Start 'em early

Start 'em early, I say... (the gymnastics, not the awesomeness...she started that a long time ago)

If you're wondering, that is some poor boy named Edison's art. Sloan stole it and would not give it back.

Animal Adventures

A few weeks ago, on our first trip nice weather trip to the Hamptons, we took Sloan to a petting zoo. She isn't talking yet, but makes an awful lot of animal noises, so we figured this would be quite the adventure for her.

We bought a bucket of feed, decided against the bottle of milk for the goats, and were off to meet the animals. There were pigs, goats, ducks, ponies, chickens, a massive camel, even wallabies and llamas. Sloan wasn't so sure about it all at first. The fact the animals could stick their mouths through the fence was a bit much for her. That Dad was actually feeding them was even more! She loved running around taking it all in; she even got to pet a bunny rabbit and ride a pony (with Dad's help of course). By the end she was brave enough to go into the goat pen, and Dad saved just enough feed to attract all of them. Success!!

Smelly pigs!

Lil' Sebastian

Open road...

Family selfie

Sloan's first pony ride

Not so sure about the goats 

Goat attack! 

Fun at the zoo! 

All in all it was a successful first zoo trip. We also went to the Central Park Zoo with Courtney & Oakley for Mother's Day. It wasn't quite as successful, but she had fun nonetheless. We saw penguins, and I think she was afraid they were going to come through the glass. Perhaps an actual petting zoo wasn't the best first experience!

One final video from our petting zoo experience:

Moving About

This post is from the archives, but I wanted to share some recent cuteness. Sloan has really started to come into her own the last couple of months, and is showing lots of personality. She is quite the busy body; always on the move and loves to be active. I'm sure all babies show similar tendencies around this age, but nothing makes her happier than just looking at new things!

One of her favorite new things is her jumper. We picked it up a few weeks ago, and as soon as we started putting it together Sloan knew it was for her. She could not stop staring at it! She was not disappointed when we finally put her in it either...

Thanks for my new toy, Mom & Dad! 

Her feet did not touch then, but they do now!

One last smile for good measure

She is also rolling around like a rock star. Just in the last two weeks, she has become a champion roller. You used to be able to leave her on her play mat, and get a few things done. That is no longer the case! If you plop her on the mat now, she will roll over twice and be across the floor in 15 seconds flat. No idea how she does it...

Finally, a few pictures from her first park adventure. My NICU friends Sam (daughter. Oli) and Suzette (daughter, Lucia) and I went to Union Square play ground a few weeks ago. All three girls took turns on the swings, and Sloan absolutely loved it! 

Vegetarians Not Welcome

There are quite a few annual events we look forward to here in New York City, but this past weekend was one of the most important: The Big Apple BBQ Festival. You've seen enough food shots on this blog to know we do not take feeding ourselves lightly, and the level of intensity increases when meat, smokers and BBQ sauce are involved. This year was the 10th annual celebration of the festival and it did not disappoint! For those that aren't aware, every year for two days Madison Square Park becomes a haven for renowned BBQ Pitmasters. They are set up along several blocks of Madison Avenue and 27th Street. Their rigs arrive on Friday night and begin to fill the air with hickory-tinged smoke. By Saturday morning, the pigs are good and cooked...the meat ripe for the pickin'.

Our process of attack has been thoroughly tested and perfected throughout the years - it starts several months in advance with the purchase of what is called a Fast Pass. The Fast Pass is the key to success. For $125 you get a 'punch card' with $100 worth of money on it and a companion pass. These allow you access to the 'inner' lines - while the commoners (who obviously lack foresight and real passion for BBQ) must wait in the outside lines. The Fast Pass lines typically move faster, but make no mistake they, too, can get outrageously long at the best rigs (Big Bob Gibson's from Birmingham is routinely upwards of 1 hour wait). Each year, we set up camp around 10:30/10:45 in the morning, and spread our blankets out on the same grassy spot each year. After plotting who to hit up first, everyone is off to the races. Martin's BBQ from TN, Ubon's of Mississippi, Jim n Nick's of AL, Jack's Old South from GA, the list goes on...

