Our original Family Fun Nights are normally scheduled as a "Saturday Night" affair. Yesterday I had originally had a BBQ planned at "backyard lake" (no, don't actually have a lake, but it's a joke around our area..."Hey.. goin' anywhere good this summer?" "Yeah...Backyard Lake!" )!
However, after talking to my sister and my parents, the weather was supposed to be beautiful the next day (Sunday) we se decided to all go up to the State Park for a cookout, bike riding and play at the playground. The weather forcast called for sun and 55°. So, we packed up all of our picnic gear and headed out. First bump in the road: charcoal. Absolutely nowhere to be found! One lady in one store said, "Charcoal...we're still selling rock salt for your driveway!!" Tractor Supply...the stuff we need out here... I guess they thought it's not really needed in March, because they didn't get their shipment in yet! (Can't blame them, though!) We finally found some (not redi-start though) at a small local deli...although no lighter fluid. How were we going to get the briquetts started??!!
Second bump: as we're driving the wind is picking up, and the temp gague on the truck was quickly going backwards...52...50...48...46°. Well, the sun was shining, and that's all that mattered! We made it to the park and lugged our things to the picnic site, unloaded and turned to the grill. We started to gather sticks and any paper we could find, and after all the snow we had this winter, dry wood was hard to come by. Finally after two boxes of matches and 25mins...hooray! Our fire was starting to go. We quickly put some foil down and got the burgers and hot dogs started. They were sizzling!! However, we were like icicles. Maybe we should've checked out this site for winter picnic ideas...like hand warmers!! The temp. had dropped to 42°, and the wind was booking!! So, we quickly ate our BBQ, guzzled our drinks (fighting over the hot chocolate my sister had brought), then ran for the trucks!! Boy it was cold! What was supposed to be a mild day evolved into wind gusts of 25-40mph, and 21°!! So much for the Weather Channel! We had a great time anyway, finishing up our "picnic" with dessert and hot coffee at my parents house. We got some great pictures, had some great laughs about how cold we were and how we must've looked to the many people driving through the park (we thought they were probably saying, "Hey look at that family...what do they think it's the middle of July having a picnic outside in this??!!") We didn't care...we were making memories. That's what Family Fun Night is all about!!
Photo from: Ready for the House
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