The Wedding!

The wedding was beautiful! The bride looked like a princess! The groom (my brother) was so handsome! We all had a great time! Even though it was HOT!



This is one of my favorite pictures. I love how it shows all the "fru-fru" of the wedding day (shoes, flowers, dress, etc.) next to the tattoo on her foot. I really enjoy trying to capture things in my photographs, that others may not consider taking a picture of. (She was sitting on the ground, taking off her wedding shoes, to put on a pair of flip-flops. LOL)



This was another one of my favorites. Can you tell that I love ZOOMING in for close up shots? LOL I am the queen of ZOOM!



Even Mr. Mister got in on the picture taking action. He caught the bride playing football with all of the kids. (It was hilarious, because it took two other people to help lift her dress up, so that she could kick the ball! LOL (She definitely was NOT your "typical" bride! LOL!)

Between the two of us, there were almost 500 photos. I would show you more, but I don't want to make you scroll down the page for days! Plus, I am not sure that everyone would appreciate their picture being posted on my blog.

We did have some crazy people there! There was even a little bit of pole dancing going on! LOL By the end of the night, my cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

It's so great when everyone can get together, have fun, and enjoy each other's company.



After seeing Sedona for the first time last year, Mr. Mister and I, fell in love with it. It is absolutely breathtaking! So, of course, we planned another trip there this year.



This time, we rented the diamond cabin at Forest Houses Resort for two days. It was HEAVEN! So peaceful and quiet. We relaxed, talked, BBQ'd, and didn't ever want to leave.

Our next visit will need to be for at least a week! There never seems to be enough time to do everything we want to do.

Fun Weekend - Part Three

Saturday morning we woke up and I wondered if we were actually going to Tennessee or not. Mr. Mister had mentioned something about possibly staying home, and honestly that suited me just fine. I really disliked the idea of driving all that way for one night. Even if the thought of going to Beale Street appealed to me.

One bummer about not going was that we had planned to stop and eat at Lambert's Cafe "The Only Home of Throwed Rolls" on the way down.



The phone rang, and it was Mr. Mister's mother. She wanted to know if we were coming down or not? Since he never really said "no, we aren't coming," I knew we were. He made hotel reservations, while I started getting dressed, and more annoyed at the thought of the upcoming drive ahead of me.

We left around noon, and the communication in the car was non-exsistant. Mr. Mister would try every so often to draw me out of my mood, but I wasn't having it. I was really good at staying annoyed! LOL Finally, I started responding with more than one word. We talked about different things, and after a while Mr. Mister pointed out a sign, showing us that we were getting closer to Lambert's Cafe. I started getting a little excited! Not only about eating at the place I had heard so much about, but because, once we got there, we would be at our halfway point in the not so fun driving part of our journey.

We arrived and looked at the parking lot. O MY GOSH! There were people EVERYWHERE!



I was thinking that we would just turn around and go to Wendy's or something. But we decided to check on the wait time. It was approximately 45 minutes. We chose to wait. As they kept calling names I began to think that we were going to end up sitting next to a bunch of strangers. They would call up 20 or so people at a time and take them all back to the tables together. After all, it was family style eating.
They called our name and I rushed so that we would be first in line, at least then we could grab the end of a table, and not be stuck in the middle somewhere. I was very happy when they sat us in a booth by ourselves. They took our drink order and we looked over the menu. I already knew what I was having. I had planned it several days before. The Chicken & Dumplings of course! Everyone that knows me, knows that is what I would be having! LOL
Our drinks came and I was surprised to see that they gave us HUGE mugs full of our beverage of choice. I'm talking 48oz sized mugs.



It was the best sweet tea! I don't know if it was because I was thirsty or what, but I couldn't stop drinking. After ordering, we kept looking around, checking the place out.



Suddenly, we were hearing "HOT ROLLS" "HOT ROLLS" being yelled above the sound of everyone talking. A boy was rolling a cart around full of rolls that had just come out of the oven. People were putting their hands up in the air waving that they wanted a roll. The boy would pick up a roll and throw it across the room at the waving hands. People were catching (some were dropping) hot rolls everywhere.




