Eva had another 3:00am wake up call. I’m not sure why this keeps happening but the past few nights she’s been waking up each morning early. Allison took last night’s watch. I took the night before. Either way the kid wakes up full of energy and fun. She had a great time playing with some alphabet blocks.
I’ve been at my job for almost 8 years. September 19th 2001 was when I started. The company is 40 years old this year and each year they have a company picnic. Allison and I have gone to every one since 2002 (I was hired too late for the 2001 picnic). Each year I’ve seen this get bigger and better. The way things are done gets more and more innovative and feedback from participants is taken into consideration. We have a great time.
This year was probably the best one so far. Allison and I did not bicker much even though it was so brutally hot. I had a moment of utter frustration when my Nikon D80 decided to give me the CAH warning and not take my 16GB memory card for some reason. I was heading off to the car to just put it away and spend the rest of the day using the Canon SD800is. Then I realized that the Canon had a memory card in it so I swapped cards and all was right with the world.
Our morning started off with our usual routine. We parked directly across from the Fried Dough station (must’ve been kismet). So, we got some fried dough and I got popcorn and then I went to get drinks and picked up a bowl of clam chowder. Yeah, that was breakfast and it was awesome. I must tell you that my gastrointestinal debauchery today is my one day a year to do this. I got back to the table and Eva was getting antsy because there were tons of rides and she wanted to do them all. She wasn’t interested in Fried Dough so we walked down to the fruit station and got her an apple. She picked a granny smith and when we got back she decided that that wasn’t what she really wanted.
After eating we went to the giant slide and Eva and I went down twice in a row and she loved it! I was a little nervous taking her on this because in my mind I kept thinking of all the ways we could get hurt. So the first ride down I was a wreck but the second one I loosened up and had a great time. I sat on the potato sack and them placed Eva right in front of me. She loved the speed. The kid loves the feel of the wind in her hair. When we slid down I would lift her up onto her feet and she would make a beeline back to the stairs to go again. I love that she loves to have fun and play these games and it is so fun watching how happy she is. Allison shot a video of that on the Flip.
Eva’s next favorite ride was the cars. She was so happy and proud going around in the car on her first trip. She was so happy and I wanted to capture the moment with my camera and it wasn’t working. This is when I got frustrated with the camera and almost had a meltdown of my own. Eva was using the steering wheel and smiling and just enjoying the speed of the ride. She went on this one at least three maybe 4 times. We passed over the rocket ships at first run through the rides. I wasn’t sure if she’d sit still and that one went up and down. So we held off.
Eva’s old favorite was the carousel of course. She went on once with Allison and that carousel went around fast. Allison was done. No more rides. So we went over and got Eva a company badge, made a set of color your own binoculars. Eva’s first time with markers. Not to shabby.
Eventually we made our way to the puppet show and Allison and Eva could sit in the shade. I went off and got some water because we were drinking a bottle of it every 20 – 30 minutes or so. I was a drenched mess. I think I sweat nearly as much as I usually do during a workout. Well, despite being a soggy mess I still had a great time.
We ate tons of food, had tons of fun and Eva got to ride a pony, pet a goat and go on a pirate ship. And between that she was a space ace on a rocket ship and rode the carousel until the world spun. I can’t wait for next year’s picnic!