Labor Day cookout

This past Monday, we decided to have a cookout at one of the beaches here in the neighborhood that we live in. For those of you who don't know, we live in a neighborhood that it made up of houses surrounding a man-made lake. (We don't live on the lake, although there are houses that are waterfront.) We have free access to five beaches, all with swimming & picnic areas.

We have only cooked out like this once before and had a great time, so we thought we would try it again. Our friend Barb came with her puppy, Jelly Bean, who is only a few weeks older than Jacob. Katie, Shaun & Pierce also joined us.

Surprisingly, the beach was almost completely empty, except for one family who was swimming and another who were fishing. I am guessing the overcast skies and possible rain that was forecast kept a lot of people away. We were happy to have the entire beach to ourselves!

At first we thought the cookout was going to be a bust because the Matchlight charcoal (you know, the kind that is supposed to start up without using any lighter fluid) wouldn't light. We didn't buy any lighter fluid because we didn't think we would need it. So, I had to run to the nearest store - a CVS - and buy some lighter fuel (not fluid because they didn't have any of that). After about 30 minutes of lighting matches and using the fuel, Shaun & Barb got the fire going! It was quite an ordeal, but in the end it all worked out.

While Barb tended to the hamburgers and hot dogs...

Shaun & Keith played frisbee and Pierce ran around & played in the sand

Katie & I took turns holding Jacob

And, Jelly Bean took a little swim in the Lake & then played in the sand a bit.

Dinner was really yummy! We had hamburgers & hot dogs, chips, Katie's awesome potato salad, and watermelon.

We even showed our support of the Virginia Cavaliers with the plates we used

[Side note: they were left over from a party we had at our house

last year & they were the only paper plates I had.]

For dessert, Barb brought the fixins to make s'mores....graham crackers, chocolate and, of course, marshmallows! We brought some skewers and roasted the marshmallows over the fire after dinner. Even though we had such a hard time getting the charcoal to light at first, it was just the right temperature to make some awesome toasted marshmallows.

Pierce had never roasted marshmallows, but he soon learned quickly...

We had a good system going. Shaun, Barb & Keith would roast the marshmallows and Katie & I would put the S'mores together. They were really yummy!!

At the end of the evening, both "babies" were worn out

We only ended up being there for about 2 1/2 hours, but I think everyone had a great time. We haven't taken advantage of the beaches around here very much, but hopefully in the next few months, before the weather gets too cold, we can do something like this again.