Gina writes:

Do you ever have a moment when you're super-relaxed, feel totally calm, and have successfully kept all of life's worries at bay? Corey and I had a whole 3 hours of that today on our picnic. The walk there, the scenery, the weather, the food, the conversation...perfect!

There's an area just under 2 miles from our house that I've gone to while running a few times. It's an isolated area with lush vegetation, rolling hills, and rivers and ponds. The feeling of running alone through such beauty was something I wanted to share with Corey, so we decided to plan a picnic for today, which is the second day of a three-day holiday.







We packed a small American-style picnic lunch, which was fun to plan and prepare. Corey made his famous cornflake-breaded chicken and we made a mayo-based pasta salad. I made apple pie, but it had been in our wimpy little oven for 3 hours by the time we left and was just about finished, so I shut the oven off and looked forward to coming back to warm pie!





We were a little nervous to hear some loud chewing/crunching not more than 20 feet from us, but were relieved to find out that it was just a herd of about 10 water buffalo grazing! Seriously, these guys were hanging out just 15 feet from us!



Of the 8 bottles of wine that we've had over the past two years (I know, we should slow down, right?), we saved my favorite for last, Corey's parents' homemade wine. It's (I think) the last of the 30 or so bottles that they made about 3 years ago, a fantastic white wine, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, called Symphony. The picnic spot was the perfect place to enjoy it.


Don't worry, mom-in-law and dad-in-law, we mostly drank out of cups!



After our meal, we read and relaxed for an hour or so. Corey fell asleep shielding his face from the sun (and didn't know that I took this picture)!


We walked home and, just as predicted, the apple pie had finished baking in the shut-off oven and was still warm. Add a little homemade caramel sauce and it was a delicious finish to a fantastic afternoon.