The next day we followed my sis and her family to the beach to meet PawPaw, Pam, cousin Tracy and her sweet kids, my brother Max and my little sister Megan with her boyfriend Brannon. It was a full house but a fun house with lots of love! (and food!) :)
Taylor tasted his first crawfish and even though they were spicy, my boy LOVED him some crawfish! Wish I could find some just as tasty here in Orlando. (T also tasted his first blue crab, which he enjoyed, and his first raw oyster which he did NOT love!)
Aunt Ami and PawPaw hanging on the back deck...vacating, baby! We had great weather the whole time which was awesome.
Aunt Megan and Tracy....so good to see both of them bc it has been a while!
Tman and PawPaw
My sis and I before heading down to the beach
Of course we had our traditional family cookoff...this year's theme was "Shrimp Salad." Here is PawPaw hard at work on his dish...
Ami and Doug were a team this year and worked together in the kitchen on their contest entry.
Chef Megan working on her dish...is the suspense building yet?? :)
Ami and Doug's dish was Honey-glazed shrimp mixed with bacon, pineappple, and avocado. (walnuts too, sis?? I cannot remember for sure)
Megan's shrimp salad had cream cheese, a bit of mayo, crispy bacon, toasted almonds, green apples, and chives...all served atop a puff pastry.
Tracy kindly tallied the score sheets for us...and the winner is....MEGAN! Meg won first place, PawPaw won 2nd, I won 3rd and Doug/Ami won 4th. The truth is that they were all amazing...it was a delicious meal altogether!
The next evening, we had Appetizer Night for dinner and it was also delicious! We had Meem's cream cheese and pepper jelly, a mediterranean platter, cheese fondue with all the dippers, homemade salsa and chips, hanky pankys, Caprese Salad, pigs in a blanket and brown sugar bacon bites...have I told you that my family likes to eat well?? :)
The next evening, we had Appetizer Night for dinner and it was also delicious! We had Meem's cream cheese and pepper jelly, a mediterranean platter, cheese fondue with all the dippers, homemade salsa and chips, hanky pankys, Caprese Salad, pigs in a blanket and brown sugar bacon bites...have I told you that my family likes to eat well?? :)
Monday afternoon,Tman went out to the break (with a group) in the Gulf and caught a few fish - and jumped some waves. He thought it was SUPER FUN! 
One Tuesday, we headed over to the Bay where there were not nearly as many waves!
Wrennie was a rock star in the kayak...Aunt Ami also rented a paddleboard and most of the family took a turn on it...
This is Megan and Uncle Max paddleboarding with Taylor and Harris - so sweet!
This is Megan and Uncle Max paddleboarding with Taylor and Harris - so sweet!
Some of the adults also enjoyed lounging on the quiet beach.
My rockstar fisherman nephew pulled in a monster trout (25 inches) on Monday!! We fried that sucker up for some good eats Tuesday night...thanks again for dinner, Harris!
PawPaw was the only person able to get the kayak past the break in the Gulf...the rest of us went down and he had to rescue us...well ok, he was really rescuing his kayak and paddle! :)
This was our favorite pasttime, I believe...chilling on the back deck with a cold beverage.
Sweet - and slightly wild - kiddos playing in the pool
T and H playing frisbee on the beach around sunset.
T and Mama listening to our Story in the round - another family tradition!
Cute pic of King PawPaw on his throne with some super sweet kiddos. (Pam is always the picture taker so I never get pics of her too which is a stinker! She was there though and at least I got a lot of hugs...which I will take over pics any day!)
We had a long drive - eight hours - on the way home yesterday and my boy and I stopped by a good sushi place in Tallahassee...over lunch, I asked him what his favorite part of the week was and he said "this lunch with you right now." Love my sweet boy! Of course it did not take him long to correct himself and say "I mean, wrestling with Harris!" :) But I will take what I can get.
I had to take a pic of T in the car yesterday...he is resting his little hand on his chin, studiously focused on the Ipad...and he stayed like this for HOURS! I had warned him and warned him that it would be a super long drive and he would need to be on his best behavior...and he WAS! In eight hours in the car, he barely said 6 sentences. I was very proud of him.
Overall, a fabulous and fun family vacation...ready to do it again next year!!
3 comments:
What a great post, MB! You pretty much covered it all. We really did have a fun time and I am especially pleased to have all the "chirren" connected - hopefully everyone will continue to stay in contact.
Considering the competition, I was very pleased with second place.
How fun! I loved the contest. What a really neat idea. It is very cool that you all make the effort to stay in touch and spend time together!
Ohhhhh that FOOD looks SOOOO amazing! I'm so hungry right now. I want to be a judge next year!
Post a Comment