Early Memorial Day with the Fam

Melon Man got home from work this morning just as I was getting ready to get up.  I'd stayed up late last night working on the bulletin for church tomorrow so I wouldn't have to do it tonight and so I was pretty tired, but had a number of things to do to get ready for today's festivities.  I watched the pilot episode for the TV show Parenthood while I worked on the bulletin.  I had never seen it before.  I loved it.  I almost always cry every time I watch this show!  There are just so many things about families and the ups and downs they go through that resonate and ring home with me.

Dog has been so excited to go see his cousin, Maxine, this week that he has been spastic.  However, he has been SO patient today.  I told him we had to make the baked beans and fruit salad first, shower, and pack up before we could go.  He has followed me everywhere I've walked today.  We were going to run to Petsmart this morning to get some new pool balls for Maxine and him, but we ran out of time so we just stopped there on our way over to Auntie Lisa's house.  He loves going to Petsmart.  I wanted to get a pool for him and the other little doggies while we were there, but since we weren't coming right home, I didn't want to take a chance of it flying out of the back end of the truck while we were driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour.  I'll have to stop there this week and get one.

So, we were asked to bring the fresh fruit salad and baked beans for today.  I made the fruit salad last year for an event and it was SO refreshing.  Bummer thing this year though...the cantaloupe we bought was still green inside and I forgot to add kiwis to the shopping list.  Oh well.  It will still be good with all the watermelon, pineapple, honeydew, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.  Yum-o-rama!

Oh...okay....so last night around 11 p.m., I decided I'd better find the recipe for the beans.  I hadn't made them in years so I didn't know exactly what I needed or really how to make them.  I just knew they were good and I had to find THE recipe.  So, I open up my cookbook cupboard - you know the one - the tiny cupboard above the microwave the nothing else fits in because of the cord, etc. - and there I see a huge mess of cookbooks and plastic pitchers.  I mean, really, how does a bunch of books and such end up looking like this?  I wish I had taken a picture of it before I started pulling them all out and stacking them on the counter, but, alas, I didn't.  So, instead, this morning before I started making my beans, I organized them all and put them back in a decent manner.

I hope they stay this way!  (Melon Man - that means you.  Please put them back how you found them when you use one.)  I think I need to find some nifty little holder though for all those small ones that always somehow fall down or disappear!

I figured I'd add the recipe for the Baked Beans to my blog so I can easily find it next time I need it....so here it is.....

BEST BAKED BEANS EVER
1 29 oz can Bush's Baked Beans with Brown Sugar and Hickory Bacon
2 15 oz cans Pork and Beans
3/4 c ketchup
2 T mustard
1/2 large onion finely diced
1 c brown sugar
1/2 pound bacon diced
1/4 c margarine or butter (not the fake stuff)

Combine all of the ingredients in a 2" deep 8x8 baking pan.  Bake on 350* for 2 hours.  Let cool slightly before serving.  Sauce will thicken upon standing.

I guess I should finish blogging about celebrating Memorial Day with the family, now that I've digressed.  So, around 1:30 p.m., we headed over to Lisa's.  Dog was so good the whole way over there.  He never whined or cried or anything.  Usually he starts as soon as we get off the freeway exit.  Once we arrived at Lisa's house, he got out of the truck pretty well, and was ready to go inside.  But, once inside, he was a wild child.  He ran right for the back door and Lisa couldn't get it open fast enough for him!  Right away, he and Maxine were like dogs on crack.  They were running EVERYWHERE, playing together.  They swam a lot.  They loved the new swim balls we brought with us.  We knew we would have a very quiet ride home and both dogs would sleep well during the night.

We humans had a very nice afternoon.  Robert and Natalie arrived a couple hours later with little Johnny.  It was our first time to meet him.  What a ham.  He is quite the active little one already.  He reminds me of Colton at that age.  Just six months old and they both are/were already trying to walk.  Forget about crawling.  They both just pull(ed) themselves on things and want(ed) to go places.  Colton never did crawl and he was fully walking by 6 to 6-1/2 months.  I think it has to do with being around adults all the time.  Here are a few pics from when he was eating his dinner.  I'm sure his grandma Cindy will love them...

We had yummy food for dinner - BBQ'd brats, hot dogs, and burgers.  We had potato salad, baked beans, fruit salad.  And, we had flag cake.

After we were done eating, folks watched television or napped or whatever.  Lisa facebooked and I blogged.  Soon, it was time for Melon Man and I to head home so he could go to work.  We never did swim that day, which would have been so refreshing, but it was still so nice to just be able to sit and relax.  That's why we always do our Memorial Day get-together on Saturday instead of Monday - so on Monday we can totally just relax before we have to head back to work the next day.