Camping Weekend

I can't remember a colder weekend in May than this one we just enjoyed in the great outdoors.  It got down to pretty dang cold at night.  The first thing we did every morning was start the fire, and we kept it going most of the day.

Of course, a campfire is for more than just warming icy hands and shivering bodies.  It's also the way we cook in the wild.  And I have to say this camping trip had some of the most amazing food I have ever enjoyed.

We ate fat, juicy steaks, shrimp kabobs, roasted cauliflower and broccoli, jalapeno mango sausage, perfectly soft sweet potatoes cooked in the dutch oven, corn on the cob, dutch oven cherry cobbler, biscuits with sausage gravy, roasted squash zucchini and red pepper, and salmon burgers...just to name a few things.

I was especially delighted with two new things that I tried this weekend.  I cooked sweet potatoes and corn on the cob in the dutch oven.  The potatoes I rubbed with olive oil and wrapped in foil.  They cooked about an hour in the coals.  We put butter and brown sugar on those things and practically inhaled them.  Later, I put corn on the cob still in their husks in the dutch oven and did nothing else.  I didn't soak them, I didn't add water, I did nothing.  25 minutes later they were cooked just right.  We ate them up like crazy.  The kids especially couldn't get enough of it.

There was a little beach a short distance from our campsite.  The kids often walked there to collect shells and play.  They also did a lot of bike riding and badminton which we had conveniently set up in the poison oak.  It must not be the time of year for that plant to affect people because no one broke out.

Major disasters?  Sure we had a few.  The people 2 sites up from us ran over their water spigot sending a flood of water down the hill into our campsite at 10 PM the first night.  It completely flooded the area where our friends' tent was set up.  We had to do a covert mission involving taking sleeping kids out of the tent, removing all mattresses and sleeping bags, then carrying the tent to a new location before loading everything back inside.  The next day Nate and Lucas got totally lost while making a simple loop on their bikes.  They ended up several loops away in uncharted territory.  It's scary to think of what can happen in those situations.  Cody went looking for them on his bike.  When he found them, they were with people we know from church long ago who were randomly also camping at the same State Park.  Coincidence?  I think not.  God was providing help for our boys.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend away enjoying the beauty of nature with our family and our dear friends.  I love weekends like this.  Even though it makes for a ton of laundry and a few hectic days of playing catch-up when we return, it's a blessing to spend time in the outdoors with people I love!