Picnic Day, 2008

Picnic Day is one of our favorite days of the year here in Davis. It is a campus open house for the university and it is a HUGE event with tons of people everywhere. Most of the departments and clubs have booths and displays and activities, there are all sorts of dog competitions and horse shows and parades and band competitions and food and it is lots of fun. We did well this year - we didn't have any nappers and we got there early and stayed much longer than we have before (and it didn't rain) and had a great day. Here are a few highlights...

One of our favorite activities is where they have big tanks with all sorts of ocean critters (star fish, etc) to pick up and touch. We always spend a lot of time in there. We also really enjoy the entomology exhibits where they can hold all sorts of neat bugs and such.

We also rushed over to watch the life flight helicopter land (that was awesome...we were SO close!!!) )we thought about you grandpa!!!) Afterwards the girls got to sit in it. E was REALLY nervous (and didn't do it last year) but decided to be brave and sit in it - and was SO proud of herself afterwards! (We also visited the fire station and police station and got badges and fire hats and popcorn and lots of free stuff!)

Our first Picnic Day picnic!! We used to live so close to campus and usually had to worry about someone's nap time so we always ate lunch at home but this year we packed a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine!
Another place we HAVE to visit is where the small animals are. This was a new one exhibit - it was a baby kitten rescue program where vet students bottle feed abandoned newborn kitties until they can go to a shelter. The kitties were SO tiny - it was adorable!! We also loved getting to pet the larger cats waiting for adoption as well as the snake and lizard rooms.Face painting is always exciting - especially when it involves butterflies and glitter!

Dr. Chicken meet Mr Chicken!!!!

We also like to visit the building with the chickens - you can usually see one cracking out of it's shell or see a freshly laid egg by a hen. This year we got to meet Mr Chicken...this was especially exciting because when Daddy plays computer games his screen name is "Dr. Chicken" (since he works with chicken embryos in his lab) so I made him take a picture (he grabbed the kids to join him!) (notice little A is eating her foot!)

Of course we love the seeing the large animals! There is a petting zoo of farm animals and cows to milk and such. Inside the barn they had lambs and lab rats - the girls had so much fun holding those! The people there were really impressed with how well the girls did with the animals - even Mg knew how to handle them (thanks to having a hamster!)

But by the end it was time to go home! They had walked so much that day and seen so many things (and been up late most of that week due to back to school night, talent shows, etc) and so they crashed on the way home!!! This does NOT look comfortable!!

Well, they didn't ALL fall asleep - this one was quite wound up and reminded us that SHE wasn't tired and told us her favorite things and was as happy as could be! What a great picnic day!!!