CHL Annual Picnic

Today was Andrew's employer - Clayton H. Landis Company's - annual summer picnic at the family-owned Hemlock Springs Farm in central PA, about 1.5 hours from our house. We have gone to the picnic most years since he has worked here and always have a good time. The owners of the family-run business have a huge farm on a big lake with lots of room to run around, play games and go swimming. This was actually the first year that we were able to go in the water since the kids have never wanted to before this year. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my suit since I had a feeling Abby wouldn't be too comfortable in a lake so I just spent the time on the blanket with my girl, snapping photos of the three guys.

There are canoes, a paddle boat, a giant trampoline, rafts and tubes, a diving board and a giant water slide so we had our pick of what to use. Here, the guys are headed to a canoe. The boys have never been in one before and were very excited to try it out! Who wouldn't be excited to sit back, take in the view and let Dad do all of the rowing :)

Miss Abby was her usual content self on the blanket all afternoon. She didn't have an afternoon nap and instead of being grumpy because of it, was perfectly happy to explore the diaper bag contents. What a sweet, calm baby she is!

Dad goes for a dive off the dock...

...and heads over to the giant trampoline, where the boys were waiting for him.

Next up: the water slide. This thing is intense. It is super long, goes down this big hill and goes incredibly fast. Nate stepped up to the plate and wanted to give it a first try. Not his favorite activity of the day since his head went under and he got a little water in his mouth, but he didn't fuss much and kept telling everyone he talked to(and there were many!) that he was a big boy and went "super fast" down the slide :)

Next in line was Ben. I secretly think he was peer-pressured into going on the slide since his little brother went before him. He is usually very timid about these sort of things. Again, not his favorite activity all day since he also went under water. He did, however, ask me if I was proud of him for trying it, to which, of course, I told him yes :) So, he must have been glad that he had enough nerve to give the slide a try. Way to go, Ben!

After the slide experience, Ben decided to take a little break and play with Abby.

...and Dad decided to do a few solo runs down the slide to see just how fast he could go!