Cake and Road kill

 

Some of our really good friends live about an hour away and they invited us to come make some sausage.  He'd shot a hog and deer earlier that week and was kind enough to share some with us.  We got to help in the whole process, which I'd never seen before.  They had ground it all up and added all their secret spices before we got there. Dang!  Anyhoo, for those of you who don't regularly do this sort of thing, (laugh) you stick the meat in the grinder and press it into very small edible paper in rolls.  I found out it was harder than it looked.  Well, to get it just right anyhow.  

 

After it's in the paper rolls we piled it into the cooler.  Looks so professional, we were pleased. :)

This is how we BBQ in Texas!  Well, not really me....yet. But everyone else. ha ha.  Can't say I actually have a smoker but they are awesome and make ya food taste amazing.  Stuck the sausage on there for several hours. 

 

 

 The kids had a blast playing with their dogs while we anxiously waited for the sausage to be done.  We of course had to 'test' it to make sure it tasted good.  To be safe, we tested a lot.  

The kids were happy and all, which I'm glad, but the dogs had been rolling around in dead fish earlier and therefore they and the kids all stunk so, so, SO BAD!!  Good thing their cute. 

  

I can't remember the last time they were able to play in the leaves.   The leaves were a little wet too but they didn't seem to care.  Halle would completely cover Payton and then jump on him.  Now that I think about it, I can't believe our friends actually let us in their house with how dirty they were. :)  We had a yummy lunch and of course we then got to eat some more sausage.  

 

When Ken finally told us we had to stop eating the sausage, we decided to go shoot some of his new ak 47's.   (Yes, my kids were watched and wore ear protection)

Forgot to take a pic, but we looked like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for sure. HA! 

Andy set up some cans and then about fell over when I hit the first one.  I swear he was totally shocked.  I then hit all of them, nope, blew them up!  6 total.  He's scared of me now. :) JK.  For real though, Don't Mess With Texas!

It was a fun weekend just chillin outdoors.  Compared to many, our winter is nice, but it's been raining a lot so a weekend without rain was sweet. 

The next weekend was raining but it's all good cause we can celebrate no matter what!  Andy and his twin, (yep he has a twin), sister celebrated their 30th birthdays.  We basically celebrated all week long but Andy wouldn't let me get any pictures of him!  We had lunch one day with Ashley and her little girl at the Red Lobster.  Halle for some reason kept talking about getting the lobster.  I think she'd seen something about in on Dora, who knows.  Anyhow, I was feeling nice that day so I let her get the lobster.  She loved it.  She ate that and the broccoli off this ginormous plate.  Hey, leftovers are good. 

That weekend Andy's parents took the entire family out to eat at Texas Roadhouse.  The service was actually really good, especially with all 23 of us.  It's definitely a good place for kids, since they encourage food all over the floor.  Well, peanut shells anyway.  :)

 

The kids were the only ones who let me take their picture.  Well, and smile anyway!  It was a full house that night so they were drawing and telling stories while we waited.  

We then came back to our place and celebrated with cake and ice cream.  Ashley had a yummy chocolate cake and Andy had his favorite, Nutter-butter ice cream pie. 

 

 

Andy and Ashley were able to open a few of their own gifts.  The kids were all pretty excited and eager to help unwrap. :)   It was a really fun night just hanging out and reminiscing about the old days.  It's been a very long time since they've celebrated together and I think it should be a new tradition.  Can't believe we are getting so old!  At least we don't have to do it alone. :) We are very blessed to have such wonderful family around to share good times with. Two weeks, and then we get to celebrate again!