It's been a rough year in our industry and things are getting cut left and right. So imagine our delight that the company family picnic made it through the budget cuts! It happened to fall on the day that we had planned to drive out of town for a trip up north, so we had the best plan of taking the kids over there to wear them out and then packing up to hit the road.
I went and got the boys from school and we just happened to have the wagon in the car for the impending trip, so it didn't even matter that we had to park pretty far away. They got to ride in leisure to the event! As soon as we got close, they spotted the bouncy house and wanted nothing more than to run straight to it. I conned them into taking this photo together before I would let them go play. You can see Thomas isn't quite looking at the camera - guess what was right behind me??
I ran through the obstacle course with them a few times, but they are pretty strict on extra items going through and both my camera and Thomas' glasses had to be left in the wagon. So no photos. :(
After a handful of times through, I finally managed to pry them away by pointing at the brightly colored maze across the field. They insisted on a wagon ride over, but once we got there, they were off and running again. It may look like they are giving each other a fist bump in this photo, but Thomas was really trying to ward Henry off from beating him to the first turn. Ha!
They kept running back to the dead end with the thousands of eyeballs. They would yell "The eyes, the eyes!", run around the maze and then crash back into the eyes. I couldn't tell if it was cute or a little creepy...
Matt finally broke away from work to join us, so we finally sat down to eat some food. That and there was a brief downpour of rain, so the play time had to be paused either way. Luckily, I came prepared with raincoats! They must have had a new caterer this year - there was a station with fruit and cheese plates. It may sound fancy, but it's also perfect toddler food!
Of course, this guy went off with his dad to the ice cream station, so his smile is just a little bit bigger. Don't worry - he shared with his brother! :)
Then we headed over to the bounce house. We avoided this one earlier because it had big kids bouncing on it, but we realized the guy running it was doing a great job of ensuring the bounce sessions had similar sized kids. The boys had a blast bouncing around and managed to bite it in several spectacular collisions without a single tear!
But then they were ready to tackle the inflatable obstacle course! And Matt even offered to go with them so I could get photos of them in action. WIn-win!
Except for their socks. They ran to the entrance from the bounce house and the tarp was covered in rain puddles. They seemed utterly confused as to why their socks were wet. Silly little guys!
The three of them got to run through it together since Henry is so little. Thomas was off and running before his brother had a hope of catching up.
If you think this thing looks familiar - you are right! It's the same course they had at the Solstice Festival the other day. It's a small town and pretty much every festival has the same things to play on. Though the Bucking Salmon was missing this year, Aunt Heather would have been so disappointed!
I had to run to the end to make sure I got a photo of Thomas sliding down. He was through the whole thing in no time. His best friend and him had been doing races and he had only been a teensy bit slower. So I think he was making sure he beat his little brother.
Henry didn't need much help, but he was certainly a bit slower. He struggled to push through the pylons and needed a little bit more time on the ladders, but he made it! And I think Matt was worried about him sliding down. He's obviously the more caring parent - I let him just careen down all on his own.
Either way, I think this little guy had a blast! And I didn't catch it on camera, but I am pretty sure I saw Matt smiling too!
We managed to pry them away by pointing out the balloon animal tent. Which was totally our mistake because the line was moving way slower than we thought. Thomas was about 100% done with waiting for his balloon.
Henry was a little more patient, but not super excited about having to sit in this chair while other kids were getting their balloons first. The guys were completely going in order, but that's a bit hard for a two year old to grasp... ;)
Thomas finally got his and was absolutely thrilled! They had so many cool designs they were making and he could not be budged from wanting a light saber. The guy even offered to make him a two sided blue & green one, but he insisted on the standard one bladed green light saber. Hey, at least he went for the good side of the force this time!
Henry was equally bananas (ha!) over his monkey. He went through about 5 choices before he settled on this one. He saw a version of it sitting on the guy's shoulder and once he heard him the guy describe it as "Monkey *with* a Banana" he was sold! And he made sure to repeat over and over again the monkey needed his banana!
Overall, it was a great time. We stayed much later than we intended to, but the boys were having so much fun that it was worth it. We'll just have to get up early tomorrow to have enough time to get to our cabin at a reasonable hour. Who needs sleep?!?! ;)