Our group varies in size from 10-20 folks throughout the day, so we'll often get in line for a particular vendor and bring back several plates for the group. For example, our friends Lindsay and Johnny took one for the team this year and stood in that crazy Big Bob's line. A well-timed "Roll Tide" got them a plate of pulled pork while they waited in line,  and they returned with 3 sandwiches back for the group. But Randy & Heath really outdid themselves by standing in the Fried Pie line that stretched two blocks, they ordered 16 fried pies at once - 4 each of peach, apple, cherry & blackberry. A friend of mine from HS was in town visiting (hi Tara!), and I'm pretty certain she was blown away by the crowds of people and what a big ordeal this whole event is. It really is truly an amazing spectacle. Day 2 was a quick stop to round out whatever you couldn't fit in your belly the first day. The goal is simply to finish all the punches in your Fast Pass. Whatever you don't spend in BBQ you can buy in rubs, spices and other merchandise. Then everybody goes home and sleeps off the meat coma...

Emptying the Archives...God's Country

If you Google "God's Country" you'll get a whole assortment of results...  Apparently there was an old Western film, U2 once sang a song with that title, and some place in Potter Co. Pennsylvania claims to be it. But I would like to define "God's Country" once and for all:

Damn straight...that's Athens, Georgia.

I suppose if one wants to extend the circle just ever so slightly to include more of the Southeast, I would not argue too emphatically (although I would argue some). Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend Barry and I packed our bags and headed to a friend's wedding in Tuscaloosa, AL. We flew in and out of ATL, so we made a special stop in Athens one night...

It Never Leaves You.

The wedding was for our dear friend Russ and his fiance Lauren. Russ is from Tuscaloosa and they both went to school there, so the location was ideal. I've been to Tuscaloosa several times, but this time was a bit unique because school was out and there was no football game.

It's not a blog post without a few food shots.
City Cafe goodness. 

Waysider breakfast. 

Bryant Denny, empty. 

ZTA house at U of A - an exact replica of the one at UGA. 

Barry and I before the ceremony 

Bridal party waiting for the bride...

The NY crew. L to R: Jay, Richard, Jen, Julie, Huston, David, Barry, Kiley, Courtney, Randy.
Not pictured: Heath who was in the wedding. 

The happy couple's first dance

Reception was at the Tuscaloosa Yacht Club (who knew?), beautiful sunset over the lake. 

Emptying the Archives...Local Adventure

For this installment of Emptying the Archives, let's go on a local adventure...

First up - Smorgasburg!!! New Yorkers are such clever people - take two random words, splice them together and create something totally new, random, and so cool. Thus, Smorgasburg is born. It's a 'smorgasbord' of food vendors in an empty lot in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), thus, Smorgasburg. It's all just so cool...

Homemade S'mores truck menu. 

Cemita - some kind of Mexican sandwich. Pretty delish. 

View across the Hudson 

Jen chowing on what was a massive ice cream sandwich...possibly the best thing we ate the whole day. 

This guy just screams 'Brooklyn' to me. Throwback clothes, crazy hair, 'cool' mustache...

Finished the day at a New Orleans style bar. My virgin drink was the fanciest. 

Our next jaunt takes more than a subway train to get to. Our friend has a place in Bridgehampton, NY and he is gracious enough to let us visit the house often. It's quite a nice respite from the crazy city life. Unless there is a big event (BBQ fest, anyone?) that keeps us in the city over summer weekends, you can find us here:

Richard's house, which I like to call Tuscaloosa North 

trip to Wolffer Estates winery (this was hard to sit through). L to R: Heath, Jen, Barry, Tim, Chao

Cool street we found in East Hampton

I think Barry enjoys our trips 'out East' more than anyone else because he likes to engage in little projects. Among the past ones are hot tub speakers, fixing outdoor lights, hanging chandeliers, and of course the famed fire pit that he and Heath built from scratch last year. I'm pretty sure he was Bob Villa in a past life. This year's first project is a liquor cabinet/bar for Richard's Living Room. 

Hand saws only for this project..

assembling the first corner

The almost-complete frame. I'll post the final product once it is finished! 

