Friday
Saturday
Emily & Leslie
The Guests Outside
Emily & Sarah
Elizabeth & Thomas (Leslie's Baby)
Bocce (a nearly impossible game with Deacon (my parents dog)!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Week 16 - Denver!
Sorry we're a little late this week getting our post up! We've been busy busy. This past weekend we got to go home to Denver to visit my mom, dad and sister and to celebrate my good friend Emily's upcoming wedding! Gray and I flew to Denver on Thursday afternoon and arrived to chilly rocky mountain air! We went out to dinner at one of our favorite little places in Littleton, Wild Ginger, and had some great Thai food. On Friday my mom and dad both had to work so Gray and I were on our own. We were planning on going on a hike but we woke up on Friday morning to freezing cold rain which quickly turned to snow! We had gone over to the mall to look at some stores and came out to find our car covered with a few inches of snow. What better way to spend the snowing afternoon than at the movies :) Gray and I went and saw Date Night. It was a cute movie and a good way to pass the afternoon! It's funny to be in a movie theatre in the middle of the day on a week day. That night we grilled out (in the snow) and Elizabeth arrived!
On Saturday we got ready for Emily's shower. My mom and Elizabeth and I hosted a kitchen themed shower for Emily and invited some great neighborhood friends. You won't believe the crazy Colorado weather but we actually ended up having the majority of the shower outside on the back deck because it turned into a beautiful day! During the shower the boys all spent the afternoon at the bowling alley and enjoying lunch at a sports bar (their plans of fly fishing were cancelled because the mountains were still getting snow!). Here are some fun pictures of our weekend.
After the shower, the boys all came back and joined us for a fun late afternoon on the back porch.
We were sad to leave on Sunday but had a great visit to Denver and can't wait to go back!!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Week 15 - Juke Joint Festival
The Fiser 52 was back on the road again this weekend. We packed up our bags and the Roo dog and headed down to Clarksdale for the best blues festival in the Mississippi Delta. The Juke Joint Festival has been going on for about a decade (don't cite me on this) in downtown Clarksdale. It occurs every April and is perfect for a weekend of blues, food, and turkey hunting.
We arrived on Friday night and found my grandmother in her office, "the kitchen". As usual, she was whipping up a home cooked meal to get the weekend started right. Shortly after we arrived, my parents, Anna and her friend Brittany showed up. According to my grandmother's rules, a dinner with this many people calls for the fine china and silver. We stuffed our faces with steak and baked potato and then came the desserts...strawberry cake and pecan pie. I don't think I have ever left a meal at my grandparent's without feeling completely bloated. After dinner, the boys headed to the woods and the girls headed out to Ground Zero for some blues music. Now I don't know what the girls did, but apparently they had a great time staying out until 1 am.
Fast forward to 4:45 am and dad and I were waking up to go chase turkeys in the woods. Unfortunately I'm unable to fill this blog with details of a great hunt because we didn't hear anything! At least we saw a hen and three jakes. After hunting all morning we headed into town to join the girls at Juke Joint. When we got there we were greeted by the smell of fried food and the quirky lyrics of the blues. We scooted around the festival for a little bit before we headed back to my grandparent's to rest up b/f dinner and the night's festivities.
After a little cat nap, we all loaded up and headed down to Madidi's in Clarksdale. For those that don't know, Madidi's is the restaurant that Morgan Freeman owns. We were hoping to see him that night, but I guess he was busy getting ready for American Idol this week since I just saw him on there. After our delicious dinner, my grandmother rounded the troops up and told us we were headed to see Super Chicken play at Ground Zero (also owned by Morgan Freeman). No lie...we show up and my grandmother charges straight to the front of the club to be on the front row. I know...it is sad when I can't keep up with my grandmother. At one point I saw Super Chicken look over at my grandparents and say Hi Ms. Harvey and Mr. Hal. It is great to have grandparents that are young at heart. By midnight, we were all exhausted and it was time to head home.
It was a great weekend with the family and I highly recommend that everyone who lives in Memphis drop down to Clarksdale for at least one night to soak in a night of the blues and fun.
On a side note - things are blooming in Memphis! When we got home from Clarksdale we decided to turn our old outdoor fire pit/chimney into a garden.
We arrived on Friday night and found my grandmother in her office, "the kitchen". As usual, she was whipping up a home cooked meal to get the weekend started right. Shortly after we arrived, my parents, Anna and her friend Brittany showed up. According to my grandmother's rules, a dinner with this many people calls for the fine china and silver. We stuffed our faces with steak and baked potato and then came the desserts...strawberry cake and pecan pie. I don't think I have ever left a meal at my grandparent's without feeling completely bloated. After dinner, the boys headed to the woods and the girls headed out to Ground Zero for some blues music. Now I don't know what the girls did, but apparently they had a great time staying out until 1 am.
Fast forward to 4:45 am and dad and I were waking up to go chase turkeys in the woods. Unfortunately I'm unable to fill this blog with details of a great hunt because we didn't hear anything! At least we saw a hen and three jakes. After hunting all morning we headed into town to join the girls at Juke Joint. When we got there we were greeted by the smell of fried food and the quirky lyrics of the blues. We scooted around the festival for a little bit before we headed back to my grandparent's to rest up b/f dinner and the night's festivities.
