The hayride

On Sunday, we drove to my grandma's house to celebrate her birthday with the annual family picnic and hayride. (I don't think there is actually any hay involved anymore, though I know one of my readers who is related to me will correct me if I'm wrong.) My aunts and uncles and cousins all meet up, each family grills and shares side dishes and desserts, and my uncle drives us around the farm and fields and woods, pulling the passengers with his tractor.

Here comes the part where it looks like only my immediate family was on the hayride. While the following photograph shows the hayride set-up, it doesn't really help my case:

I promise that there were many aunts and uncles and cousins along. There's just not a smooth way to ask mid-hayride if I could take a photograph with the context that it may or may not end up on one's personal internet blog.

We stacked garden benches up on the platform. My mom and Josh and I shared a bench.

And right away, it was the kind of day that makes you feel really grateful to be outside.

We stopped at a pond that was reflecting the clouds very splendidly.

We also stopped at a place that my mom calls Fern Gully. It's a wooded area with chairs arranged at various vantage points, including this one, in the ferns:

The ferns were beautiful up close. There were so many of them. I was captivated.

And soon enough, the ferns were behind us, we were back at Grandma's house, and it was time for birthday cake and more snacks.

Just one more snapshot, okay?

Y'all know how I love a big, big sky.