the 2010 beach trip: presentations, beachtime & lottie's new mudder

the official photo, the gang's all here

(shon, chris, cj, tony, suzy, kristina, andy on greg, jennifer, spencer, megan over ronny, lianne and tommy over matt, moi with rowdy, lottie sue, lucy and sam, mary ann and then max)

we got back on saturday from a week of fun in the sun, it was another venable beach trip and was so much fun! i have some photos that i will put up here, but with two kids we noticed there is less photo-taking. i am SURE megan will post about it and will have 100 photos so i will link to her blog once it's up. i did steal a few photos from her but there were so many i was overwhelmed. anywho, here we go - and please note that their is not way that i can convey ALL of the jokes (inside and out) of this trip. it is rich, people. rich.

matt made the yummy pimento cheese (mild and spicy) for everyone with lottie sue's help.

after shredding, a mountain of cheese

lottie sue working the food processor

we left on friday and spent the night at the gilmore's house. it was super fun and we packed up early to head over to ocean isle.

the caravan from the smiths' car

once we got there lottie sue started with beach shenanigans, it was pretty funny.


then it was tommy's turn.

mazola

if i go anywhere the first thing i do is unpack everything - i like to have my room like my house. i put everything in the drawers and organize the bathroom and whatnot. tommy and megan live out of the suitcase so this year i offered to unpack their room and make it all martha stewart.

everything has a place in its place

the first night we arrive we have presentations and this year was the best! first, you will notice the queen of ocean isle here...this year she signed a new proclamation.

our queen bee

megan reads the proclamation before all

sam and mary ann enjoy the show

i'll have to get the actual proclamation
for you (or i bet megan will put it up)

then suzy and tony had an awesome presentation, they had special t-shirts for everyone (as in, everyone had their own special t-shirt that relates to them - yes, like i said - awesome). i have a few here that we took shots of...

matt's shirt states the truth - proud to be an american!

i'm a rowdy raider!

sam's shirt says "sin kills" - so funny

lottie sue got a hannah montana shirt, and even though she has no
idea who hannah montana is she LOVED it and wore it every day

our presentation was also great, we made a video titled "deaton the odds" - i can't post it here (soooo very sorry) but believe me when i say that there was a lot of time and effort put into this video that honors one of our brothers, the great tony deaton. he is america's new hero!

there were testimonials, doctors, jezebels (former), UT kickers, bag boys and so much more. you will have to trust me on this one. tony loved being the center of at all! we also made writstbands a la livestrong for the group. it was a winner.

all natural talent, never had a lesson

every night after dinner we walk out down to the beach together. usually the kids end up naked and in the water.

lottie sue maneuvering a sand castle

every afternoon around three, man time happens. man time consists of smoking meat, cocktails and LOTS of laughs for everyone. it is the most entertaining time of the day, lemmetellya.

let me introduce one of the stars of the show/man time...the smoker.

please don't crowd him, as he has to be able to catch his breath

it is rare that we get into the "ideal" zone

here we have a few more shots of the beach, lottie sue loves her some beach. she cries when we have to leave.

i put her in this hole someone dug and then
four people told me how dangerous it was, i missed
the 20/20 show that recently aired on the topic

our first and only (the horror, i know) family photo

there are many underwater meetings at the beach. we really try to solve world issues and come up with new business models.

rowdy's first attendance

matt chillaxes

i can't get by without mentioning the food - OH THE FOOD. matt gained seven pounds this past week! but don't worry, he can lose weight so easily. he'll be back.

megan made some yummy bruschetta

ok, more photos...

we are cute, yes we are

more man time fun

my kiddos

tommy loses an arm to lottie sue and her light saber
(don't worry, it grew back)

there was someone near us that made awesome
sand castles, alligators and so forth

lottie sue on the beach, carefree

here i am with the rowdyman

cj gets a beach feeding

lottie sue and matt run around together

tommy and chris

lottie sue did this one night sans underwear
(yes, sand was EVERYWHERE)

me and my cutie pie

oh yes, i leave you with this photo. lottie sue absolutely LOVES mary ann. i think she may love her more than she loves us. she called her "mudder" all week and the first thing she asked me every morning was "where's my mudder?" - true story.

lottie sue and her new mudder

i have a few more photos that i can't get to right now (mostly about the turtle nerds but i think i have more presentation-time photos). matt is doing a two-city tour this week and they are on his laptop. i'll get them and post later. i also have many things to post about the past month. i am WAY behind on posting about our happenings. forgive me.

but i will, of course, leave you with a few interesting reads. you're welcome.

