Today has to be one of the most favorite days for me all year long. It was the annual company picnic. And I love the heck out of it. Allison and I got there at about 10:30, we are taking our time these days and pacing ourselves. In past years I think we would end up arriving with the crew. Seriously I hate being late. Anyway as we pulled in I noticed the sign that it was the 38th annual company picnic. 38 years. And I’ve been to six of them myself Wow! Next month I will start my 7th year. Good Golly!

But seriously what companies still go through the time and money and effort to throw a company picnic? Not many. I am pretty lucky to work at a place like I do. And in the coming years the picnic will be even better because we will have some little ones in tow. I can’t wait to burn through some SD cards then.

Okay okay. On the way in I figured that I would go around and take some photos of all the different rides and games. So I snapped this shot of a great little ride for the toddlers.

Man I wish I was 4 again and could pretend to be racing along in one of those jeeps.

We headed straight for the water and then the Fried Dough on the midway. This is the one day a year that both Allison and I look forward to a breakfast of tasty Fried Dough covered in cinnamon and powdered sugar. We just love that first meal of the day, and we did a good bit of pacing ourselves as well.

The food is incredible at the picnic. There are burgers and dogs, wings, ribs, sausages, chowder, raw bar, salad, fruit, corn on the cob, chicken fingers and of course lobster. And all around there are booths for the fired dough, cotton candy, candy apples, and popcorn. It is gloriously delicious.

Also at the picnic there are pony rides, a pirate ship ride, a petting zoo, mini golf, an arcade, face panting, magic shows and so much more.

The company does a great service to parents with a kid ID and fingerprint booth and there is also a booth where the kids can get their own company id card, that is very cute. There is also arts and crafts and each kid gets a prize. There is just so much to do and I haven’t even gotten to the rides like the carousel, fun house, giant slide, train, moon bounce and so many more. Seriously I am going to be bringing at least 8 GB of memory when my kids are there. This year I practiced by taking photos of my friend’s children to give them the photos.

We met up with on of my friends and his kids at the pony rides.

I snapped some shots for him.

After that Allison and I played mini golf and there were some kids who didn’t understand the concept of waiting till the people in front f them finished playing before hitting his ball. I’m not going to complain because it was after all a fantastic day. When the game was finished we caught up with my friend John and his wife Christine, his brother Jason and John’s two kids. They were excited to meet us because John had told them about seeing the Transformer’s movie with us. They are very sweet kids. John offered to take a picture of Allison and I too. I don’t think we have many photos of ourselves from these events.

We went back to the tent and I had some chowder and Allison got some chicken wings. We then had some fruit and rested, another water was needed. There was no shortage of water today and I always had a bottle or two on hand. Gotta keep both my babies hydrated.

We walked around some more and caught up with John and Chris again at the moon bounce. I set up shop and photographed the kids and noticed another kid that I knew. My friend Steve and Erin’s son. So I got a few shots of him as well. The moon bounce was a huge giraffe. It looked angry.

Lunch was a feast of lobster and corn on the cob, hot dogs and burgers. We sat with John his family. We had a great time being entertained by the kids, they are so much fun. So nice. After lunch I snapped a couple more shots, one of the carousel and the other of an American icon, the radio flyer. I need to get one of these heavy duty ones for the kids, especially for the Cape.

We finished off the day with a delicious sundae and headed home to pass out and take a well needed nap.

Today I took my GiSTEQ PhotoTracker with me on the trip around the picnic. When I got home and edited my photos and then added the GPS data to them it was funny to see how we had zigzagged around the picnic area. I will have to get a screen shot to show you where all the photos show up on the map. It is pretty funny.

Contest Update. It is coming tomorrow, I had too much fun at the picnic and no time left to do a tally. Tomorrow the standings will be updated. But I would like to acknowledge that Mo wrote up a post about one of my photos. That is a 25 pointer for her post called Saturday Shopping Spree. And you can get points for commenting on that post. Build community folks. Get the conversations going. I am so happy with how the contest is going so far.