Picnic Day Weekend 2013

Well, I guess this was our last Picnic Day weekend as Davis residents.  I've attended 4 of the last 5 years (skipping Eddie's first year since he was too young to appreciate anything).  Steadily and with much effort from the organizers and attendees, this annual campus open house event has become less and less of a drunken party.  It's nice that it is returning to it's former glory as a family friendly event.

This year we packed up lunches, snacks, water bottles, and sunblock into the double BOB stroller and walked the 2.5 miles to campus.

One of our many stops along the way to campus.  Eddie just HAD to get out of the stroller to climb this tree.

We met up with the Daly family and wandered around to some south-campus events.  First we let the kids hold the baby chickens (Eddie wasn't too interested since hens are that novel for him), then we took them to see the insect museum.  I guarded our belongings but I hear that both kids got to hold walking stick bugs!  Then down the hall we went to the wildlife museum to see various fishes and some demonstrations of carcass dissection and mounting.  Eddie was fascinated by the lady preparing a dead vole.

Then we went across the street to see the horses.  There were a few mama horses with their very new babies (still with the dried up umbilical cords hanging down!) and a very friendly donkey or mule.  Whatever it was, it was super long-legged and it loooooooooooved nuzzling pet dogs that people had brought with them.  I would LOVE to raise a donkey from infancy so it'll want to hang out with me while I do yard/farm work.  How cool would it be to have my own donkey to pull a cart and carry me around?

Look at that baby! Isn't he cuuuuuuuute?

After a potty break, we took the kids to the petting zoo before feeding them their lunches.  As a reward for finishing their sandwiches, they got to go with their dads to get a pop.  Yum!  Then the rodeo demonstration started.  The kids were mildly interested, but mostly they were tired and antsy.

They were COVERED in melted strawberry pop by the end!

We convinced them to sit in the double stroller again and walked through the arboretum, thinking we'd get them to conk out so us adults could enjoy the music on the quad.  No such luck...for Eddie, anyway.  He was over tired and kept popping out of the stroller to get a stick or throw rocks into the waterway or or or...it was always something.  I wasn't interested in ruining everyone's day by being overly strict about him staying put in the stroller so we didn't push him.  Eventually we made it to the battle of the marching bands thing at the lake.  Eddie was so excited!  "I've never seen a dancing tree before, mama!"  I think it was one of the school's mascots or something.  Eddie's excitement quickly evaporated into frustration that he didn't have his very own brass trumpet to join in all the fun.  Ummm, sorry?

Morgan was a good girl and passed out for a nap in her own stroller.  Dave and I eventually decided to walk back home, assuming cranky Eddie would fall asleep on the way.  That didn't happen, but we did have a nice time anyway.  We stopped at Kim's Asian Market for some cold drinks and even got to sit down for the first time all day.  It was so nice and quiet, away from the throngs of people on and around campus.  On the way we got to play in someone's sprinklers, pet a very cute doggie, and wave hello to various friends and neighbors we passed.

Dave's caffeine hadn't kicked in yet...you can see him zoned out.

I had my pedometer in my pocket all day and wasn't surprised to see that we'd far surpassed the recommended minimum of 10,000 steps/day.  Whew.

Over 10,000 steps of that 15,000 were 'aerobic,' whatever that means.   

All things considered it was a nice, calm day.  I hope we can make time to come to next year's Picnic Day, since it'll be the 100th year.

While we cooled off in the house that evening, Dave set to work fixing our vacuum.  The brushes had stopped spinning last week, making it a complete waste of time to try to clean the carpets. It's already a frustrating machine to use because the mechanism that locks it into an upright position snapped several months ago, so if I use it to suck up piles of swept-up nastiness, it easily crashes down onto me.  I let Eddie talk to Dave on the phone the night the vacuum stopped working and instructed him to ask Dadda if we could go buy another machine at Costco.  Eddie reported back, "Dadda will fix it for you Mama!"  Sigh.  I know.  I just really want a lighter, more sucky machine. The new locking mechanism he ordered will be here soon.

I bought this vacuum in 2005 when we moved into the Lafayette condo.  With increasing frequency as we've acquired dogs and children and a larger home, Dave cleans out the filters with the air compressor.  It used to be a few times a year but now it's every few weeks.  And he's probably replaced that band about a dozen times.  Long hair, thread, and stray bits of dental floss get wrapped around that brush column, causing the band to stretch.  Do most people do this type of maintenance on their machines?  If not, I'm sorry, poor vacuum, that you came to live with us--you sure work hard!

Um, no wonder the brushes weren't spinning!  Compare the old and new bands.