This year's Thanksgiving plans went through some twists and turns before we all finally ended up at Cracker Barrel together for lunch, but that definitely didn't take any of the fun out of it! My family had originally planned to meet at my brother's house (where Beth was going to cook a delicious organic turkey from the CSA they subscribe to), but then Hurricane Sandy hit and Jon got sent off to New Jersey for a month to help with the recovery. We didn't want to leave Beth with the job of cooking for everyone and taking care of a two year old on her own, so we all decided that we'd meet up somewhere and let someone else do the cooking.

Cracker Barrel is crazy busy on Thanksgiving Day, and there's a bit of a longer wait if you have a larger party. Darren and I have gone by ourselves before and only had to wait 20 minutes or so for a table, but it took an hour for our party of 8 to be seated. Totally to be expected when there's a big crowd, and it gave everyone a little "Sophie time" (that's Dad browsing toys with her above).

It also gave Mom a chance to shop for a little present for Sophie Clare, who was quite exuberant as she opened it.

What little girl wouldn't love an adorable pink sock monkey purse?!?!? :)

happy birthday, d!

Darren's birthday is at exactly the wrong point in the school year- he's always studying for tests and writing papers, and this year he's teaching on top of all that (one year he literally had time for nothing more than Chick Fil A sandwiches and a quick round of gift opening at home). Luckily both last year and this year he's had time to at least go out for dinner, and, like last year, he opted for Greek cuisine this time around.

We didn't go to a typical Greek restaurant, though, because just a week or so earlier we heard about a diner of all places that serves fabulous Greek food along with the typical diner fare. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of how good the food would be, but when the staff at the City Cafe Diner in Huntsville plopped this hummus platter down on our table shortly after we arrived, I knew we were in for a treat!

And when this bread showed up just a few minutes later? Well, let's just say that the next words out of my mouth were, "I'm so not eating Paleo tonight." And, yes, the bread was really, really good!

We put our orders in, and then Darren tore into his gifts...which I had lazily wrapped all in one box. :)

These Onion Goggles from ThinkGeek are going to get a lot of use around here- we're constantly chopping veggies for some dish or other, and as chief chopper Darren usually gets the worst of the onion vapor. I also gave him a couple of t-shirts (Black Mesa and BaCoN) along with a bottle of Zombie hot sauce just for fun.

Oh, so stylin', right?

When our food came out, we both just stopped for a minute and stared at the enormity of the portions. We seriously were not expecting this much food!

Darren got a Greek sampler platter...

...and I opted for sauteed shrimp, chicken, and mushroom pasta. Soooo good! And we had tons of leftovers to take home, too.

Speaking of home, that's where D's birthday cake was served. Per his request, this year's model was a pound cake (unfortunately store-bought since my kitchen was still ripped apart for the new tile installation) frosted with Nutella.

And of course he had to take a minute to play with this food...because getting older so doesn't mean that he's getting any more mature. :)

Dinner + cake + three episodes of Last Resort made for a perfect birthday evening for D- so glad that he's easy to please!

happy birthday, dad!

Okay, so, yes, Dad's birthday was actually three weeks ago, but it's taken me this long to get the photos edited to post! Part of the problem was I just didn't think that I did a very good job of shooting that night. Have you ever had one of those days when you're just not getting along with your camera? That was me for most of this particular weekend. I don't know if I was just out of practice or just off my game, but I had a lot of blurry shots on my card after the night was over. Luckily I took enough pictures that a few of them turned out- definitely enough to share the highlights of the weekend!

I actually spent Thursday night at my parents' house on my way back from working in Ohio for the weekend, and then helped get ready for the birthday party all day Friday.

Mom had already done a bit of decorating before I got there, including this cute little cart filled with pumpkins...which one of the cats promptly turned into a bed.

I helped clean the house and baked a pecan pie (Dad's request...though the pie failed to set up and was more like a pecan soup...), and we also made sure to get the gifts wrapped before Dad got home from work. I even had time to stop and get a couple of balloons (the pink one was for my Grandmom, who has the same birthday as Dad).

Speaking of Grandmom, here she is learning a little about how to use an iPad. And the scary thing? Sophie was helping to teach her! At not-quite-two-and-a -half she's scary good at it!

