4th of july with friends

A trip home typically means Saturday night BBQ like always. However, things tend to change when Rebecca is in town, AND it's 4th of July weekend. The Saturday night BBQ turned into an entire weekend of BBQ. Luckily we always had friends around to help eat the incredible amount of food that was continuously being put out by these two:

This is only one day's spread. This doesn't include everything that was BBQ'd. (Sausage, chicken wings, fajitas) I have a bad feeling my friends are going to be expecting a lot from now on whenever we BBQ.

Nothing says classy like eating wings in the pool...

...or pausing for a Coors Light commercial. Look how much fun they're having!

Even Olivia couldn't say no to a Ewing BBQ on the 4th!

Miles even had friends come over and play, even if they are a bad influence.

Mom and Dad were also great babysitters so we could all go out a few times. Here is our sister wives picture.

It was a great weekend with my friends and family!

franklin barbecue

For the past month I have heard about Franklin Barbecue at least once a week. Apparently this place started out as a food truck and was so popular he opened up a restaurant. It was recently voted the best BBQ in the nation, and as someone who loves BBQ and has grown up around some amazing food I was skeptical it truly was the best in the nation. It opens at 11 and I was told if you don't get there by 10:30 don't bother because they close whenever they run out of food. Ok, so maybe they really are that good? A few friends of mine and I decided to finally try this place and see what it was all about. We got there at 10 and there were already about 50 people in line in front of us. Another thing to note, you wait outside, in the heat, for however long it takes.

The line wrapped around the building by 10:30.

Heather, Alli, and I. (Larry took the picture)

 

So we waited an hour for the place to open, and another 30 before we even got to the door. While we waited one of the girls that worked there walked around selling beer for those waiting outside in the heat. Another worker even came around asking how much brisket we all planned on ordering. Not quite sure why. Maybe to go ahead and crush some of the suckers dreams that got there too late? Once we got to the door, our dreams were crushed.

Just kidding! They were putting the sign up on the door by 11:30 for the newbies joining the line. Apparently they are usually sold out by 1 or 1:30. That is nuts! It took about another 30 minutes before we even ordered our food. While we waited we already talked about how we weren't coming back unless it blew us away. (Waiting 2 hours for food, without even knowing if you'll get any is a little ridiculous.)

Well, it was freaking AMAZING! I think I said yum after every bite of food. See the brisket over there, that one piece that looks all black? That's right, I got an end that is 80% bark, and I could not have been happier.

Because I am such an awesome daughter, sister, and sister-in-law I ordered half a pound of their brisket, sausage, pork ribs, and pulled pork to share with my family tomorrow. (I'm going to Houston and Rebecca, Michael, and Miles are coming into town as well.) After we all took our first bite we looked at each other and said, so what are you doing next Wednesday?

It really does live up to all of the hype! I plan on telling everyone I know that they need to go ASAP. Maybe I should have ordered enough to have to carry it in a box like some of the other patrons did...maybe next time.

the end of spring break

The day I left Chicago was Miles' 1 month birthday AND St. Patrick's Day. Of course Rebecca had to dress him accordingly, and luckily I had just given him this super cute outfit.

And I also made this super cute onsie for the day! (Yes, I put a beer in Spongebob's hand.) It was super sad to leave him especially because I won't see him again until he's almost 6 months! This is going to get really annoying having to reintroduce myself to him every time I see him.

When I got back to Houston a group of us went to this crazy Irish bar in the village. Apparently Shannon didn't realize it was St. Patrick's Day. Obviously she kept getting pinched. Also Jillian and I were matching in our sweet $8 Target shirts.

Before heading back to Austin we had our usual Ewing BBQ. This time however I upped the stakes. Mom and dad were getting a little complacent in their BBQ cookings. We haven't changed it up in awhile, and I figured it was about time to do something new and see if they could rise to the occasion. So I had mom make homemade curly fries! She used to make them all the time growing up, and I don't think she had made them in 10 years. They were pretty amazing, and a big hit!

RIP Tater Twister. It broke towards the end of mom curlying 5 lbs. of potatoes and she had to start doing it by hand. Don't worry though, I'm buying her another one so we can continue our new BBQ tradition of homemade curly fries.

Olivia even made it to her first Ewing BBQ! She had a blast munching on burgers and fries and was pretty wiped out by the end of it.

Finally I made it to San Antonio for part of Emily's bachelorette party! We all bought her some cute lingerie from Anthropologie and she was holding up the underwear so everyone could see it and then the entire room we were in started yelling and cheering! She even ended up getting free drinks from a table of guys who obviously liked what they saw.

Spring Break is officially over. I have absolutely nothing planned for this week, and have not made any copies. It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes since I don't plan on going in to work today to get things ready. (I wrote this Sunday and am only posting it now. Monday was a great lesson for the kids on being flexible and spontaneous.)