The Brady's

Before we made the big move to Missouri, we had the most amazing neighbors living right above us in our condo. It was so ideal. We met Bill Brady the night we moved in. He was coming home from the grocery store and we had FINALLY finished cleaning our old house and had moved everything in. We liked him immediately and were thrilled to hear that they had a baby girl too, just 1 1/2 months younger than Franny. We couldn't wait to meet Heidi and Rebekah. Well, we all hit it off immediately. The last month or so that we lived there we'd put the kids to bed and get together and play Euchre until late into the night. Every night. It was perfect.

We only lived there for a year but we became great friends with the Brady's and were very sad to leave. We were so thrilled to hear that they had a family reunion planned in August and even more thrilled when they agreed to make a small detour spend a few days with us.


Reunited, and it feels so good.


This was our first time meeting Jenna and their first time meeting Sophie. It kills me that we don't live closer and can't see them more. Our girls are nearly the same age!

And a word about the food. Heidi is a really good cook. When we lived near each other we had a lot of fun talking about cooking and sharing recipes and I was part of a cooking club that she organized. I was really excited to have the chance to cook for Bill and Heidi, since they share my passion for food and cooking! I've been crazy for this recipe that came to me by way of Lisa. It's for bacon-wrapped skewers and the secret is in the bacon. I follow my friend Lisa's suggestion and add lots of veggies like red onion, red peppers, and sometimes zucchini. I make sure and use a fresh pineapple. It's worth the extra money. I made Erin's lemon ice cream because it takes minutes to prepare and is always a crowd-pleaser. I also served tropical fruit kabobs with lime cream. Apparently you can't get a decent papaya where I live because the one I bought tasted like garbage. I used mango, bananas, and pineapple. Then we had it the next day with peaches. It's so good. In fact, I think I'm going to go make some more right now. I've had major dessert let-down ever since they left and maybe that will help.