 Up next...a trip to God's country.

Derby Daze

There are a few events we look forward to every year. We've already covered the Big Apple BBQ Festival in this space (and will be covering it again soon!), but one of the other annual shindigs is the Kentucky Derby Party hosted by the Terry's. This year was the 6th annual running of 'Southern girls in big hats' in Manhattan...and as billed, there were a lot of Southern girls in big hats! There were also lots of bow ties, seersucker, and way too much bourbon. A few highlights from the event coming your way...

Bourbon, bourbon and more bourbon. 

Not my drink. :( 

A picture of Barry and I...

...but to get the full effect you need a full body shot. Yeah that's right, he pulled off a shorts suit! 

The crowd

They had a bluegrass band on the back porch. That's our friend Austin with the photo bomb.

...and a nice view of Union Square for good measure. 

You can take the girl outta the South...

...but she is bound to return any chance she has! That's how the saying goes, right? Spurred by back to back wedding weekends, we recently embarked on a little Tour of the South. Our trip started in Mobile, Alabama for our dear friend Ann Taylor's wedding. Mobile is a nice little sleepy city and we really enjoyed our time there. The weather was perfect and ATR made such a beautiful bride!

The happy couple and their first dance 

After a weekend in Bama, we headed over to New Orleans to spend our next 3-4 days. As one tends to do when there is good food around, we ate our faces off. Day 1 Highlights:

 

 Coffee & beignets - the breakfast of champions (or all New Orleans tourists)!!

 

Barry and I met Randy and his daughter at French Quarter Fest, which held around 300k people.

 

My #1 priority of the festival was to eat a New Orleans style SnoBall as soon as possible. This one was Chocolate Cream flavored from Plum St. Snoballs. Pretty much tasted like a Yoo-Hoo.

Day 2 was a little bit more low key, but we had a very special lunch at Commander's Palace. Commander's is a local institution in NOLA known for $.25 martinis, turtle soup and bread pudding. I had two out of three, Barry had all three. Sorry no pictures of this one, but trust me when I say it was all delicious and totally lived up to the hype. For dinner we learned a very important lesson: anywhere you want to go to eat on Monday night in New Orleans will be closed. We tried Johnny's Po Boys, Palmcourt Cafe, and Central Grocery - all closed Mondays. Coop's Place had a tourist line outside of it, so we headed outside of the French Qtr to an up and coming area of Freret St. We had awesome Chicago style pizza at Midway Pizza and like all food places in Nola, I highly recommend.

 On Day 3 Barry had to go to Dallas for a day trip, so I hung out with a dear college friend the whole day. She has two little boys of her own (one was barely 8 weeks old) so she was full of really great baby advice for me. I left her apt with all kinds of pregnant lady snacks, a belly band, and a book full of baby product advice! I topped the day off with a shrimp po boy from Domilise's...according to the locals its the best you can get.

 Finally Day 4, our last day in New Orleans. As you can tell from the original picture, we made the mistake of only ordering one plate of beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Well, we made sure to fix that error and went back for more coffee and beignets...this time each with our own plate. Lunch wasn't really lunch as much as it was 'where else have we not been yet?'. We had not been to the other 'must do' Sno Ball place! Hansen's Sno Blitz - Barry had Cherry and I had a Satsuma and nectar flavored one.

We saved the best for last and went to Jacque Imo's for dinner that night. Again, another New Orleans establishment with awesome cajun food.

Outside of Jacque Imo's 

Soft shell crab. Massive portions! 

My fried chicken...I swear this is not to size, it was huge. 

Oh, I'm sorry did I imply Jacque Imo's was the last place we went? There was one more thing on the list...Krispy Kreme bread pudding. Yes, despite our massive dinner we went a few blocks over to Boucherie and ordered the sinfully delicious desert. It did not disappoint! 

And with that, we were off for a long weekend at the beach. I will write about that one in a separate blog post and leave you with a few other snapshots from our time in Nola... 

Me on Bourbon St.

Jackson Square early in the morning

Either I shrunk or this chair is huge. 

Brad & Angelina's New Orleans house

Awesome sign outside of a bar

One last photo of Hansen's