A girl was walking around saying "Sorghum?" to everyone. She stopped at our table and said "Don't ya'll want a hot roll?" She called the boy's name that was throwing the rolls, and Mr. Mister caught one right away. He threw another one to me, and I was thrilled that I didn't drop it on the floor! I opened the hot roll and buttered it up! The girl asked if I wanted sorghum on my roll. I told her that I didn't even know what sorghum was. She replied that it was molasses. I had never had molasses on a roll before, but decided to try it. YUMMY!



As we waited for our order, several employees were walking around with big silver bowls yelling "FRIED POTATOES" "FRIED OKRA" "BLACK EYED PEAS" and "MACARONI & TOMATOES." These were what they called "extras" and you could have as much of them as you wanted throughout your meal. Not that we needed any extras because, when our meal arrived there was enough food on the plate to feed several people. Mr. Mister had ordered the fried chicken. He had two pieces of chicken, a loaded baked potato, and green beans. I had the chicken & dumplings, green beans, and applesauce.



It was wonderful! I even made the comment that it was better than Cracker Barrel. Again, anyone who knows me, knows that Cracker Barrel is one of my favorite places to eat, so that was saying A LOT!
We walked out the door feeling VERY full, with a can of sorghum tucked under my arm, and plans to stop there again on the way home!

Back to the car, and on the road again for another 2 1/2 hours.

We finally made it to Mr. Mister's mother's house.

We talked for a while, catching up on things, and then we hopped into Mr. Mister's sister's (say that quick three times!) car, and headed toward Memphis so that we could check into our hotel, and "party" on Beale Street.

The weather was GREAT, and it brought everyone out. It was like being on Spring break or something. (Elmo REALLY enjoyed dancing with the girl in the picture. He danced in the street for at least 20 minutes)



After several drinks, and "Big Ass Beers," we were really starting to enjoy ourselves. (Thank goodness our hotel was within walking distance!)



As we walked up and down Beale Street, we saw an artist (Wolf Simone,) sitting and painting pictures. It was awesome to see what he created just by using a few tools and several cans of spray paint. The painting he did in front of us, turned out to be a collage of Memphis attractions, turned into a cityscape, with planets above. It was VERY cool!



We decided to stop at Pat O'brien's for something to eat. When we walked in, there was a fountain with water and fire coming out of it. It was GORGEOUS! The whole area looked like an outdoor cafe, but it was indoors. We sat there for over an hour just talking and having a good time. The atmosphere was perfect!



There was different kinds of music coming from every bar, alley, and available spot along the street. We stopped and listened at many different places, but this blues band was one of our favorites.



Mr. Brother-In-Law was really getting his groove on while he listened to them play!



It was HILARIOUS! We were all cracking up watching him dance!

Unfortunately, we found the band too late, and only got to hear a couple of songs before they started packing things up for the night.

So, we wandered some more. We saw all kinds of interesting things! There were people dancing, people drinking, people doing flips down the road. We even got to watch the police, that were on horseback, arrest someone and take them away!

But the thing that really caught my interest, was seeing some of the girls walking down the street wearing outfits they had NO BUSINESS wearing. I began taking pictures of all of them. My plan was to put them up on my blog to show people what they "should not" wear out in public. But, I have decided not to offend anyone reading this blog by showing them on here. LOL!

Finally, at around 1:30 am, we headed back to the hotel. I was exhausted, but had a really, REALLY good time! (Yes, Mr. Mister has been rubbing that fact into my face ever since!)

BUT, I still was not enthused about the drive all the way back home!

Did someone mention stopping at Lambert's Cafe again??????????

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

The first time I tasted this sinful recipe I thought I had died and gone to heaven! My aunt, in South Carolina, made it for a family gathering. I knew when she pulled it out of the refrigerator that I was doomed.

All of the other family members were excited, and running for their plates. After taking that first bite, I knew why everyone else was chomping at the bit to get to this delectable dessert. It had layers of graham crackers, lots of pudding, so it was ooey & gooey, and chocolate on top. What else could possibly be better?

While they were enjoying their first helping, I thought to myself, maybe if I grab the pan, and lick the entire top of the dessert, nobody will want anymore! I stared lovingly at it sitting on the counter, and started to get up. Suddenly, flashes of myself being chased out of the house, by angry relatives (that I had just met), made me sit back down in my chair. I decided I would scare away anyone who attempted to go for seconds, with the evil "STINKEYE".

It didn't work!

