One last summer fling

September is over a week old already, and the kids have been in school for a month, but until yesterday I still felt like it was summer.  My husband has been home for almost three weeks, and the temps are still in the 90s.  He had two weeks off, so we spent the first week having day dates - going out for coffee, making a rainy day trip to Gulf Shores, feeling like teeny boppers sneaking into the neighbor's pool for a swim. (We did have permission.)  We also spent a good amount of time reorganizing and cleaning up for a Labor Day week party with some of his siblings, their families, and his parents -- I'm happy to report that our house can easily accomodate 22 people if at least half of them are below five feet tall.

But sometimes with that many people around, things like this happen:

Thank goodness my husband can take care of minor plumbing repairs.

Since I can't get my mind around a coherent narrative, here are some photo highlights of other events of the week:

Feeling the love in New Orleans

Having fun at the neighbor's pool:

 Enjoying a Southern breakfast at the VFW followed by a "turkey shot" contest: My sister-in-law read a notice in the paper about the breakfast and shooting contest (actually target shooting for prizes from the butcher shop: the bacon round, the steak round, the road kill round), so we all showed up after church, since my husband is now a veteran of a foreign war.

 

I had an idea what the fare would be so I commented to my brother-in-law that I'd be more excited about going if they served Bloody Mary's and low and behold!:

Served with pickled okra. As you can see I was happy about this:

We also experimented with some other regional cuisine. Crawfish were out of season at the seafood place down the street, so my husband brought home alligator meat and frog legs. The clean plates are evidence that everyone enjoyed their crispy amphibious/reptilian nuggets:

The alligator was not taken from this guy, sited in the wild.  My first wild alligator siting, up close and personal:

We spent a good part of the week on the water:

Racing pontoon boats:

Attempting flounder gigging:

Swimming at sunset in the Gulf. We didn't emerge covered in oil, but bathed well afterwards nonetheless:

We also did a little bit of siteseeing, but most of the time we just enjoyed each others' company. The kids all played well together. We learned to play ladderball and Things. Here are some birdhouses the youngers painted one lazy afternoon:

I have to credit my sister-in-law for some of these photos. She is a great photographer and also great company, like all of my brothers- and sisters-in-law.  She and I had the excuse of picking up my husband's younger brother and sister-in-law at the airport in New Orleans to treat ourselves to a trip to the NO Museum of Art where we ran into this lady.  I'm thinking about trying this move with my six year old:

My sister-in-law also shared the bounty of her garden with us, so we feasted well on fresh herbs and vegetables all weekend long, although it required getting creative with eggplant: eggplant caponata, baba ghanoush, eggplant bruschetta, roasted eggplant and peppers... all delicious.

The harvest:

As you can see, we had a nice mix of family time spent swimming, site-seeing, playing ladder ball, and eating; guy time spent fishing, golfing, scotch tasting; and lady time spent browsing an art fair, drinking coffee, and laughing.  My sister-in-law and I also indulged in a spontaneous trip to get our feet fixed up. I have never had a pedicure, mostly because my feet are just so ugly there's not much that can be done to beautify them. Once at a track meet some random spectator asked if he could take a picture of my feet because he had a collection of unusual feet photos.  But after the aesthetician soaked, scrubbed, clipped, filed, and sawed away at my toes they are momentarily callous free.  

I'm blessed to have in-laws that I love and love having around. I figure they each have a little something of my husband in them, so they are easy to love. I've spent way too long browsing about 500 hundred photos and smiling to myself this morning. It was a wonderful week.

Now back to business.  Happy Birthday to Mary today. A good reason to eat cake and ice cream tonight.

***
p.s. I am also grateful for these gifts from my other sisters-in-law (and am eager to see copies of their photos...): A sprig from my new mandevilla and the detritus from a caramel machiato (rosemary, thyme, book and wine to be enjoyed later.)