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We had such a great time camping with our friends and my mom last night! After playing on the beach, Sam enjoyed a nice long nap in his little tent and then celebrated with volcano cake (chocolate cake mom made from a family recipe – yum!) decorated with a mountain of chocolate frosting and red icing coming out like lava 🙂 We put sparkler candles on for extra fire! Sam loved it, and got some help blowing out the candles :0 Our friends Leo and Brendan came with their two girls and his parents (thanks for coming, Bridget, Greta, Jim and Mary!!!), and Nate, Laurie and Catie (our intrepid adventure buddies) camped out with us that night. Dave made a fantastic pasta dinner with grilled sausage and red peppers, bread, olive oil with garlic, wine…yum! Thank you Dave for treating us so well! (He had a good time testing out some new camping gear.) Laurie did a great job making s’mores by our fire (we were supplied with pallets by neighbor Marines) until the Game Warden came by and said no fires. We went to bed around 10:30pm (Sam had somehow managed to get to sleep about an hour earlier despite the 30 Marines next door enjoying their bonfire and Metallica). The adults, however, were just beginning their eventful night. The Marines stayed up late, despite two warnings by Alli to keep a lid on things. (They appreciated I was so polite and understanding of their need to have a good time. However, I reminded them that they’d had two strikes, watch out if they make this “old lady” come out for #3!). Around 3:30am some prowlers came through our site and rifled through a tent. Dave saw them and chased them off with a lantern. (Gramma and Alli were really wondering what was going on as Dave circled the tent with lights ablaze!) Poor Dave didn’t anticipate having a “duty” night last night but was a trooper about it all and I think will enjoy retelling this story at many future KampKrug outings, although it may take several years for it to be funny! 🙂 (Editorial comment: Dave rightfully does not think it’s as funny as I do because he was concerned for our safety, not knowing if it was just a drunk Marine or some other indigent with mental impairment. He is not especially fond of the part about me coming flying out of the tent to chase off the drunk Marines with the same tactics I use for dogs who charge Sam and me while out running, i.e. volume and surprise! (Strike 3!)

Last night as mom joined us around the dinner table, we laughed recounting camping stories old and new, including how my mom’s dad (Bill) slept with an axe one night because a guy had escaped from a juvenile detention center nearby and mom’s mom was sitting up all night like a sentry. She spotted a bright light and thought it was the guy – she rousted Bill and he went out with the axe only to find it was the moon glinting off the car door handle!) I demo-ed my kung-foo kicks and tricky hand moves – Doug, you know what I’m talking about here from our younger days! Sam laughed and laughed at mommy! He got down from the table and did his own kung-foo moves, including sound effects, down the hall as we split a gut laughing at him! Sam really had a great time and we capped it all off with a paddle around the bay. I uploaded all the pictures from Jan, including some video, so check out the Album for updates.