Annual Visit From Kids and Grands

Happy Birthday America

Kathy, plus daughters Lauren and Jennafer and boy friend, Evan, came in from San Antonio for their annual summer visit from 6/24-7/1 then Eric, Ann, Matthew, and Sophia joined us from Napierville, IL 6/27-30, and Wende, Ralph, and Eliza came down from Oak Ridge, TN for the day on 6/29 so all of my kids were here for at least one day.  Kathy always comes prepared with her list of special supper meals (*) to eat while here and we filled in the blanks for the following:

Mon: Million Dollar Spaghetti Pie

Tue: Crappie with lemon, butter, caper sauce* over basmati rice with slaw

Wed: Grilled chicken & beef fajitas with Charro Beans

Thu: Deep fried catfish and slaw

Fri: Grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and cast iron pot fried potatoes* - there's just something special about them as they get crispy for serving and especially with a couple of chili, mustard, and onion dogs.  When the younger kids liked to play in the creek, we would go to Cade's Cove for this meal, but it's much simpler here at the house.

Sat: Low country boil*

Sun: Dinner at Rick’s Dockside Grill at Tellico Harbor Marina

For breakfasts, we had Southwestern Sausage and Grits Casserole , scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes, and Kathy’s scramble (with mushrooms, spinach, and bacon).

The meals that we cooked were all a big hit but dinner at Rick's got mixed reviews.

Their activities for the week were:

Mon-Wed: Play on the lake

Thu: Gatlinburg for Hillbilly mini golf, Rowdy Mountain Coaster, and other adventures.

Fri: Whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River

Sat-Sun: Play at the lake including new granddaughter, Eliza’s first visit.

Mon: Pack-up, play cards, and head to the airport

I believe a good time was had by all even though my participation was very limited due to my soon to be hip replacement situation.  Basically they played while Bev and I cooked and would you believe the dishwasher quit so it was paper plates and a lot of hand washing – fortunately, we grew up knowing how to do that effectively.  It’s always great to have them all together and this is why we built this house at this location, but eating as we did, I made no progress on my weight loss effort - stayed even though.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/24 – 7/1/19 event dates