Beautiful Day for a Picnic

What a beautiful day for a picnic!
What a picnic-ful day for a lark!
We'll frolic all day,
in the merriest way,
and we won't get home
before dark!

After several weeks of trying to walk across a field of Jell-O with rubber legs, one of the most welcome experiences for the weary sojourner is a bakfiets ("bucket-bike") loaded with kids and a picnic basket, weaving through the streets of Amsterdam to the park, on a sunny day.

Working through eight days of a conference in Hungary (a couple of hours' flight southeast of the Netherlands), three days of a summit in Ireland (a couple of hours' flight northwest of the Netherlands)... Fighting through a host of cold and flu viruses... Living almost an entire month without a consistent family routine...

It's simply beautiful to be back home as a family... a beautiful day for a picnic.