The Alluvian

This past weekend Matt and I escaped to Greenwood, MS. I mean when you think getaway you thing Greenwood right?!!? It's okay if you don't really think that. I wouldn't have either if I hadn't heard from friends about The Alluvian.

The Alluvian is all you need for an amazing weekend. The hotel is in the middle of nowhere, MS but man is it nice! As soon as you walk into the courtyard everything is perfect. I would have taken pictures but this is vacation! Just trust me. In the lobby there were silver platters and bowls full of green apples, I touched one while waiting for the elevator and exclaimed "Oh, they're real" Matt burst out laughing, "Why wouldn't they be?" I didn't know why they wouldn't be, other then there were just so many of them, it reminded me of a fancy wedding I once attended.....

 

Anyway, when we got to the room I was greeted with champagne and strawberries! And a giant feather bed. Cue the choir AHHH! 

**Y'all, I dig sleep. Like a lot. For many years every present Matt got for me in same way involved improving my sleep-pillows, featherbeds, blankets etc. You would think someone who liked sleep as much as I do can sleep anywhere, not so my friends. I think I cherish it so because it is so elusive to me.

Anytime I sleep away from home I am nervous the bed won't be right. This was the definition of right. Like being hugged by satin feathers. If only I could have smuggled that bed out....

Next up on our adventure away was cooking school. I told you, The Alluvian provided everything--perfect bed and entertainment! All we did was walk across the tiny picturesque main street. Walk into a state of the art Viking kitchen and whip up lamb with polenta and tomato ragout! So much fun!! And we learned a lot of little tips and tricks for normal everyday cooking, too.

Day 2 at the hotel was dedicated to the spa, again right across the street from our hotel. I enjoyed an hour long body wrap, which was amazing. And Matt had his first spa experience with a massage and "gentleman's facial."

So no pictures, but this spa is now tops on my list of destinations.

We spent the rest of the day eating local cuisine (Delta Bistro BIG thumbs up!) And strolling the shops. After that it was cocktail/nap time. The evening was topped off with dinner at the hotel restaurant Giardina's it was sooooo yummy. If you go, whatever you do get the fried green tomatoes, do it. 




The next morning we slept late, ate breakfast in the terrace room, dawdled....watched our noon check out get closer and closer and then at 11:58 took the elevator down and checked out. Don't worry though, our getaway was not quite over. We still had 1 1/2 hrs in the car together, lunch AND the new Harry Potter movie. None of which disappointed.

It was such a refreshing 3 days. I missed my baby girl, and Matt did too. But I am a firm believer in parents taking time for themselves. I think it makes us better parents. Truly, not just because vacations are fun. I think our lives deserve balance. And when you take time to create that balance EVERYONE benefits. And I know for a video taped fact that Wesley Elizabeth had an amazing vacation with her Sissy too. I think all of us were equally spoiled! Thank you so much to Meghan and Ryan for keeping her and letting us sneak away!

Unacceptable

Sometimes when I get up to pee in the middle of the night and this guy comes to visit me

It is unacceptable.

P.S. super hard to squish, also making them unacceptable

Isn't it Ironic

When I have time to blog, nothing is going on of any interest. When I have lots to blog about, you guessed it...no time for writing!

Since I've gotten a bit wordy lately anyway...here's the past week in chronological pictures. It was fabulous.

Monday July 4th: Family and Friend cookout Extravaganza

 

 

 

Wednesday July 6th::Dessert Shower for Kendra

 Friday July 8th :: Bridal Luncheon, Rehearsal, Rehearsal Dinner for #Kentonio2011

Saturday July 9th:: Wedding and reception #Kentonio2011

  Sunday July 10th::Clean up/Pick up/Dress up

Backyard Overhaul 2011

Our backyard is pretty much our favorite place. It may be 70% of the reason we bought our house, okay...80%.  It's big (for the city), so it's hard to get a picture that justifies it's awesomeness. The deck is two levels, and has built in benches. We just love it. 

