Bosch Company Picnic

Bosch is celebrating 125 years this year (1886-2011) and the Anderson, SC manufacturing plant is celebrating 25 years. That makes it a good year for a celebration and that's exactly what they did today. In the past 10 years, the Anderson plant has only had 3 company picnics, this being one of them. The plant is running 24 hours a day to meet demand and employs 1800 people, so it's vital to the Anderson economy. Today was a rare day for the plant because they shut down production so that everyone could enjoy the festivities.




The picnic was planned for 11AM to 3PM, so we headed there at 11, because we knew Brady would get tired before the end and we could leave when we wanted. The first thing we did was check out the robotic Wall-E. Brady couldn't get enough of him. We had a hard time dragging him away to let other kids have a turn.




We then got into the line for face painting. While we were in line, one of Andy's co-workers came up to us and asked if Brady wanted a Bosch tattoo and we figured why not? He was really good while she put it on his cheek and he didn't try to rub at it. Waiting is very hard for Brady and honestly, what toddler has an easy time waiting? They had an adopt-a-pet area right next to the face painting booth, so Andy and I took turns waiting in line, while the other one took Brady to look at the animals. The kittens were particularly playful and Brady was laughing out loud. He loved reaching a finger into their cage to pet them and he was very gentle like always with animals. When it was finally his turn to get his face painted and the lady asked what he wanted, and we thought a football would be appropriate since Penn State will be playing Alabama at home later this afternoon. He sat very still and didn't swipe at it afterwards. He didn't want to hold still for me to get a good picture of it, but I got one anyway.



We headed over to the main area where we noticed the booth for our favorite frozen yogurt place, YoGo Express. They also had a photo booth so we got to go in and get some pictures taken. Brady wasn't very cooperative, so there's only one of four shots that Brady is looking at the camera. He did love the frozen yogurt, just like always.



Brady then noticed the inflatables. He's in love with bouncing. The first one was just for playing. It had little tunnels, a play pool (no water), and a little Jeep. He was having so much fun he didn't want to come out, but we headed over to the bouncy castle (his favorite). Andy was nervous because there were several big kids playing and jumping and he thought Brady would get trampled. Brady held his own and had more fun because the other kids bouncing launched him up. He was really upset when he came out and it was time to eat.



After we ate lunch, we decided to tour the plant. There are no pictures from the inside because they were not allowed. It wasn't working because they shut it down for the picnic, but it would have been much cooler to see it in action. Andy's building was near the car and we decided that we'd have Brady play a carnival game so he could win a prize, then check out his office. Brady has become a pro at the pick a duck game and we chose the Tazmanian Devil blow-up bat. The best part was Bosch picked up the bill for everything. There had to be 5,000 people there easily.



One the way to Andy's building they had a classic car lineup. It's always cool to look at old and souped up cars. We check out Andy's office before we headed home and it was cool to actually see where he works.