And of course anywhere that Sophie bug is, she's the center of attention, right? She had great fun "helping" Dad and Grandmom open their birthday gifts. Come to think of it, maybe that's why so many of my photos are blurry- the girl never stops moving!

tennessee state fair 2012

Just a couple of weeks after I arrived back home from Star Wars Celebration VI, my family and I trekked out to the Tennessee State Fair- pretty much on the opposite side of the spectrum as far as big events go!

The fair actually published a fairly detailed schedule online this year, and since I was still in convention mode (where I lived with a schedule on my iPhone for four days straight), I had scoured it and figured out a loose plan for the day before we arrived. We ended up spending the whole day there- from 9 in the morning until after 8 at night- and packed so much in!

We started off the day with the miniature donkey competition. One of my favorite parts of the fair is seeing all the livestock- something I don't get to do a lot of during my normal computer-and-iPhone-filled city life!

sophie is two!

My niece turned two last month, and of course I was at her birthday party, camera in hand!

The first order of business after we all arrived was to finish decorating the cupcakes. Mom cut a bunch of really cute toppers on the Cricut using the Create a Critter cartridge, and Sophie had great fun helping to stick them all into the cakes. Actually, she may have enjoyed making the animal noises as she did so even more. :)

This is very serious business, you know!

And then she couldn't help herself any longer and bit right into a cupcake. Luckily Beth was on hand to put a Sophie-sized apron over her adorable little dress before she made too big of a mess.

independence 5k 2011 + 4th of july fireworks

No, that's not a typo- I did indeed mean to say 2011. You see, I have the photos from the 2012 run of the Independence 5K ready to post, but I never finished editing last year's and decided to get them finished first. Last year I didn't get the photos from my Dad's camera until several months after the event, and then one thing after another happened and I just never finished processing and posting them. Time to fix it now- hope you don't mind a double-dose of my personal photos this weekend!

The 2011 Independence 5K was something special. I'd run it for two years prior, but this year I was joined by my teenage cousins, Jake and Michelle, both of whom run on their high school cross country team. We were all pretty excited to run together, though you really can't tell by the look on Jake's face- ha!

These photos are from a mix of two cameras- Dad shot with his Canon, and I loaned my aunt Tina, Jake and Michelle's mom, my Nikon. It's really cool looking back now to see the two different perspectives.

As you can see, I'm nowhere near the start line- I'm not crazy enough to think I'll finish first! Michelle and I are back somewhere in the middle of the pack, but Jake...

father's day 2012

We had this whole big set of plans for Father's Day weekend. I was supposed to drive up to my parents' house on Friday night, and then Saturday morning Mom, Beth, Michelle, and a couple of aunts and I were going to drive to IKEA in Atlanta for the day. Sunday morning and afternoon would be spent on Father's Day festivities like grilling out and spending time with the family, and then I'd go back home on Sunday night.

But then everyone got sick at once (well, except for Beth and I), the IKEA trip got cancelled and Father's Day was cut back a bit. I still drove up on Sunday morning, though, picking up steak and seafood to grill along the way, so I could spend Father's Day with Dad.

And my brother and Beth were there, too, which meant...

...Sophie!!! And we all know that when Sophie's around, she's definitely the star of the show (which means to expect lots and lots of photos of the li'l punk throughout this post).

elyse's graduation

Not even a week after my cousin graduated from high school, Darren and I found ourselves at another commencement ceremony- this time for his niece, Elyse!

But before we get to Elyse, let me introduce you to Stephanie.

Stephanie is the AP English teacher at Lee High School, Huntsville Schools' Teacher of the Year, senior class sponsor, swim coach, and National Honor Society sponsor, and the faculty member chosen to read off the names of the graduates during this year's commencement exercises.

She also just happens to be Elyse's mom.

You have no idea what a hard time we gave her about the possibility of her crying right in the middle of graduation! :)

Traditionally graduations start with the playing of Pomp and Circumstance as the seniors file in. There's sometimes a prelude before that, though that prelude is not usually the theme to Pirates of the Caribbean. Very cool!

First the faculty filed on stage...

...and then the students came in. I have no idea how Elyse walked around in those shoes, but she did it well!

one graduation, one mother's day, and three birthdays...in one weekend

Parts of May were craziness. Fun craziness, but craziness nonetheless.