The backyard also has 17 trees. Which means great shade, so it is always 10-20 degrees cooler in our backyard, again awesome. Throw in the brick pathways and the amazing elm with the perfect branch for a swing and I'm telling you, you should be jealous. But before you hate us too much...all that awesomeness comes with a price. And now that we are wrapping up our second year in the house, we have learned. 

17 trees produce a lot of leaves. No problem, we bought a blower. But, brick pathways and lots of gardens require maintenance, like weeds and stuff, ugh. That is my kryptonite. I did not get the southern girl gardener gene (like that alliteration, don't ya). And when the weeds grow, it is hot y'all. 

So last year I hired someone to really clean everything up at the beginning of the summer, then I used the weed eater for the rest. This year I got smarter. If you don't want to pull weeds out of the ridiculously large garden, take out the garden! This fall we will be seeding the empty spots so next summer all I have to do is mow! Problem solved.

Next, trees. Trees require maintenance. Professional maintenance.  Because we had such a stormy spring I really started to analyze the branches on those 17 trees. Especially our 80 yr old Elm, directly behind our house, hanging over my child's bedroom. I called Harrison Tree Service, I highly recommend them of you have large trees around your house. Mitch is great. Honest, stands behind his work and he is a certified arborist, so he didn't just hack at my trees, he wanted them to be healthy.

Finally, the deck. As I said we love our deck. We spend a lot of time on it. And more importantly it is the gateway to  the back yard, our back door literally opens on the deck. So we are adamant about taking care of it. And, we have come to that time in our life when we look at projects and if they have more than 3 steps or involve chemicals.....ding ding ding..... we hire someone. Enter Dr. Deck n' Fence. Again, if you need someone, could not have been nicer guys, I highly recommend! They came out for an estimate within days, and did our deck in 3 days (would've been 2 but it rained). So here's the before:

Not falling down or anything, but definitely getting rough. So here's the after!

They are bad phone photos, but hopefully you can tell it is now all one stain, and what you can't tell that is more important is it is sealed! Which apparently it was not before. So good all around.

All of these improvements were our attempt at being conscientious homeowners, but more importantly we also hosted Fourth of July this year. I kinda have a busy weekend (#kentonio2011) but next week I will be posting on the fun we had Monday night!

Memphis Fridays::Part 2

So I've decided this summer Fridays are devoted to learning about my hometown. I didn't plan this, but it has now happened two Fridays in a row so, that's what I'm going to do. Since I didn't realize this tradition, my last post will now be referred to as Memphis Fridays::Part 1, please make note so you can cite it correctly when discussing my blog with your friends.

My cousin Jen is in town from London. Pretty cool, eh? She's not from London, she's from California, I guess. I say I guess because she hasn't lived in the same place for more than a few years since she was 15. Her previous addressees include Uzbekistan, Thailand, Greece, and Amsterdam and I am leaving places out! She is a world traveler. Again, pretty cool. But she is making a rare visit to the states and so we needed to go to neat tourist spots. She had checked a great site, The Lonely Planet for what she needed to experience in Memphis and thus our Friday was planned!

**Note::It's extremely awesome to entertain someone from out of town for the day, I mean seriously, how many of us actually see all we should of our own hometown?

So we started the day at The Arcade. It's Memphis' oldest restaurant, circa 1919. And been the backdrop to scenes in "Great Balls of Fire. " "The Firm," "21 grams" "Walk the Line" and "Elizabethtown." All that is great, but it doesn't hurt that the food is AH-Mazing as well! I recommend the beignets, #8 Redneck Eggs (which is really biscuits and the best ever gravy). But there is so much, you really can't go wrong! I have eaten at the arcade a few times and I am so happy every time. Let me know if you want to go cause I almost ordered the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich today, but didn't because it was 9am.

We walked waddled from the arcade to the trolley stop and hopped on for a lovely ride down main street.

