Star Trek Picnic

What a great day it turned out to be!! The weather, while hot and humid, wasn't as bad as previous days. Besides, there was a nice cool breeze at the camp ground!! The half hour downpour later in the evening, after we'd all eaten, was welcomed, too!!

So, Mr. Mouth wasn't so bad. Loud, talked constantly for the hour drive from his place to the picnic, but he was civil. No rude or bigoted comments. And, he even thanked me and said he appreciated my going out of my way as soon as he was in the car. He even helped unpack the car, including moving the heavy cooler!! It'll make it harder to say no to him in the future, but the added two plus hours on the road isn't worth it!

Because we had so many visitors from other chapters we decided to keep our monthly meeting short and get right on to the fun! We set a new record, fourteen minutes for the meeting!! Of course, we did table old business, most new business, and department reports until next month's meeting, and didn't allow the conversation to wander off topic (as it usually does).

So, I know Helen Jo is dying to see the cake ... here it is! The bakery did a fantastic job, didn't they?

Complete with a miniature USS Enterprise! Gotta love it!

That cake topper was just too cool to keep for myself, so on the bottom of one of the cake plates I wrote "You Win!" ... and whoever got that plate would, obviously, win the cake topper. Since I knew the first plate wasn't the winner, I did take the first piece that was sliced! That way, no way would or could I have won. I was helping the gal who offered to cut the cake by handing her plates along with a fork for the next person in the cake line. LOL ... dummy me, I accidentally dropped one plate (onto the table thankfully) and son of a gun if it wasn't the "winning" plate! Next in line happened to have been Single Son. Grrrrrr. No way I was going to let him win, so I handed that plate to the guy behind him. Drats, now I knew who the winner was (took some of the fun out of it for me, LOL). He's one of the founding members, and a long time friend of the family. And since his four year old son was also there, it worked out well. Daddy gave Little Guy the prize.

Yes, that's a military haircut Daddy is sporting. He's a twelve year soldier, home on leave.
We're so proud of him!

Next we have the youngest Cadet. She's not yet 9 months old, and already a seasoned pro at Star Trek functions!! Check out her onesie!!

Notice she's NOT a "red shirt", thankfully!
However, notice her Daddy is! Oh NO!!

Next we have our fearless leader, the Commander of StarFleet (a.k.a. The Canadian) waving his light saber. No one dared to tell him that it was really a fire poker.

Love those shorts!!

When he wasn't waving his light saber around, you could find him protecting the Federation with his Phaser. Again, no one had the heart to tell him that it was really a super-soaker water gun!!

Here he's chasing Little Guy's Mommy!

And never, ever laugh when someone makes a snide comment about your Leader ...

You may find relief from the heat with the resulting shower, but your camera won't like it!

And as with any Star Fleet function, there was a lot of food to be had. I was stuffed on burnt to perfection hot dogs, jello salad, three different types of macaroni (or pasta) salads, and more kinds of chips than I could count!

Oh, and I only brought home two cases of pop (remember Son bought fourteen cases). Between what we all drank, and my open call for "take some of this pop home with you", that's all that was left!!

At about 9 pm I decided it was time to call it a day. I still had two hours on the road before I would pull into my own driveway. If I'd gone straight from my house to the campsite it would have only been a forty minute ride, but nooooooo ... that's not how it worked thanks to Mr. Mouth! Oh, and Single Son for volunteering dear ol' mom for the job!

Again, the ride home wasn't that bad. Mr Mouth was loud and talkative, but at least he didn't touch those taboo topics.

I pulled in my driveway at 11 pm, after my day starting at 5 am ... tired, and hot but in a good mood. Okay, a headache from the sun and being in a small enclosed space for the last hour with the loudest person I've ever known ... but it really was a good day!

After a good night's sleep, I spent a good part of this evening looking at the costs of tents and camping supplies. Each year more and more of our members choose to camp at the park for the entire weekend. I'm feeling left out! So is Single Son as he's the one that brought up purchasing equipment instead of renting a cabin in the future.