Epicnic

This post is kind of a major photo dump... We went to Alan's company picnic last Saturday and had a wonderful time. We had steak, lobster tail, corn on the cob, corn bread, root beer floats, watermelon, salad, chips and hot dogs for the kids, and devil's food cake. And that was just the food...

There was also a petting zoo. Elsie was a little wary of the big goats, but she liked the baby ones just fine.

Once she saw another little girl on the pony, she said she needed a turn. It didn't go anywhere, but she thought it was pretty cool anyway.

Pig.

Baby cow. She is wearing her "doggie" in some of these pictures. We had talked about kid control and how we would handle the two girls with all the people around. We decided on putting Alice in the backpack and keeping Elsie on her doggie to keep her close so she wouldn't get lost. I am pleased to say that even though she wore it part of the time, we never actually had to use it. She was very good and stayed close and listened to instructions from Alan and I. My little runner is growing up...

She thought the geese were kind of scary. Maybe she was feeding off my anxiety from years of being chased by the big geese down by the river while we were trying to feed the ducks when I was a small child. Either way, geese are creepy.

I think Elsie's favorite part was the inflatable bounce house.

They had a fire truck and construction vehicles parked around for the kids to look and explore.

They had stairs built up to the driver's seat on most of the vehicles. Elsie patiently waited her turn to sit in the seat, and if anyone cut in front of her she would inform them that it was Elsie's turn and they needed to wait.

Concentrating very hard on driving...

The picnic was on the "Back 40" behind Voyager Hall (not to be confused with the Pelennor Fields on the other side of campus... Epic is so cool). I hadn't seen any of Voyager Hall, so when we needed a break from the heat we explored inside.

Elsie thought Darth Vader looked grumpy and he needed a kiss to make him feel better.

Up on the upper balcony in Voyager Hall overlooking part of the picnic area. There were a lot of people there, but with how much space there was and how many things there were to do, it didn't feel that crowded.

Every year they have an annual Tug-o-War contest. A bunch of guys from the ward got a team together. They were called the "Sesame Street Fighters". I guess they got that from the fact that they have so many young adoring fans.

The guys put up a valiant fight against the reigning champions. They were literally inches away from victory when the opposing team rallied and pulled the win away from them.

It was a good effort. Probably the best match-up we watched.

Poor kid was exhausted by the end of the day.

One picture of me just to prove that I was there too.

Not sure where she got it from, but as we were walking along Elsie decided she needed to stop and do a somersault every few feet. Not that she would actually roll over, she would just stop and do this...

...Then stand up and clap for herself. Maybe she'll get the second half of it someday.

All of our bracelets. It was a fun day. It was mostly cloudy and overcast, so the kept the temperature down a little bit. There was so much more we could have done... There were bungee trampolines, rock walls, potato sack races, a wagon ride, a gps scavenger hunt... So many things and not enough time. Maybe we'll get around to them next year...