It was a nice way to let our food settle before we started our downtown walking for the day. After the trolley tour, we hoped off at the Civil Rights Museum. I had never been, but really wanted to go for years. It was fabulous! They have done an amazing job with sharing this pivotal piece of our nation's history. You start the tour with a documentary "The Witness" told from the point of view of the only man that was actually on the balcony with Dr. King. It is so moving. There is is so much to the story I didn't know, actually to be honest, it turns out I didn't know the story at all. I just knew he was killed here, and I assumed it was because he was a black man trying to change the world. But there was so much more, and so many more. The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award, and deservedly so.

You are not allowed to take pictures in the museum, and you know I hate breaking rules so I just grabbed two quintessential ones on the way in. This is where he was actually shot.

And this is the plaque (NOT to be confused with plague) The verse really hit me, so fortuitous and powerful.

After you do the museum, you can walk across the street and actually stand where James Earl Ray shot him, it is very eerie and heavy, but I think it really brought it home.

We left the museum and headed to A. Schwabs, the oldest general store in Memphis. It's closing, which is why Jen wanted to see it, before it was gone forever...and the history stuff, too. I have been to this store on several occasions and can I just say....I don't get it. Sorry. But I'm not really surprised it's closing. It's crowded and dirty and full of unnecessary stuff. And the "necessary" stuff is so overpriced! For example they had plain white t-shirts, $3.95 a piece. Seriously?!? A pack of four is $5.99 at Wal-Mart. And don't say it's the novelty, a plain white T is never novel.  Okay, rant over. Sorry Abraham Schwab, I'm sure it was great in your day.

We then swang? swung? swinged? by  The Peabody. Just to see it. And grabbed the only pic of me of the day. I may submit it to awkardfamilyphotos.com

So in our defense, here's what's working against us 1. It was wet b. My mom was trying to work my phone to take it and also we were in the middle of the tourist attraction others were trying to see, so we were hurrying. This little guy had a much better pose.

Next stop, lunch. One of my all-time favorites, always a home run, HUEYS! I had the french dip, Mom and Jen got the world famous burgers. We were all more than happy with our choices! No pics needed.

After we were stuffed for the second time, we grabbed the car and headed north to another museum I have never been to, and you have probably never heard of, Slave Haven.

This house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Y'all. I mean really. Crazy history here. Again, no pictures were allowed, but I highly recommend it. Great way to spend 45 mins and $6.

So that was our tour o' Memphis::: Arcade-Main St.Trolley-Civil Rights-A.Schwabs-Peabody-Huey's-Slave Haven...Pretty impressive day, huh! Anybody up for the Pink Palace, Brooks or Dixon? Stax? Or do you have a better idea for next Friday? I mean nothing is going on next weekend, right?! KIDDING Kendra, XOXOXOXO

Rollin' on the River

Or if you are Wesley "riber."

We were lucky enough to steal our little brother Michael (or Uncle Michael) this weekend so Friday we packed up and headed to the Mighty Mississippi at Mud Island. I have not seen the mud island museum since I was 4, and I have been very anxious to take Wesley and Michael for years. I remember it (in my 4 yr old memory) being a fabulous time had by all.

I love museums and touristy type things a lot so I am so glad Wesley is getting old enough to appreciate them in her own way too. At least we can go to them and she feigns interest.

Michael is even better. He is at the real academic age where things are starting to connect, like wars and geography etc. So it's neat to take him places and actually have conversations about what we are seeing. And since he is still 9 he still enjoys just being a kid too.

Here we are heading over on the historic monorail. Which everybody but me loves, so I take pictures and pretend I'm juuuust fine the whole ride.

**Notice the bass pro shop hat, of which Matt has a matching companion. And hasn't stopped wearing it since Thursday.

Once we got over the river all the memories of my child hood trip came "flooding" back, hahahaha get it?!!?.

I am having some old pictures scanned into digital pics and when I get them back I may update this post with one of me at Mud Island.

I didn't take many pictures in the museum part, put it was because we were busy looking at everything. It really is very well done.