Anna & Brittany on the Clarksdale bus tour
Our first row seats for Super Chicken
It was a great weekend with the family and I highly recommend that everyone who lives in Memphis drop down to Clarksdale for at least one night to soak in a night of the blues and fun.
On a side note - things are blooming in Memphis! When we got home from Clarksdale we decided to turn our old outdoor fire pit/chimney into a garden.
Flowers, herbs and more! We're hoping to plant some ivy to climb up the structure.
We're off to Denver...stayed tuned!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Week 13 and 14 - Easter in Jackson and Memphis Botanic Gardens
Uh Oh! We missed a week! Hopefully it made you crave some more Fiser 52. If so, today's your lucky day because you are getting double the content.
Let's start with Week 13...
Lucky for me and unlucky for Sarah, I got Good Friday off, but she didn't. I took the opportunity to head down to the woods and turkey hunt with my dad for a couple of days. We didn't have any luck, but it was a great start to the Easter weekend.
Sarah and I met up on Saturday night in Greenville, MS...yes we have been in the MS Delta a lot lately...for my aunt's wedding. It was a small ceremony followed by a great reception thrown by all of their friends. I was pooped from chasing Toms in the woods all day, so we headed down to my parent's house around 9pm that night to get ready for the Easter festivities.
Let me preface the upcoming Week 13 statements. Easter is a really big deal at my parent's house and there are things that we take very very serious.
We start each Easter by scoping out what the Easter Bunny has brought us. Consistent with past Easter's our baskets were filled with candy and other misc. items. The Easter Bunny never gets old. After we load up on sugar we hit the showers to get ready for church. Usually this involves a rush to the showers to see who gets the most hot water. Luckily Sarah and I had the downstairs bedroom and had no one to compete with this year.
Church was packed as usual. Over the past two years when I walk into the service there are two things that I always think about. First, I wish that churches were this packed every Sunday. How great would it be if this many people heard the Gospel each week. Second, I always look at the Easter lilies that are given in memory of people and think of my buddy Mark Steele. He was an awesome friend of mine who passed away around Easter three years ago.
After the service we headed over to the capitol to take pictures for Payne's (our nephew) first Easter. After our smiles were worn out, we headed back to the house for the big egg hunt.
Here's where things get good...For the past five or six years, we have always had an enormous egg hunt at our house. My dad always wakes up at 5:30am to hide the eggs to make sure we don't know where any of the money eggs are. Needless to say, my family is ruthless when it comes to hunting eggs. I believe our egg hunts would rival some of the scenes from "There Will Be Blood". This year was no exception. We went crazy trying to find eggs. We clawed, pushed, shoved, and even tripped each other to get the golden egg. It's not any ordinary golden egg though. It holds a crisp Benjamin Franklin. Too bad the Gray Fiser family did not find that egg this year - but we did find $55! My older sister Robbie took home the bacon. She probably deserves it having a newborn child. It will probably go to diapers, which is no fun.
After the big egg hunt, my mother decided that our crazy family needed to do a cake walk. Much like musical chairs, the music started and you had to land on a paper plate to stay in the competition. After it was all said and done I came out victorous...too bad the prize wasn't a hundy dollar bill. I got my choice of bread. I went with Strawberry bread. Guess what...We're not done...
After the cake walk we headed over to a vacant lot near our house and played good ole fashion home run derby. It was all going well until some random dog was walking through and Sarah tripped over him and almost broke her jaw. Not to worry she was just a little bruised and battered but all bones were in place.
So after all our festivities, Sarah and I made the wise decision to park it in Jackson for the night and ride home on Monday morning. Although it made for a long Monday, it was a great Easter weekend in Jackson. I'm tired of typing, so I'm going to let Sarah take you through Week 14...
Well I think Gray may have used all of the words up for this post so I'll keep it short! The weather in Memphis has been gorgeous lately! This weekend we woke up on Saturday morning and went to the Botanic Gardens. It was a great morning and we walked all aroud the gardens. They just built this new children's garden that is amazing! If you've never been - this is a great time of year to go! Here are some great pictures from our visit...
Let's start with Week 13...
Lucky for me and unlucky for Sarah, I got Good Friday off, but she didn't. I took the opportunity to head down to the woods and turkey hunt with my dad for a couple of days. We didn't have any luck, but it was a great start to the Easter weekend.
Sarah and I met up on Saturday night in Greenville, MS...yes we have been in the MS Delta a lot lately...for my aunt's wedding. It was a small ceremony followed by a great reception thrown by all of their friends. I was pooped from chasing Toms in the woods all day, so we headed down to my parent's house around 9pm that night to get ready for the Easter festivities.
Easter cookies!
Let me preface the upcoming Week 13 statements. Easter is a really big deal at my parent's house and there are things that we take very very serious.
