A Relaxing Day

This past week my family had our annual picnic at Potawatomi Park in St. Charles. It is my father's dental organization group. Over the years it has changed locations and there is not as many families as when I was younger, but it is still a great fun time for the family. I have such fond memories from my childhood.

They still play games with the kids and everyone gets a prize. After playing water balloons, wrapping up her partner as a mummy with toilet paper etc my niece picked a backpack filled with tea cups, plates, food etc to play with....future Martha Stewart! Ha! The adults had their egg toss game! Ick! This was always a blast to watch when I was a kid...especially when your parents were partners! Sometimes they liked switching spouses though & that was fun too!

At this location it is right on the river and as you can see from the pictures, quite lovely & relaxing! We have a great time feeding the geese & assorted ducks. In fact, as we left my niece ran back in the house. Pappa questioned her when she came back out & she excitedly showed him her baggy filled with bread for the ducks. She had a list of everything we were to bring in her little notebook! Ha!

My sis and my niece enjoyed the pool since I was not able to this year with my foot being uncooperative! See I'm being good! Unfortunately, it is not listening & swelling still. I sat in the rocker with my foot up on the edge of the picnic table for most of the time. I did manage to get a few pictures in my 20 min an hour of walking. My brother took her to the assorted swings.

I really love going on the steamboat ride up & down the river, it is so relaxing but this year they did not do it. I was VERY disappointed. I look forward to it all year. I will just have to go back myself another time I guess. We did get in our yearly round of minature golf much earlier though without the boat trip. Usually, by the time we get to it, we are playing in the dark & leaving after 11pm. My niece played much better this year & actually managed a Hole-In-1! She was sooo excited. Her Uncle seemed to think he was training her for the Masters HA! He is a excellent golfer, so it was his opportunity to share a skill he has with her, so it makes sense. He got 2 Hole-In-1s. When my brother was in high school he would go with my dad to the dental golf touraments & come home with the trophy, beating all the dentists. When my niece was little, she'd hit the ball & then go pick it up & put it in the hole! HA!  

I love the weeping willow trees there! They are HUGE! I love looking underneath them with the sun beaming through them! They have such an incredible spirit. The little girls there were pulling the branches...I was not too happy...don't hurt my tree...but they also looked so cute when they made little crowns from them.

The evening includes a raffle & last year our family did not do very well. Well, this year the first ticket picked was mine! :-) A small DVD player! Cool! My brother picked out a basket filled with snowmen plates & cups etc for my mom. My niece was excited to get a bunch of cookies and cupcakes!

This year was especially memorable since my dad's official last day working was the day after the picnic. He was supposed to have retired shorterly after last year's picnic. I even surprised him then with a big cake with a picture of the dental organization's symbol. Things didn't turn out as he liked then, as the person's loan didn't go through to buy his building. Everyone was congratulating him this year and talking to him about their plans. When my dad teased another dentist who promised his strip of tickets would be a guaranteed winner and he was still waiting, he gave my dad a box of plastic forks for his retirement! Ha! We have such a fun time and that is what it is all about...family,  laughter and sometimes a bit of devilsih fun! ;-) Hopefully we will still be attending after my father's retirement as they do plan to return for summers.