After the history lesson, you head outside and there is a full scale model of the Mississippi river from Canada to Gulf of Mexico. It is so cool. Definitely a must see if you visit or live in Memphis. It has maps of all the cities along the way and plaques to tell the history of the river in these cities as well. Of course we couldn't read these plaques because the scale model is a working model, meaning it is made of water, water the kiddos can get in! So that's what we did : )

The model changes width and depth according to the real river so some parts were easier to walk in then others, And then sometimes you find a water fall and just need to go for it all the way!

That is Michael, underwater, under Arkansas. Wesley is amazed. Yet she never felt the need to try this trick.

We had to stop for photo opps in our fair city on the map.

Here is Wee kinda on our neighborhood.

 

And after many "c'mons" and "keep goings" we finally made it to the Gulf of Mexico. Which I had promised they could swim in, because that's what I did when I was little, but apparently it is too much of a liability now, because the deep end was roped off : ( The sprinklers were an OK compromise.

 

Then had to convince two soaking wet, overheated kids to get out of the water and walk back without getting in the "river" anymore so that we could go get lunch. That was SUPER easy......

But we did get everyone home, fed and napped. And then headed out for more Memphis adventure:: Shelby Forest General Store steak and bluegrass night!! 

I grew up near Shelby Forest, it was my summer playground. And since Micheal lives to fish, it was a good next stop on our tour.

After fishing we hit up the legendary steak at the general store. The restaurant is not just called the general store, it is a store. Our table was in the middle of the drink coolers, which was nice, because that's where you get your drinks. While waiting for our dinner we met JJ. He is the store mascot.

He is pretty much awesome. He lets you pet him and really likes bluegrass music, gotta respect that. At the end of the night he jumps on the roof of the store and hops over to his "condo." that was the best part.

Our last adventure of the night was using our new bug catchers to grab a few fireflies on our way out of the Forest.

Note on taking bug catchers full of bugs home in the car with a 2 year old :: DON'T! Somehow the words "Don't open that again" just didn't make sense to her, and we ended up with a well lit ride home. Not only that but every time a free bug landed on her leg it was like they were made of fire. Quite traumatic for everyone in the car.


But all in all it was a fabulous weekend with our best boy Michael! Hope to do it again before the summer is through! Next stop Pink Palace!

Happy Birthday Pops!

It was Pops birthday this weekend so we had a few get togethers to celebrate! First on Sunday, his actual birthday, we met up, ate a delicious lunch and gave him his present. It was a pool ladder. He was very happy.


Then we got into our bathing suits and cooled off in the pool!

Then on Tuesday night we all met for dinner at Sissy's (because she was out of town on Sunday) And had a delicious dinner.

Well, Saturday we had a wedding, and a late night, so for Sunday's party we brought a store bought dessert. But since I am off of school right now, I saw Tuesday as a great opportunity to try a fun summer dessert recipe. And since lots of my friends post their yummy desserts I thought I would try it. So here goes:

Matt's grandmother made an amazing traditional bread pudding. Of course she never measured or anything so I'm not sure is there is a recipe anywhere, or if that would even matter. So since I couldn't duplicate that, I found a totally different bread pudding in hopes it would have receive a warm welcome, but not try to compete with tradition. I made a Coconut Bread budding with chocolate sauce.

First you broil your coconut and pineapple chunks

 

Then you mix eggs, egg whites, milk, coconut milk (which looks awful when you open the can but smells amazing and is very yummy in the end), vanilla and sugar altogether. And throw in coarsely chopped french bread cubes

Then you let that set for about 10 minutes. After you feel like it has soaked in enough goodness, you mix back in your coconut and pineapple and pour the whole mixture into a glass pan. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes until the bread is brown and the pudding is firm. After that you serve it up and drizzle chocolate on top. Now the recipe told me how to make homemade sauce, I just used Hersey's and it worked just fine.

 

And I can officially confirm it is better the next night! 

Happy Birthday Pops!