Church Picnic

Saturday, July 9, 2005

It was a day for a church picnic, although once again, Carrie would be at work and Rose at another picnic with her 5-Day Club pals. But OLeif was to play music with Judah and Curly, so Collette had to come. Mom and the kids looked forward to it, although Dad was not exactly thrilled at the thought of driving all the way out to Augusta on a hot day after working four hours at the church property. And Joe would come with Ben-Hur, as he had spent the night the evening before.

But all in all, the afternoon turned out to be quite pleasant and even Dad ended up enjoying his time, still decked out in his jeans and NYFD t-shirt which Carrie brought back for him from New York three years earlier. Both he and OLeif were covered in dirt and dust as they had been inside a great silo cutting apart a piece of machinery hanging from the ceiling with a cutting torch. Both still felt like they had steel inside their mouths from the dust.

But aside from that factor, the countryside was looking quite lovely – the green hills and yellow fields, the vineyards and the winds and white sandstone bluffs…

Back at the house, Carrie was battling it out with her college assignments, but then laid the matter aside to think of new ideas for Elizabeth – to find her and Paige, and even herself some new good friends from Liberty and elsewhere.

“I think we should start hanging out at coffee shops around SLU,” she said slyly.

Meanwhile, Rose was all decked out in Elvis regalia, courtesy of Carrie-Bri, for the CEF picnic. She was looking cute. And once both girls had left, there were several games and book-readings for Collette, Francis, and Linnea. Then Linnea, Mom, and Collette talked over things on the back swing for awhile before Dad and OLeif joined them to discuss dinner plans. And Joe was dropped off by the Coca-Cola boys after an afternoon of swimming at Ben-Hur’s.

Inevitably, there was pizza for the crew and a new sort of movie which OLeif had found, involving gold coins, ice creams, forbidden greenhouses, and sand fairies… a good film entitled “Five Children and It”.