Tampa: A Bride, a couple Monets, & a Jack

We've been to Tampa twice this week. Once for our friend Mindy's wedding and once for a Jack Johnson concert.

Isaac waiting ever-so-patiently for the bride to walk down the aisle. Cheerios bought me 10 minutes in the sanctuary...
blurry, but she was a vision!

Nothing like a wedding to see good friends... Mindy was in our wedding and the guys below, Pete and Josh were in ours as well (and Anthony was in theirs)
The reception was held at the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts. While waiting for the bridal party to arrive, the guests were invited to just walk around the museum. 5 steps in and we saw 2 Monets! Like, real, non-copied, painted super expensive Monets... I didn't take a picture but I saw these with my own eyes...
The Houses of Parliament
The Road to Vetheuil (snow effect)
And another of Vetheuil...think it was the Road from Vetheuil

It was nuts just walking in and there they were! The security officer followed us (and our 2 very small children who I'm sure she just knew would run up and touch or drool on the unprotected Monets) around the museum. Despite our firm grasp on the boys, I don't think she ever cracked a smile. Anyway.


The reception was fabulous. Yes, fabulous. Chandeliers, an 8-piece band, rhinestones on the cake, sushi for appetizers and Starbucks with the cake qualify as fabulous.



Pete and Katherine making us laugh.
The Riverses and the Baleses...er the Rivers and the Bales?
How cute are the men I get to live with?

Then Wednesday we had ribs at IKEA...kinda random, but we saw it advertised and it wasn't far from the concert, so we thought, "Why not?." They were good!
Then before the concert as we were heading toward our seats, a promoter stopped us and said, "Hey guys, yall will want to stick around for the performance over there on the side stage, G-love is going to perform and probably another special guest or two." So we went over to the tiny little stage set up among all the environmentally friendly booths and stood "2nd row." The name on the stool was a bit obvious though...
First Paula Fuga came out. She taught me in about 30 seconds that when a healthy Hawaiian woman sits down with a ukulele, you should listen up!
Then after a couple songs by G-love, Jack himself came out.
He was waaaaay close.
AND one of my favorite songs is one he does live a lot with G-love, and he did it right there! "Mud Football" !!!

This view ....
was much better than this view... on the "lawn" not even under the cover of the amphitheater...
...but some friends were there (who were also at Mindy's wedding!), so it made the drizzly concert worth it!
Yay for fun times in Tampa!

Beach Vacation 2010

Family. Sun. Storms. Walking places. The Gulf. Time to fix dinner, and lunch, and breakfast. A 1-yr-old Nephew. Naps. Water. Memories! Thank you Daddy and Mama for taking us all to the beach! (except for Zach, my bro-in-law...he had to work. You were missed Zacharies!) Here are some photos of some great memories we made.

Hot. Recipe.

I grew up in Florida but haven't lived here in 6 years. And I'm fairly sure it's gotten hotter. I mean, we lived on the Equator for 3 years and never had a change of season. Constant summer for 3 years and I come back here and nearly melt to death!

But I digress. Or rather, I really don't care. It's Florida and I love it.

Because it's hot I thought I'd post a blog about a recipe a blogfriend from Texas put on her blog a while back. If you would like a more entertaining story about heat, read her story about the recipe... huh-lar-ee-us!
Thank you Heather Hendrick for sharing this family tradition with the blog world. Our family is already requesting we make them at the beach next week!

Peppers.
Jalapeno Peppers cut in half, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon, then cooked. I'm not putting all the measurements and time because you need to read it from Heather.

DISCLAIMER! READ THIS BEFORE YOU MAKE THEM! TRUUUUUUUUST ME! IF YOU MAKE THESE AND DON'T READ THIS AND COMPLAIN LATER ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU DO NOT BLAME ME!

Here are the before pictures of when we tried them with Anthony's family for the first time in Jacksonville and the after pictures when we then made them at my parents house and drank it with the Mexican Pineapple Soda "Jarritos." It seemed only appropriate.
And my apologies and pity go out to those of you in places where there aren't enough Mexicans to justify carrying Jarritos in stores. It's quite the compliment to any Mexican-y (or Texan-y as I'm sure the Hendricks would claim) dish.