Eventually, I ended up begging my aunt for the recipe. She reached for her special book that she had written hundreds of recipes down in. (I just knew they all had to be secret family recipes)! While I sat at the table and wrote the recipe down, she told me about all the changes she makes to it. Sometimes she uses the chocolate flavored graham crackers. Sometimes she uses different pudding. This particular time she used one box of vanilla and one box of pistachio pudding. I knew that I would always make it with one of each because I loved the pistachio flavor. After carefully writing everything down, I put the recipe in my purse and proceeded to enjoy the rest of my vacation visiting family in North & South Carolina.

When I arrived back home, all I could talk about was this wonderful recipe I had tried, and told my family that I wanted to make it for them. I went searching for the recipe and I COULDN'T find it. I looked and looked but it was nowhere to be found. Apparently, I had put it in such a safe spot (so that I wouldn't lose it) that I totally lost it. Panic set in. Now my family would NEVER know the wonders of this delightful dish. I wouldn't be able to include it in the cookbook I wanted to make. I was a failure at passing down secret family recipes! What would I do now?

I did what every other SMART person would have done. I "googled" it!

Imagine my surprise when the very same, highly guarded, secret family recipe was all over the internet! O MY! Someone must have found the piece of paper I had written it down on, and dispersed bootleg copies of it EVERYWHERE!

Needless to say, I was a very excited girl! And the next time I see my aunt, I will pretend it's still our little secret! But, I might have to break the news about the Easy Bake Chicken recipe that has shown up on the back of the Stove-Top Stuffing box.

So, would you like the recipe? Shhhhhhh you CAN'T tell anyone! Pinky swear? OK! Here it is:

Chocolate Eclair Dessert

3 Individual Packages Of Graham Crackers (1 box)
2 (3 ounce) Packages Of Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
3 (cups) Milk
1 (8 ounce) Container Frozen Whipped Topping (Thawed)
1 (16 ounce) Can Prepared Chocolate Frosting

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 9"X13" pan with graham crackers. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix and milk. Stir well. Stir whipped topping into the pudding mixture. Spread half of the mixture over graham cracker layer. Top with another layer of graham crackers and the remaining pudding. Top all with a final layer of graham crackers and frost with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

There you go! It can't be sinful when it tastes so good. Can it? I prefer to say it's HEAVENLY! That way, I feel much better when I keep sticking my spoon into the pan while it sits in the refrigerator. WAIT! I forgot to lick the top of it!

Arizona was BEAUTIFUL!

We're home from Arizona! We had a GREAT time! It was so much fun catching up with my brother and meeting everyone! We went to the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Sedona. I took soooooo many pictures.

These pictures were taken while looking out the window of the airplane on the way to Phoenix. The clouds were BEAUTIFUL and FLUFFY! We did have someone on the plane that was passing some FUNK clouds. Not so beautiful and fluffy! HA HA!



Our first night there, we ate some delicious Italian food at Tutti Santi where Scott works. Before we even made it into the restaurant we were greeted by the owner and another employee. As we made it further into the restaurant Scott was hugged and greeted by everyone! The atmosphere was definitely as if your were visiting family. Rick and I, met a lot of really nice people (including Brian a.k.a "Ocho" who is in the picture below). After dinner we walked next door to have a few drinks at Gallagher's where Kristin works. It was Karioke night and there were a lot of people drinking and "trying" to sing. After Scott and Brian had a few drinks in them, they both sang karioke. I cannot remember what song Brian sang but, Scott sang "Kiss" by Prince. They both sounded pretty darn good! Scott and Brian are HILARIOUS when you get them together. It's like they are totally in-sync with each other and play off of what the other person is saying or doing. They had us laughing so hard our cheeks hurt! See Scott's silly grin below! He had that grin on his face during most of the trip! (Except for the times we were driving in the car for hours trying to see everything Arizona had to offer in only three days! LOL)



The next morning we were on our way to the Grand Canyon. When we got there it was really hazy. The pictures are not real clear because of that. But it did make for some cool looking silhouettes of the canyons.



We stayed so long the sun started to go down! We had to scadoodle because everyone was starving, and we still had another two hours of driving until we arrived in Page.



While in Page, Rick and I went on the Roger Ekis photography tour of Antelope Canyon. The canyons were AWESOME! As we were leaving it started to rain. It rained for several hours while we all just relaxed around the hotel.



Last stop..........Sedona! It was absolutely GORGEOUS!