The Picnic

The 4th of July festivities don't end with the last of the fireworks. A long-running tradition for us is the annual (well, more or less annual) picnic Sandi & Garald's, two of our friends who live in Estherville. The picnic is held on the Saturday after the 4th and is a combination Independence Day celebration and birthday party for Sandi. Every year there are plenty of regulars plus a whole lot of first timers; this year there were 18 firt time attendees!

Sandi is obsessed with all things Red, White & Blue and the decorations are always impressive and there is always an insane amount of food!







Scrapbooks are passed around to each table and savvy picnic-goers know to study them as there are always games after the meal; usually one trivia of past picnics and a brain teaser of some sort (this year it was selected questions from the new citizenship test - I got 18/20, though I still think one ofthe "answers" they had is wrong!) My Grandma was doing the study for our table

Garald gave thanks before we tucked in. It was a special tribute this summer as they had lost a dear friend and because last year's picnic was cancelled due to the liver transplant that Sandi had on July 11th. This year was a celebration of her renewed health and a time for us all to consider those that are most dear to us.