Camping at Solomon's

Last weekend we had three good days of light, steady rain. What a wonderful break from our severe drought. But the weatherman told us to enjoy the rain because he could not foresee any chance of rain again for 2-3 weeks. Oh my!

Since I had been wanting to organize an overnight campfire, I decided the time was now or never! So I put out the invitation to our church and several families signed up. At the last day, however, our weather turned cold and very windy, thanks to a hurricane out on the coast (Noel). Nonetheless, all of us admitted later that we weren't gonna be the ones to chicken out!

The wind wasn't bad until later on when we were crawling into our tents, but the cold bothered the wimpy adults. (We had to keep reminding our children to put on their jackets!) We had the best campsite on the whole base. The nature trails were a few feet from our spot, and the playground was within eyesight. And there were wonderful biking trails all over. The children never stopped running around and riding bikes all night. They also had fun playing flashlight tag.

The menu was very basic ~ roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and plenty of hot water for tea. (...and well, hot water for Dick who drinks a cup of hot water every evening!). Below is a picture of John Patrick. My children have always felt sorry for JP because he is an only child (how does he play capture the flag?!). Tonight they found another good reason to pity him...tonight was his first ever hot dog roast...and JP is a freshman in college!
Charmaine made this delicious BBQ dish. Doesn't it look wonderful? It's ground beef and beans with BBQ sauce, covered with refrigerator rolls. I can't wait to make a dairy-free version.

John Patrick was really good about keeping all the children entertained, but he eventually brought in Sarah and Zachary to help. I don't know what Sarah is saying to Maggie in this picture, one can only imagine the drama:-)
The next morning it was very windy and cold, so we headed over to Doris and Dick's camper (76 degrees inside!) to visit. We just happened to have styrofoam cups with envelopes of grits and oatmeal, so Doris was great about pouring hot water for us:-) We had a lot of fun visiting with them.
We had so much fun that we've decided we must do it again. We'd like to do it on the church property or at our home. Thanks to everyone who came. Sure have a lot of memories added to our memory banks.

Maggie and I are getting ready to start a big cooking day for fellowship dinner at church tomorrow. She will be making a huge pumpkin cake (pictures to come) and I will make lumpia. The theme of the dinner is international since we will be having missionaries.

Have a great weekend ~ Kathie