Bonfires & Mason Jars

The picnic shelter made out of stone and logs...we built 2 fires, hung a candlelit chandelier and had mason jars with candles everywhere

Ross with his torch on the search for more firewood

Mason jars with tea lights (photo courtesy of Stephanie Todd)

The chandelier on its last leg of candles (which is why it's missing 2...we ran out.  Note to self: use dripless next time :))

The only picture I'll show you with me in it :)  There was one other, but...well...it further proves why I avoid the camera.

Ross, Nick and Mark....we didn't get the rest of the guys in a pic. And apparently Mark's pants are on fire.

Hot ladies! Stephanie, Julie, Marti, Jennie and Lauren (missing a few of the girls as well)

Saturday night was seriously fantastic.  So fantastic that I really don't even know where to begin!  I'll try to summarize as best as I can.  My friend Ross (although his real name is Richie, but I just prefer to call him Ross) has a job that keeps him busy and on the road for a good half of the year, so when he texted me last week to say he had the weekend off and wanted to hang with everyone...it was time to round the troops!  I really wanted to go to the drive-in, but the weather is getting colder and if you can't sit outside to watch the movie, then it's not much of a social activity.  My next thought was to do a bonfire, but how do you just do a bonfire if you don't have someone's house/yard to do it in?  Plan B!

I had seen pictures on a friend's facebook of a picnic pavillion with a fireplace and it just clicked!  I emailed her to see where they were at, but in the meantime, started looking online.  I found that 2 parks - Percy Warner and Edwin Warner - had those exact shelters (ends up that her photos were at Edwin).  I didn't figure this out until Friday, so although I'd put out the memo for everyone to keep their Saturday night open, I still hadn't given the details of what we were doing.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Lauren (which was, in itself, a blast!) and after we left the restaurant around 11:00, we decided to drive over to Percy and scout out a spot...in the pitch black :).  I drove through the park with my brights on and we went from shelter to shelter deciding which one looked best (meanwhile spotting SO many deer!  It was so fun!).  Once we landed on the shelter, we started brainstorming ideas for warmth and light (considering the low was forecasted to be only 27 degrees).  We called it a night and made plans to meet up the next day.

Saturday morning I met up with a new friend and took a trip out to Leipers Fork (it never gets old...such a cute town!).  I talked too much as usual (sorry, Leigh!), but had a really great time enjoying the company and beautiful weather.  Next time I'll do more listening :).  Once we returned home, I hit the ground running.  Made a few quick stops to pick up items, ran home to make a big batch of caramel chex mix, changed into warmer clothes, packed the car and headed out to the park.

I drove into the park only to see about 15 deer just grazing in the grass.  LOVE!  Lauren had just pulled in and we went to work.  We rearranged tables, hung the chandelier and mason jars from beams, lined the stone walls with votives, put plaid tablecloths on the tables with more candlelit mason jars, set up the food on old vintage suitcases Lauren happened to have in her trunk, built fires and then welcomed everybody as they arrived!  The intent was to play games, but we ended up just hanging out and catching up with each other around the fire.  It was fantastic.  Did I say that already?  I caught up with people I hadn't seen in months and really enjoyed getting to know others that I'd never met before.

We called it a night around 11:30 and packed everything up.  I was deliriously tired (did I mention I didn't go to bed until 2am the night before?? :)), but it was sooo worth it.  Can't wait to do it all again!