A Picnic Dinner

       

The last few weeks, but especially this week, Andrew has been putting really really long hours on campus as he tries to finish the last few chapters on his thesis. He usually comes home for dinner and bedtime so we can spend a little time together as a family, then heads back until 2 in the morning to get another six or so hours of writing in. 

On Monday we decided to meet him on campus for a picnic dinner to reduce time spent in travel and give him some more work time. Emily and I went to the library first to return some books. She has never been so excited to leave he library before and I did zero coaxing. She was the one asking to “eat, daddy” after only a few minutes. 

We then walked ten minutes from the library to Andrew’s building on campus with Emily chatting about eating with daddy the entire way there. When she saw him approaching on his bike to meet us at a good spot, she ran very excitedly to greet him. 

We found a great spot to enjoy our pasta salad, honeydew melon, and tortilla chips. Planes flew low overhead every few minutes to land at the Purdue airport, which provided loads of entertainment. 

The only tricky thing we discovered is that because the wind never stops blowing in Indiana, it is a bit of a challenge to keep the food and napkins where we want them. The other difficult thing about dinner picnics is that they require a lot of work and energy for me. I’m hoping we will get the hang of it and make it a regular part of summer.