Black and White Wednesday - Maine Family

See many great Black and White photos here at The Long Road to China.

Daily Dose of AA - End of August

We have no pictures from the past two weeks as our Nikon had to be sent to the shop for a new shutter/repairs. Not sure how it broke, just picked it up to take a photo and an error message appeared. So as you can tell, I have taken a break from blogging for while. I have pictures from our trip to Maine to post and will do that soon; will enjoy reliving the great time Alyzabeth and I had with family and friends. As always the trip went by too fast, a long weekend is not enough time to play and visit so next summer we have to make a longer stay.
This picture was from Daddy trying out a used camera with our SD card.

Will be back posting is a few days.....

South Pittsburg, Tennessee

A nice stop when making the trip going to or coming back from Missouri is the Lodge Cast Iron factory store in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. South Pittsburg, less than 4000 strong, is not only home to the famous Lodge manufacturing facility but also plays host to the Annual Cornbread Festival. Which makes perfect sense to anyone who has ever tasted cornbread prepared in cast iron :) The quintessential - match made in heaven!


I couldn't resist :)
The Pizza "stone" was marked down and had take me home written all over it.

And this beautifully aged Dutch Oven was a gift from Nana Joy...
Seriously, you can never have enough cast iron and especially a seasoned Dutch Oven.
Thank You Nana Joy!

Pork Chops quickly found a home in Nana Joy's dutch oven :)

So, if you happen to be tooling along I-24 and need a little break to stretch the legs, you might consider a quick stop at the Lodge Factory Store in South Pittsburg!
peace
fm

Black and White Wednesday - Marshmallows

My sister in Maine started her waterfront fire for us to sit around as the day cooled off. And then she brought out the extra large marshmallows! I like mine burnt! Yummy fun!


See more Black and White photos at The Long Road to China.

Maine - Sitting on the Dock.....

Picture taken by sister Melissa. The best one of our trip to Maine of AA and "Mommy".

Have You Been to a High School Reunion?

I attended my 35th High School reunion last week. It was fun; even though there was only about 60 graduates there of a class of 360+, it was good to see some of the old gang there!

Doug and Vicki:
Tim and Cathy:
John and Vicki:
John and Bill:
Gene DiMillo hosted the event at his and wife's restaurant, was a great place, everyone enjoyed the food and surroundings. Stop in if you are in Portland:
Best friend, Deb, decorating before the party:
Dave, Mary and Vicki:
Bobby and Sandi; these two planned the event and did a great job!
Bob and Tim:
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Kaplan (Amy Chalmers):
We had a great time and I have more pictures to post!

Fun, Family and Friends on Little Sebago Lake

Here's a preview of many blog posts to come all about our trip to Maine. Just me and my littlest girl. We had a BLAST! Can't wait for next summer! Maybe we will drive and stop along the way to visit some bloggy friends too.
I posted this on Facebook, but want to have all the photos here as I make the blog into a book (our family photo album of sorts).

The need for speed; AA had too much fun getting everyone to give her rides on Nana's Sea-Doo!

Meeting up with Family - Last Missouri Post!

We met up with Illinois family, Hubby's sister Mia and family at the St. Louis City Museum. It was another HOT day, so you can imagine with a home Cardinals game there was TONS of families beating the heat that Sunday afternoon.
AA's Aunt Mia took her two children and AA on a climbing expedition to get them all reacquainted. The last time we saw them was last year during a Missouri visit in July.

Madison and AA watching a magician eat some fire!

Uncle Mike and Michael Aaron giving the "hamster" wheel a try!

All happy during the short visit:

Next we went to St. Charles to visit with nephew Travis and wife Erica. Uncle Ben and all of us had a good visit and went out for lunch. We attended T. and E. wedding back in October 2009.

It was a whirlwind trip with so many family activities! Thanks again to my Sister-in-Law (Joan) for all the planning and hostessing!

Basketball Practice

Coach Daddy and AA had some fun indoor exercise practicing their basketball shooting skills while at Joan and Bill's home.
They have a huge finished basement with lots of play space for the "Grands". In an unfinished area, a kid's size basketball hoop is set up. Great place to keep cool on a HOT Missouri day!

Swish!

Swim Time in Missouri

So cute seeing the cousins all playing in Kaci's pool in Missouri. It was a HOT day (it was HOT the entire time we were there!).
After AA warmed up to the cousins (she swam with them over a year ago in July 2010) they were off to the races, swimming and splashing between cousin Kaci and Uncle Bill!



Alot of splashing! Usually, with AA shouting "I won, I won!!". Too funny!

Stones River National Battlefield, Georgia

On our drive back from Missouri, we like to find out of the way places to make a short pit stop, a local restaurant or historical place. We saw this battlefield on the map and decided to stop.
It was too hot to take the walking tour (even though there was some brave souls!) and we didn't want to spend that much time. There is a driving tour that is easy and you can dial into a recorded message at each stop. The employees were all very friendly and overall very educational (and free!). We have stopped at other battlefields and at the Andersonville Prisoner-of-War Camp.

There is a cemetery on site and a computer to look up names of your ancestors. A great place to visit and learn more about the Civil War.

Eating Our Way Through the Missouri Trip

We first arrived at Joan and Bill's home for a family meal of Mexican flavors and lots of good red wine. I snapped only a few photos at each meal; I guess I was too busy talking and eating!

Dinner at Bill and Joan's home:

At Mother-In-Law's (Grandpa and Nana to AA); Joy did her famous fried fish dinner with hush puppies, home fries, her homemade coleslaw and sliced tomatoes right from the garden! All Yummy! (AA is between her two cousins, both boys - yes, she loved the attention!):

We also ate at Wib's BBQ for lunch on our way to the St. Louis Cardinals game and loved their pork sandwiches. What a busy place, a local favorite. We went last year but was during the family's vacation. This year we ate there and no photos, so last year's will have to do!

Driving home, we stopped at a favorite BBQ joint in Kentucky; we love their sandwiches and always buy some of their bottled sauce:

Roadside picnic for lunch; all the State Welcome centers are very nice, we go by so many on this trip:

Next we tried a new (for us) BBQ (GA) and you could tell it was a local favorite; but we decided we prefer Starnes (KY) best.

We drive by the Plantation Store so many times and never stop; this time we did. Have you ever gone in this place and come out empty handed? I don't think anyone can!

You may notice that the two Goo-Goo candy wrappers are empty...... all gone!

It was a yummy trip!