I Suck At The St. Ann Parish Picnic

On Sunday, Karen, my two year old daughter (Briana), my three month old daughter (Bridget) and I spent the afternoon in the city of (red) lights, known also as Quincy. I guess Quincy can also be referred to as the red light district. Just kidding. Despite growing up in Quincy, I'm not exactly a big fan of the city due to the fact that every intersection in Quincy has a red light. It makes traveling through the city very time consuming, which drives me absolutely nuts.

Nevertheless, we were in Quincy on Sunday because we attended the annual St. Ann Parish picnic. Too bad I suck at the St. Ann Parish picnic. Now, I'm not religious. Even if I were, St. Ann Parish would be too far for me to call it my parish. The only affiliation that I have to St. Ann, other than getting married in that church via Karen, is through Karen's mother who regularly attends the services. My mother-in-law invited us, along with my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine) family, to the picnic. It probably should not come as a shocker that Janine and her family did not attend.

Regardless, my mother-in-law was beaming on Sunday . She was just ecstatic to be able to show off her grandchildren to her friends. It was actually pretty funny to watch her talk about my kids to her friends. For that reason alone, I'm glad we went to the picnic. I'm sure it made her day.

The picnic was held at Pageant Field in Quincy. I was actually surprised with the organization of the picnic. In addition to the grilling of burgers and hot dogs, there were horse and pony rides, face painting, and the ever popular jumpy house. I actually spent most of the picnic by the jumpy house thanks in part to Briana.

Briana has seen them before, but she had never entered one to actually jump around in... until Sunday. It was interesting to watch her in there. Initially, she just stood in the jumpy house because she was unsure about what to do. Several minutes later, she would hop a bit in place. Several minutes after that, she would hop in a straight line. And from there, she went jump-crazy and bounced everywhere. Needless to say, she loved jumping around. She definitely did not want to leave. That's for sure. It took some bribing to get her out (like the pony and the face painting... to which she only touched the pony and got a soccer ball painted on her hand).

Interestingly enough, I had recognized two people that I graduated high school with. Well, Karen recognized them. I did the math and put two and two together. Apparently, they (Dave and Jen) did not know who I was which makes it definitely a possibility that I can go to the scheduled 20 year reunion this November as somebody else.

Speaking of which, they had attended the previous high school reunions and were not that impressed. As a result, they were on the fence about attending the 20 year reunion this year. From what I have heard about the past reunions, I wouldn't be impressed either. It seems like none of the elected officers from my high school class watch television. Reunions, at least in the television world that I know, are usually held at big function areas. Only the graduating class is supposed to attend. There's a check-in area where you get a name tag, etc. Apparently, that hasn't been the case so far with my high school class reunions (which actually may explain why I had no clue who some of the people were on the Facebook group). Oh well, we'll see if I am still on the fence come November.

Anyway, I thought the picnic was surprisingly a good time. Sadly, I may have to attend it every year now thanks in part to the jumpy house. But I guess that's all right. I know it made my mother-in-law happy.