This past weekend we had quite the BUSY weekend! On Friday, Tim and I each worked a 1/2 day and drove to Memphis where my grandparents live (Collierville). Every year, my mom and her two sisters meet in Memphis to have a girls extended weekend. Being in Birmingham, I'm only a few hours a way so the last two years I have met them for a night. This year, my cousin Megan had a blessing shower on Saturday to celebrate her and Blake's wedding which is coming up in less than three weeks! Because of the shower, the girls caved and let Allen, Tim, and Mike (Megan's Dad/Kay's husband) join us for the weekend!
On Friday, we arrived around dinner time and had a delicious home cooked meal followed by some catching up!
Me, Mom, Allen - Friday night
Pops, me, mom, Allen
Most of you may not know that I come by my dessert obsession honestly - my great grandfather (Pops' dad) started a pie factory which manufactured many different kinds of pies including individually packaged pies (they sold to Little Debbie and others). Pops and his brother took on the business and my mom worked in the factory as a teen. The site of the Keathley Pie Factory has actually been turned into apartment lofts which you can read about in this
history. My great grandfather invented many of the machines that manufactured the pies in bulk including a circular oven (to save space). Funny story...Pops likes to tell us about the time that McDonalds made his father an offer to exclusively manufacture pies for them and my great grandfather declined the offer - he didn't think it was smart to sell exclusively and McDonalds probably wasn't going to be very big!! Oops!
Pops found some old video of the process in the factory which he showed to us - very neat!
Factory before they moved to the Keathley Pies location (Cheryl Lynn was a combination of two of my mom's cousins names - apparently they also made a pie named for my mom and Kay which was a total bust - barbecue pie!!)
Watching the individual pies go through the manufacturing process
Tim hanging with my grandmother, Moms
Saturday morning, the girls of course had to do some shopping - we let the guys go golfing and headed to the mall! We found some great deals at Loft and Gap and then headed to
Humdinger's for lunch.
Moms, Pops, Megan, me at lunch
Karee, Connie, Kay (sisters)
Saturday night was the blessing shower which was a cool experience - the hosts and hostesses set up a table with many different items to give to the couple. Each item represented a blessing they wanted to bestow upon the couple. For example, they gave them a picnic basket to represent time out to themselves as a couple and a few cups and saucers to represent deep friendships/conversation. We then had a time where other guests could share their blessings (each guest also wrote them a note to put in their basket) and then the guys and girls split up for a time of prayer.
Tim & I getting ready to go to the shower
The happy couple - Blake & Megan
Sunday morning, we got up and went to early church with Moms and Pops and then Allen taught their Sunday School class. We got on the road and drove to Fort Payne, Alabama where Allen's mom (Grandmother) and brother live. All of Allen's siblings and some of their children gathered in Fort Payne for an extended weekend. It had been WAY too long since I had seen some of them and Tim and I decided that even though we had to be back at work on Monday it was worth it to drive there for a few hours. My nephew, Jackson had a birthday party for this third birthday (which is hard for me to believe!)
Jackson opening presents with his dad, Jonathan
Many onlookers watch the festivities!
Mary Beth, Allie, Mom, Tim
Mary Beth and Amy enjoyed the musical instruments more than Jackson did - I must say, they were quite impressive!
Jackson clapping while we sang him happy birthday
Digging in to the Lightening McQueen cake from Aunt Kay
Me & Sambo (Pam)
Hubby & me
One last pic before we hit the road...here's our Aruba group!
Overall, awesome weekend and even though we're still catching up on sleep, totally worth it!