5/26/14

Family Fun

Yesterday I spent the day recovering from the all-day class of the day before. We had a backyard BBQ planned with Erik and Mae however, and so I made a salad in the morning. Then, I was tired from a busy week and a busy day previously and so I pretty much slugged around the rest of the day.

We made our way to Erik and Mae's house around 5:00. They had the place looking so nice! They just bought their house in October, and they've already done quite a bit of work on the interior with updates, painting, and repairs. Erik had the yard all cleaned up and mowed.


They've been getting their raised bed ready for tomatoes and other veggies. I was trying to find a picture of how this looked originally, but I couldn't find one. (I'm not sure I ever took one.) There were originally two beds very close together and very close to the fence. They were turned 90 degrees from the way it looks now. 


Mae didn't like that because it made it difficult to access either bed without leaning way over, and it would have been hard on one's back. So they turned the bed and made it longer and narrower. Mae wants to add another narrow bed right next to the fence for growing trailing plants like peas or beans. This is generally the weekend we, here in Oregon, try to get our vegetables planted. They picked up some starts, and so they should be good to go once this is all filled in with soil.

For dinner, we all contributed something, and Erik spent a lot of time grilling zucchini, eggplant, chicken and salmon.


Grilled zucchini and grilled eggplant are some of my favorites. Mae sliced it thin and marinated it in a balsamic vinaigrette-type mixture, and then Erik grilled it


then Mae wrapped it around prosciutto and mozzarella cheese, and


voila! Yum, yum, yum. This was soooooooooo good. She served it up with a balsamic dipping sauce.


And then we devoured it...like a hoard of locusts.

Valerie and Matthew entertained us with their camera hamminess. These two.


In the background is Valerie's mother, Maureen, who was visiting from Ketchikan, Alaska. She brought us some wonderful smoked salmon, caught fresh, and smoked by Valerie's uncle(?), I think.


There was a lot of food.


Oh but wait, there's more! Erik brought in the grilled salmon, which was superb.


We had a wonderful evening with the kids. It was the first time Erik and Mae had entertained us formally, and it was great to see the place looking so nice. Everybody seems very happy right now. What could be better than that?

Then, this morning, Gracie and Smitty saw an opossum!


And don't you know that got their furs in a floof!


Time for a good brushing from Gracie's cat daddy.


So today I'm repotting the tomatoes while I can still do it without risking life and limb...that would be my limbs, not theirs. And if there's still time left in the day, I'll get back to quilting We are the World.

Take a few minutes to remember today, and enjoy the remainder of your Memorial Day weekend.


8 comments:

Kate said...

Looks like everyone had a great time. Hope you get some time to sit back and just be.

gpc said...

Those veggie wraps look delicious. I haven't had any grilling yet this year -- I don't have a grill myself and haven't found anyone yet to mooch off of!

Sher S. said...

the grilled veggies looked yummy, will have to try that this week when making kabob's. You definitely had a wide variety of food to enjoy, all healthy looking. Hope you get time for some quilting and relaxing. We plan on a quiet day at home, maybe some more packing and cleaning out.
Have a peaceful day.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Their yard looks wonderful - WOW, what a great feast! I am staying home to mind the shop while everyone else is off enjoying the day. I look forward to some quiet time.

WoolenSails said...

It looks like you had a wonderful time with your family and the foods you had, look delicious.

Debbie

Dana Gaffney said...

That food looked great, you have my mouth watering. Gracie is beautiful as always.

quiltzyx said...

The yard looks great! They've done a nice job of it all. Boy, just reading "grilled salmon" made my mouth water. I haven't had any for seems like ages. And a fine time was had by all. :)

I can see that Ms. Gracie just hates having Cat Daddy brush her! lol

Tami C said...

Their yard looks great! It sure looks like your family had a delicious meal together. We had dinner at Kenny's sister's house and his Mom was there as well. Kenny & I are both veterans & it was nice of his sister to have us over.