• louis c.k. interview gets npr's fresh air banned in mississippi, their loss
• metallica says the 2004 documentary was a big, bad mistake
• here's an interview with paul buckley, he's the book cover design guru behind penguin books
• i love stuff like this, check out persona - it's an original photo series that displays a subject and their essential daily items
• i'm sure you've heard about post secret, people send in their secrets via postcards - if you are nosey like me it's a great thing
• here's a site that can tell you song meanings, lyrics and trivia
• you should bookmark this site, it's ALL about television shows
• the word detective can tell you everything you want to know about word origins
• pastemagazine is a great resource for anything in music, film and culture

buh bye!

high art, candy lust & lottie sue catches like a girl

This past weekend was BUSY. But fun. Lucky for you we are photo-taking fools and we have lots to share with you. It will be like you were there. Or here I guess.

Oh yeah, if you live in Knox Vegas and get the News Sentinel be sure to check out A4 next Monday (I think, it could be the Monday after that). They are running my Matt and Lottie Sue photo (look to your right) in their "Reader's Eye" feature. Once it goes up online I will post a link, but once again I'M FAMOUS!

Anywho...Tommy was featured as an artist in the Maryville Art Walk on Friday. It was a big honor and also a big hit. His show was held at Boyd Thomas (go shop there, I bought an awesome sweater that I wore all weekend) and there was a great turnout. It was pretty awesome to see his paintings in such a venue, we have one of his paintings and he used it in the show - some fella wanted to buy it but we said NO WAY! He also created a new and very special painting...see below.

two lottie sue mowrers, there is a rip in the space/time continuum

kristina and megan pose with lottie sue
(who couldn't bother to put her phone away for this shot)

the ar-teest

check out the painting of kristina there, purty

and let's not forget megan on the wall!

matt, sam (aka, dipsey) and tommy talk about the finer points of art

here is a better shot of lottie's portrait

matt took this and i thought megan's face was funny so i'm posting it

megan, amanda, christina and moi

Saturday was a busy day, we did a little shoe shopping (everyone scored but me, I have Big Foot feet...sigh) and then it was Halloween time. It was a rainy day but Lottie Sue got a few houses in before we quit. She was quite pleased with a handful of items.

lottie sue was a flapper and rowdy was a pumpkin pirate
(the non-pillaging kind)

kisses for baby brother

Here she is after we got home, drenched. At the beginning of the trick or treating, Lottie would get her candy then walk into the neighbor's house. She wasn't quite getting it, but after a few houses she was down with it. The rain really put a damper (pun intended) on the evening, we had only a handful of trick or treaters and we usually have a ton - PLUS some of the neighbors turned their garages into haunted houses for the kids and the rain just poo poo'd on it. Anywho, here she is with her candy.

nom nom nom

And here she is going ballistic on Bebin (Kevin) for getting too close to it - she DID NOT want to share.

GO AWAY BEBIN

The Vols stomped South Carolina Saturday night, but their outfits were almost as exciting - go black and orange!

how fun, i loved it

Then yesterday was church, YUMMY lunch followed by a lazy afternoon.

Side note: If you like meatloaf you HAVE to make Martha Stewart's All-American Meatloaf - it is the bomb. And you don't have to use veal in it if you don't want to, adding pork is enough to push it over into the awesome category. I think we first had this with Megan but it soon fell into our fall/winter meal rotation. Trust me on this, make it.

We took a lot of photos while watching football, see?

rowdy was upset by how peyton was playing

here i think he was trying to look up a cheerleader's skirt (the shame)

lottie sue was busy doing flips and laughing

rowdy the composer

Before dinner we went outside to play - Lottie Sue loves to run, climb and go down slides.

here she is running

and climbing

and sliding - WHEE (high on life)

She also likes to play ball, but she totally catches like a girl.

it would help if her eyes were open

Have a great week, over and out!

PS: New York Magazine wrote an article about Knoxville, I learned a thing or five. I need to get out more.