Grillin' Time Again!

Since about mid-January, I have been pining for grilling time.  That fantastic time of year when we grill some portions of cows or pigs, (or beaks and hooves, in the case of hot dogs!) and enjoy the outdoors area of our little slice of heaven.

My senses have already been trained.  Pavlov's Dogs kind of trained.  There is a particular wine at Henke Winery, the Vin de Rouge, which tastes exactly like grilling out and relaxing in the summertime evening on the deck.  Even when I smell it, I get a whiff of sitting in my padded lawn chair, firepit crackling, watching the bats dart about in the evening, and enjoying time with Phillip.  It's my Summertime-Weekend Wine.  I have been waiting since October to taste it again!

This winter has been fantastic in my opinion.  We had one, maybe two tiny micro-snows that looked pretty and melted right after they fell.  That's the kind I like...I love to watch the snow fall and see the beauty of it for a few hours.  Then I'm done with it.  The sun has been shining for a large portion of the winter, which is very unusual.  And the temperatures!  Ahhhh!  It has almost been a Mobile, Alabama kind of winter!

During a few days of March we were wearing short sleeves and had the heat off!  Hoo-yeah!  That first blast of Spring-y air had me ready for some back porch grillin' and sittin'.  It was still kind of chilly, but warm enough to fire up the grill and firepit and sit during the daylight hours.

Here is Phillip grilling up some chorizo and hot dogs.  Chorizo...mmmm....tastes especially good on a hoagie roll and smothered in creamy coleslaw.  And a cold adult beverage to go with.  Beer and sausages.  Mmmmm....

Archie is the king of the action shot!  He saw me about to take his picture, so he immediately hammed it up by exaggerating his fireside pose!

Here I am toasting the ole buns.  

I am looking from above at Phillip and Lydia fixing something or other.  She likes to 'help' Daddy every chance she gets!

For Christmas, my folks got us a nifty screen house for camping.  You know, to put over the picnic table at the campground so you can eat without bugs and flies, and whatever you leave on your table won't getting dew on it in the morning.  It was really funny to watch us put it together at Mom and Dad's after Christmas.  The whole thing is supposed to take a minute to set up.  I think we were on minute thirty-five of the setup, when someone, either Julie or Dad, or Phillip or my Mom, figured out that we were trying to set it up inside out.  And sure enough, we flipped it over and it went right up.  Since then, we have found it really does set up in about a minute.  Archie can set it up by himself!  

During these warmer days, it gets downright hot on the back porch during the morning hours with the direct sunlight out there.  The kids wanted to play on the back porch, so I suggested they set up the screen house for some shade.  It works great!  Putting up the screen house for the first the first time called for a picnic, complete with strawberries.  This is the view from the stair-way window from above.  Know that our porch is looking nicer than that now.  We power washed and are re-painting it.  

Everyone is relaxing in the shade.

It's almost time for Henke Wine and sitting outside with my sweetie and watching fire flies long after the children go to bed.  I am biding my time.  Come on, summertime...I am waiting...We are all waiting...