.)

This was rtraction day 2014, a celebration of rtraction’s 13th birthday, which, officially, is July 4th. While we have numerous in-house celebrations each year — hoopla in honour of significant project milestones, work anniversaries, and the like — rtraction day is a special mid-year party where we celebrate everyone’s hard work, and take the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company in a new setting.

This year, there was swimming, a loose version of ultimate frisbee (which looks like interpretive dance in photos taken when the frisbee has just been flung), some bocce, some volleyball, conversations about time travel and the new Star Wars movie (among other less nerdy topics), water gun fights, and a whole lot of food, including barbequed hot dogs and burgers (veggie burgers for our non-carnivores), thanks to the grilling skills of Jesse, our host (and son of the owners of our fabulous retreat in Blenheim). Alcohol for the adults, juice boxes for the kids. And thanks to our carpooling, no inebriated drivers.

More photos of the day are available on rtraction’s Facebook page.

So, to recap: an entirely delightful day for all of our staff members and their guests, and no horrifying stories. We’ll try again next year…