Sunday, June 7

This picnic includes my siblings, their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Everyone brings food chosen from an online meal website the Hershey’s use. Notice there is an ice cream machine on the left. The little guy in the red shirt just filled his cone. One of our nieces and her husband own this machine.

The picnic in held in a large building on Kevin and Amy’s (niece) farm. This building used to be a plane hangar when Kevin’s dad owned a small plane.

Some of the teens and tweens found shade under the trees in the yard.

A few children found shade under a canopy.

Each of my four siblings were there, but there were several family members missing in the next few generations.

I love this view of our great granddaughter Lainey eating an ice cream cone.

Her big sister Emmy wanted me to take a picture of her too. 🙂

Some of the children enjoyed fishing in the pond next to the barn where the adults were visiting.

If you look beyond the trees surrounding the pond, you will see our little woodlot. If we had walked through the soybean field below our house, we would have had about half a mile walk. We provided the drinks, so had a coffee pot and three large ice chests, meaning walking was not an option. I expect we had about a mile by road.

It was a delightful day of visiting and learning more about the lives of siblings and nieces and nephews.

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I told the family a story – following prayer for the meal (when everyone was quiet).

I grew up on the Hershey Homestead, which adjoins this farm to the west and remember a story my dad told me about his dad (my Grandpa Hershey). When my grandpa noticed that Walter, the man who lived on the farm where we were enjoying the picnic, stopped coming to church, he went to visit him and asked if something was wrong that he stopped coming to church.

Walter said, “Yes, you are the problem!”

Grandpa was surprised and asked what was wrong. Walter said, “You placed your fence on my property. Grandpa said, “Ok, let’s go look at it.” Grandpa asked Walter to choose where the fence line should be placed. Walter began coming to church again. 🙂

I used that story to remind my family of their godly heritage. Following lunch, I heard a few more family stories which make me believe my nieces and nephews are carrying on the same godly heritage.