The weekend that my cousin graduated from high school, had a birthday/graduation party was one of those weekends, because, not wanting to do anything halfway, we also celebrated my Mom's birthday and Mother's Day along with just a little bit of Beth's birthday thrown in, juuuuuust in case we weren't busy enough.

Did I mention that all of this happened in Nashville? Which meant exactly one thing for us- road trip!

We started off with the intention of getting a very early start on the road on Saturday morning. I admired the hydrangea for a bit, cut a bouquet for Mom, and then we headed off in search of our destination.

There was just one tiny problem- as we were pulling out of the neighborhood, we noticed that the front passenger side tire felt kinda funny. As in flat funny. Turns out that a massive screw had somehow found its way through the rubber and gouged a huge hole.

Luckily I'm married to MacGyver, and he came complete with a tire plug kit. Less than 30 minutes later he had the tired patched, aired back up, and we were on the road.

Speaking of on the road, this is how I often roll when we travel and Darren drives- laptop out, getting a little work (or play) done along the way.

jake's 18th birthday + a tractor pull

It seems like every National Scrapbooking Day I make these big plans to sit and scrap all day, and then something comes along to change those plans for me. One year it was a taekwondo demo. Another year I think I was actually working in Boston that weekend (yes, on a Saturday!!).

But this year? This year I didn't mind having my plans changed at all, because it meant that I got to go to a surprise party for my cousin's 18th birthday/graduation!!

You see, my uncle Mike (my Dad's brother) builds chassis for pulling tractors. Actually, he designs and builds them, and has this amazing shop filled with every metal working tool you could ever wish for. He's incredibly talented, and was actually asked not once but twice to be on Monster Garage, but had to decline both times. Once he was in the middle of a build and didn't have time to fly out to California for a week to tape, and the second time he was in the hospital after a very, very bad motorcycle accident.

Mike's been doing this for a very long time, and his son Jake has grown up working in the shop and going to tractor pulls for more than ten years. He's had many of the same people from the events around for most of his life, and they all decided to get together at a pull last weekend and throw a surprise birthday part for him.

With ribs. Lots of ribs!

This is how laid-back my cousin is. I showed up in my little car (the pull was actually only about 40 minutes from our house), then Darren showed up in the 4Runner a few minutes later. Jake was working on someone's truck at the time and was oblivious. Then his mom and sister showed up, which I think started to clue him in, because they never go to pulls. And then out came the ribs and potato salad and cake and balloons, and his only response? "I didn't know ya'll were planning this."

Yes, Jake, it's called a surprise! :)

He has that dry wit thing going on...which explains why his favorite TV shows are House and Big Bang Theory.

birthday weekend 2012

Somehow my birthday became a 3 day event this year. It started out with an email from my Mom, who wanted to know what kind of party I wanted. I pondered it for a few days, and then decided that I wanted a very different kind of party- I wanted a "hey, can you guys come down here and install a Murphy Bed in the scrap room for me?" kind of party. So maybe it actually started when I rearranged the scrap room last December...

You see, during that massive overhaul I got rid of the full-size guest bed that was taking up a ton of floor space, thinking I'd do something clever with a queen size futon to take its place. Problem was, I could never figure out exactly what that something clever would be. And then one day I decided to do something unconventional and put in a Murphy bed. It would actually take up less space than a futon, still be a queen size (and thus an upgrade from the previous bed), and is I'm sure infinitely more comfortable since it uses a regular mattress and not some fold-up foamy thing.

So basically I told my family, "hey, I'd love to have you visit for my birthday, but you'll have to rennovate the guest room (which also happens to be the scrap room) while you're here." And in true DIY Stinson fashion, they all said, "Sure!" and showed up with tools in hand.

But let me back up before we get to that part. My birthday was on a Saturday this year (St. Patrick's Day!), and I always get sushi at Edo for my birthday. Always. Except that Darren and I are the sushi people, and the rest of our families not so much. So Darren and I went together for sushi on the Friday night before everyone arrived.

Mmmm. Miso. I love miso.

And the birthday sushi. For me it was California roll, ebi tem, kani kama, and smoked salmon. The smoked salmon is my favorite. Except for the days when ebi tem is my favorite...which is a lot of days.

Darren also had kani kama (which is my favorite on days when smoked salmon and/or ebi tem are not), striped bass, and habanero masago.

The habanero masago was my idea- he usually asks me to pick something off the wall for him.