right now

right now

Jul 28, 2011

4 days with the family!

I have a lull while the harvest is cooking up in the kitchen, so here's the past few days' worth of photos, there's a lot!  Hubby's younger sister "L" and brother in law "M" arrived Saturday evening and stayed until last night, and it was so nice spending time with them, we don't get to see each other often enough with all parties having loaded work schedules and each of us living on opposite coasts.  They are expecting their first child in a few months, so it was really nice to see L pregnant and doing so well with it, she really looks great and appears that pregnancy really agrees with her!  We were hoping to be able to do a little canoeing or more beach visits, but with the daily temps in the 100's and humidity holding steady at 83%, the weather was not kind to us, so we were left with a lot of "what should we do"? questions that usually resulted in food, drink, or games!

Mama Pea wanted to see photos of food & drink, so here are a few of the dishes served up -

Pasta Salad with fresh tomatoes & feta


Turkey burgers topped with yet more tomatoes



Lots of brews were sampled!



Hubby grilling one night, temp was 99 at 7 pm still!



Potato Salad with bleu cheese, onions & bacon with balsamic dressing



One of the kids took this one...



Nightly thunderstorms and heat meant for a lot of "hanging out" time.  There's actually a lot going on in the below photo:  Hubby & M are playing dice, I'm knitting and drinking beer LOL, and L and Finn are in the background playing a game of Battleship.



L (or "Tia" as the kids call her) and hubby are making date shakes with some of the fresh dates she brought with her from their home in the desert southwest.  



It would appear that all we did was eat LOL, but we managed to get out at least once a day somewhere in the heat.  It usually involved water of course.  We did an afternoon at the pool and one at the beach, even though the water was pretty warm, it was still refreshing compared to the air temps.  We also went down to the Oceanfront tourist area to just hang out and window shop - and eat ice cream of course!

Hubby's Wish Board - as in "wish I could afford this new board"...



I promised some photos of our actual "Strip" at the Oceanfront, since I always post the quiet places here, but I'm lazy so I did a video of it:


Gotta love the junk shops at the beach... for those Hookah pipe and pocket knife emergencies!



M giving his best "when in Rome" effort with redneck hat with pretend chew stuffed in the mouth :)



Minivan?  Who needs a minivan?!  If you come visit us we'll stuff you in the way back, too!



More food!  L's birthday dinner was awesome, who doesn't love Teppanyaki?  We had a blast there, and the kids will usually eat a few veggies when served up with such drama!



The onion volcano



Poor L, having to dine with a blogger... here's a video of her getting "gonged in" to her next year, Happy Birthday!


More food, LOL...



yummy NC pulled pork sandwiches & $1.99 tall cans of PBR at 11:30 am... it's 5:00 somewhere, right?



and Mama got a new pair of flip flops at the beach!  You should see the old ones, there's holes in the soles and you can just about see the pavement through them but I still can't bear to pitch them.



Now I have to work on fixing the old flip flop tan lines!

Brother & Sis in Law are headed off to his family in IL for the next few days, I sure hope the weather is a little better for them there, but they have some fun things planned and they are pretty good at taking the heat where they are from.  Sure was nice to see them, the kids were pretty upset to see them go so I guess it shows what a special aunt & uncle they have, of course all of them are pretty special :)  Know what I'm excited about?  Now I get to plan a baby quilt to make this fall!  I'm glad I have a few months, since I really enjoy the planning phase of quilting, probably more than the actual quiltmaking!

Back to the kitchen I go...

17 comments:

  1. Looks like you had a nice visit. I can't wait to see that baby quilt come together. :)

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  2. Kelly, I'm pretty excited! I prodded her for ideas on what they like, but they are really open to just about any style so it should be fun, I might bounce some ideas around on the blog, I'm sure if she hates any of them, I'll get an anonymous comment LOL!

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  3. Perfect visit with family. Those are my absolute favorite. And if there's not a lot of food, well then, something is just wrong. Loved both the videos. It's awesome how the tents on the beach make a wall around the ocean. And the Hookah!?! WTH? people buy those things....It looks like something I'd use to gas the bugs on my petunias!

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  4. You can never have too many baby quilts. One is always dirty so you need more than one. Plus if it's a smaller one you can use it to wrap the baby in when you take him or her out. Can't wait to see the quilt.
    Our weather has turned and summer has been rudely thrust upon us. The forecast if for sun for the next 6 days. That will mean we will get very close to 40C unless we get some wind or some clouds show up. I hope your weather cools down and so does ours. Who can enjoy summer with this heat?!!!

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  5. Melissa, I laughed so hard when I read that! I think you have stumbled onto the PERFECT use for such an object LOL....
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    Sparkless, that's a good point, now if I screw up on the quilt I won't feel bad, I'll just make another!

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  6. WOW! Now THAT looks like a good time! Lots of food, lots of fun...and a few brews! Who was drinking the Milk Stout? Was it good?

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  7. Looks like a fabulous time! Glad you had fun. I usually make baby quilts in bright primary colors with lots of contrast for baby to look at. I also usually put a dark back on them since mine always got used as play mats on the floor. Have fun with it.
    Judy

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  8. Looks like fun was had by all!

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  9. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! That's a nice spread Erin. I wish I was there. LOL!

    I've been forever since I've been to a teppanyaki place. I love them too, even your clothes reek of grill afterwards.

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  10. MamaTea, there's always food when the weather sux, LOL!
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    Judy, I will definitely steer away from the light backings!
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    Dani, it was fun, can't wait until they have a little one to chase around too!
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    Thomas, I think we had leftovers every day for lunch, there was a lot!

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  11. Fun to see the pictures of the visit. Thanks for sharing! One more time: I just cannot believe the high temperatures you keep having! On and on and on. Will it start to cool down by . . . maybe Christmas, do you think??

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  12. It was a great time, I wished we lived closer so we could visit more often!! The food was delicious, the hosts were gracious, and the kids were.. well the best little boys in the whole world. Tell them Tia misses them tons.
    "L"

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  13. They probably didn't want to leave after all that good cooking you had going on! Looks like you made the most of the visit aside from the heat. They might have a bit easier time with the heat here...a little. The humidity broke yesterday. I feel for ya out there!

    So have you burned your feet yet? Skinnier straps make for a nice burn!

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  14. Looks like you had a great family visit and some really awesome food to go with it! Our family visit is coming to an end soon, so we're still enjoying these last few days together.

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  15. Mama Pea, I sure hope the heat ends as usual on Sep 1st, I'm looking forward to 70-80 degree days again!
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    Lauren, she comments!!! LOL, hope you are having a great time in Chi-town, we miss you guys!
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    APG, no burn yet, but I haven't been outside too much since I got the new flip flops, too hot... and I'm still wearing my old ones out into the garden :)
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    Anke, looks like you had fun too!

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  16. Mama Tea, duh... totally forgot to answer your question! The Milk Stout was really good, like all stouts very filling so only one will do you, but very dark, bitter and creamy. We are thinking of brewing a coffee stout this fall, not sure about committing to a whole keg of that though since most of our friends out here are PBR/MGD fans LOL... that's a whole lotta stout for just me and hubby LOL!

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  17. Looks like a really fun visit! With lots of yummy food and drink!

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