We start each Easter by scoping out what the Easter Bunny has brought us. Consistent with past Easter's our baskets were filled with candy and other misc. items. The Easter Bunny never gets old. After we load up on sugar we hit the showers to get ready for church. Usually this involves a rush to the showers to see who gets the most hot water. Luckily Sarah and I had the downstairs bedroom and had no one to compete with this year.
Church was packed as usual. Over the past two years when I walk into the service there are two things that I always think about. First, I wish that churches were this packed every Sunday. How great would it be if this many people heard the Gospel each week. Second, I always look at the Easter lilies that are given in memory of people and think of my buddy Mark Steele. He was an awesome friend of mine who passed away around Easter three years ago.
After the service we headed over to the capitol to take pictures for Payne's (our nephew) first Easter. After our smiles were worn out, we headed back to the house for the big egg hunt.
Here's where things get good...For the past five or six years, we have always had an enormous egg hunt at our house. My dad always wakes up at 5:30am to hide the eggs to make sure we don't know where any of the money eggs are. Needless to say, my family is ruthless when it comes to hunting eggs. I believe our egg hunts would rival some of the scenes from "There Will Be Blood". This year was no exception. We went crazy trying to find eggs. We clawed, pushed, shoved, and even tripped each other to get the golden egg. It's not any ordinary golden egg though. It holds a crisp Benjamin Franklin. Too bad the Gray Fiser family did not find that egg this year - but we did find $55! My older sister Robbie took home the bacon. She probably deserves it having a newborn child. It will probably go to diapers, which is no fun.
After the big egg hunt, my mother decided that our crazy family needed to do a cake walk. Much like musical chairs, the music started and you had to land on a paper plate to stay in the competition. After it was all said and done I came out victorous...too bad the prize wasn't a hundy dollar bill. I got my choice of bread. I went with Strawberry bread. Guess what...We're not done...
After the cake walk we headed over to a vacant lot near our house and played good ole fashion home run derby. It was all going well until some random dog was walking through and Sarah tripped over him and almost broke her jaw. Not to worry she was just a little bruised and battered but all bones were in place.
So after all our festivities, Sarah and I made the wise decision to park it in Jackson for the night and ride home on Monday morning. Although it made for a long Monday, it was a great Easter weekend in Jackson. I'm tired of typing, so I'm going to let Sarah take you through Week 14...
Well I think Gray may have used all of the words up for this post so I'll keep it short! The weather in Memphis has been gorgeous lately! This weekend we woke up on Saturday morning and went to the Botanic Gardens. It was a great morning and we walked all aroud the gardens. They just built this new children's garden that is amazing! If you've never been - this is a great time of year to go! Here are some great pictures from our visit...
Childrens Garden Entrance
Mossy furniture :)
Also - check out how much our garden has grown! Hopefully we'll have some flowers of our own soon!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Week 12 - Anniversary
It's been a crazy week and we just realized that we never put up a post! Gray is at the hunting camp so I'm going to keep it short and sweet...
Last weekend we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary!
Gray made plans for us to head to Greenwood, MS to spend a night at the Alluvian Hotel and to take a Viking Cooking Class!
Before we headed out of town, we stopped by Cafe Eclectic for a great breakfast. I'd never been before and we figured we'd get in a memphis highlight since we seem to be all over the place lately! For those of you who have never been, we highly recommend this great restaurant. It has a fun atmosphere and a great menu! Check it out...http://www.cafeeclectic.net/
Then it was off to the Delta! We made a quick stop in Cleveland at Abraham's mens shop, where we had the nicest people helping Gray pick out some great shirts. Gray's grandparents Harvey and Hal are legends at the store :) and we felt honored to be related! Then we drove over to Greenwood for our stay at the Alluvian. Check out their website here for the info...http://www.thealluvian.com/
After walking around the main street for a while, we went to a Viking Cooking School class for dinner. We were in a demonstration class about Steakhouse Classics - which basically meant we got to sit back and relax with some wine while the instructor showed us how to make each course. We were then served each course after she was done showing us how to make it. It was great and hopefully I'll be able to replicate a steakhouse dinner sometime for us here at home!
I didn't take too many pictures but here are some of the outside of the hotel.
Last weekend we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary!
Before we headed out of town, we stopped by Cafe Eclectic for a great breakfast. I'd never been before and we figured we'd get in a memphis highlight since we seem to be all over the place lately! For those of you who have never been, we highly recommend this great restaurant. It has a fun atmosphere and a great menu! Check it out...http://www.cafeeclectic.net/
After walking around the main street for a while, we went to a Viking Cooking School class for dinner. We were in a demonstration class about Steakhouse Classics - which basically meant we got to sit back and relax with some wine while the instructor showed us how to make each course. We were then served each course after she was done showing us how to make it. It was great and hopefully I'll be able to replicate a steakhouse dinner sometime for us here at home!
I didn't take too many pictures but here are some of the outside of the hotel.
It was a great anniversary weekend and a fun trip exploring the Delta!
We're heading down to Jackson this weekend for Easter so stayed tuned for some pics (hopefully of a triumphant easter egg hunting team!)
Happy Easter!
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