Google Summer Picnic

On Friday we headed to the Annual Google Summer Picnic. It was the most amazing work party we have ever been to... other than maybe last year's Google Holiday Party: Space Time 2007.


The picnic took place on the grounds of the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Highlights included: Google's Got Talent (Talent show), Google train rides, Carnival game booths, Rock Band & Guitar Hero, Human Foosball, Fire Truck Slide, Bounce house, Bubble man, Puppet show, Build a Buddy (like Build a Bear, except you build a Google Bear), Petting Zoo, Trampoline, Paddle Boats, Climbing Wall, American Gladiator Jousting, etc...

We spent most of our time walking around checking everything out, sampling the food at the various buffets and booths, and hanging out in the Family Fun land. Unfortunately the picnic landed during Andrew's prime afternoon naptime, so the kid was a sport and took his nap from 12-2pm in his stroller with all the craziness going on. We were so excited to show him everything that we kept hoping he would wake up! Kev worked on trying to win him some stuffed animals while he napped.


While Andrew napped, I waited in line for 20 minutes in the hot sun at the "Build a Buddy" booth (made me realize that I have many years ahead filled with waiting in long lines for crazy reasons!) He was very excited to meet his new buddy once he woke up.


Once he woke up, he loved chewing on his Under 21 bracelet while we watched the final acts at Google's Got Talent. All of the clapping got him so revved up that he began shrieking for joy!


He kept trying to compete with all the enthusiastic Googlers at the Talent Show and shrieked so much that he was cracking himself up, and Kevin & I.

Crazy kid!

Talent Show finale

Shrieking boy!

Cracking himself up!

After the talent show, we headed back to the Family Fun land to show Andrew everything he'd missed during his nap.


Kev & Andrew tried to win a penguin stuffed animal... instead they ended up with a wooden train whistle because Andrew had a tough time throwing the rings onto the bottles... even with a little help from his dad! :)


Next, Andrew went for a short ride on Kevin's shoulders... until he decided to spit up his lunch all over Kevin's hair and his own shirt.

We got a few fun family photos taken

Then we introduced Andrew to the animals at the petting zoo (although we avoided doing the "petting" part). The horse tried to eat my hair... so we moved a little bit further away for our picture. Andrew was less interested in the animals and more interested in the animal-like sounds we would make and the Google train that was passing by right as this picture was taken.


The highlight of the day was watching Andrew enjoy himself. He had never seen so many colors or people before and just shrieked and shrieked with delight! Here are a few pictures of some of the things he saw:

Trampoline! Unfortunately Kevin was "too tall" to go on this one

Human Foosball

Paddle Boats- wish grown-ups could've gone on these!

Google Train- we watched it go around and around and he just screamed for joy! So many fun colors and sounds!

Bubble Man

At the end of the day, we grabbed our cool Google kite that everyone got as a party favor, and trekked back to Kevin's office. We were exhausted from all the fun! Andrew fell asleep the second we put him back in his stroller.


Although we were already tired... the next part of our whirlwind weekend was still ahead... a late night flight to Seattle for two days of fun and wedding excitement for our buddy Bruce!! (more on that in a future post)