I love our new umbrella

We recently purchased a new patio umbrella. This weekend we spent time putting it together. It was pretty basic and mostly assembled. The hardest part was figuring out where the solar panel went. (Did I mention the lights were solar AND electric?!).

The box was long and awkward and weighed 90 lbs. more or less. The instructions were pretty basic, per usual. Normally when attempting things like this hubby and I do not work well together.  The last several years that has not been the case.

Two heads are definitely better than one, though. When I tried to pull the plastic piece off the very top, hubby patiently unscrewed it. All to fond out that was not where the solar panel went. We finally did manage to decipher the directions enough to straighten it out.

The umbrella went up

After we filled the plastic panels with water, to weight the umbrella, it was time to christen it. Hubby raised the umbrella and strategically positioned if over our patio table.  What a beautiful site. The. We decided it was time to take full advantage of it and we grilled turkey burgers over our open fire pit (the rocks in the picture).

So nice to have an umbrella again! We had company that shared our umbrella with us for a time. Then I took off with them and hubby rode his motorcycle over to a couple of friends house.

We plugged in the umbrella because we didn’t think there was enough day light left to charge the solar panel. Now we just need to wait for night fall.

Darkness

My girlfriend and I were the first ones back. We watched a baking show on TV and visited for several hours. When she left to go home I decided to take a shower. Hubby called and said he was just leaving and would be home a little past 11:00 p.m.

I went out to the deck and turned on the lights of our new umbrella. They are bright! When hubby road up they were welcoming him home.

It was bright enough to play a hand of cards or whatever. I was totally surprised, as was hubby, how much it illuminated. This is money well spent. I am so glad we did not impulsively buy the other umbrella.

I also appreciate that hubby and I have evolved over the years that we can spend more time enjoying the umbrella than fighting about how to put it together! Life is truly great!