We had a wonderful time in Memphis visiting some of our extended family. I will share with you some of the highlights of our trip. On Friday and Saturday we visited with Daddy's side of the family. His mom, Memaw, had planned a family reunion. All her three siblings and one of Daddy's cousins came up for the reunion. Us Richards' kids got to be with some of our Great Aunts and Uncles, and our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins. Memaw cooked some very tasty meals for us, both on Friday, and Saturday, complete with fresh squash from Gramps huge garden. When we ate our meals, Memaw had each of the generations sit a different tables. So all of us cousins, the 3rd generation, got to sit together. It was so fun listening to the 1st generation :) tell stories of days in the past. Some of the stories about our past extended family were hilarious!! Connor enjoyed riding four-wheelers all day on Memaw and Gramps property. It was great to be out in the quiet country.
On Saturday night all of us cousins (Cade, Cole, Connor, Kara, and I) went out to get ice cream. We had all been planning to go out together by ourselves once I got my driver's license:) Well that day had finallly come!! Anytime we do something together it always turns out to be a great adventure, and this night sure was an adventure. We first stopped at Sonic and got ice cream. Cade and Connor tried to play fetch with their tennis ball with the Sonic lady...........well, let's just say she wasn't really in the mood to play fetch:) When we were leaving Sonic, Cade, Connor, and Cole were all waving at her and wanted me to take a picture of them with the Sonic lady. I got all those silly boys into the car as fast as I could:) After Sonic, the first plan (the "normal/ordinary" plan :) was to go home, but that would definately not be very exciting. Someone thought of the idea to have a handshaking contest in the Kroger grocery store accross the street. I was hesitant, but before I could say "no" or lock the doors of the car they all hopped out the car and ran into the Kroger. Connor and Cade were on one team, and Cole and Kara on another. They got a hand shake from the meat packing man (gross!!) and almost from the not-too-nice Manager. I walked into the store after all the kids, and got them out of there before they got in too much trouble.....ha ha:) Our next stop was McDonalds...........to order a pepperoni pizza. The response to my order was, "uhhhhh, I'm sorry ma'am we don't have no pizza here.?.?." I thanked him and then drove off. We were all cracking up in the car, and saw the poor drive-thru guy just standing at the window staring at us:) Finally, we then made our trip home, complete with the all the windows down, the sunroof wide open, and "Life is a Highway" blaring out of the speakers and our mouths!! Needless to say, it was quite an exciting night with the cousins!
On Sunday we went to church with our Uncle Joel (my mom's brother) and then hung out all day by the pool at Uncle Joel's house, along with Grandma and Grandpa (Mom's parents). Connor got pretty good at his flips off the diving board and Kara perfected her cannon balls. We grilled out that day and Uncle Joel made homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream...........yum!!
On Monday we got to go visit the Corky's BBQ plant were my Uncle Joel is the manager. We all had to where white jackets and hair nets (so cute!!:) as we got our very special personal tour by my uncle. It was very interesting to see where they cook the meat, package it, take orders, and ship it off. If anyone wants some Memphis style BBQ...........Corky's is truly the very best!!
After the tour of the plant we met up with Grandma and Grandpa at an authentic mexican restaurant. This was really "authentic"............none of the tex-mex stuff you get everywhere that says it's "authentic." http://www.delimexicana.com/ At the restaurant they made all their food fresh every day. We got to sample the prickly pear juice..........very different, but good!
On Tuesday we made our way back home in a 16 hour car ride to good ol' Chesapeake. It was so fun to be with all of our extended family!
