Clam chowder cook-off

We visited my beautiful sister again this weekend. :)

She participated in the town's 'Clam Chowder Cook-off' and so i helped out. :)

My brother-in-law and hubby got there a little after 8am to set up.. and my sister and i were cooking by 10am!

My beautiful sister had to make 6 GALLONS of my Grammie's New England clam chowder! She is amazing and measured everything out so all i had to do was drop and stir. :)

My sister also made a shrimp taco bar for everyone and decorated 'Shel's' in a beach theme. (her name is Michele.. isn't she clever?)

So people would go around to all the different booths and try different types of chowder. When they found one they really liked they would give them a ticket for 'people's choice' and then we would fill their bread bowl up with the chowder.

We did get tickets! i took this before it started. lol

My niece came and helped too. lol.

It was my sister's first year partcipating in this and it was a lot of fun! We didn't win... but we still got this super cool award! 

We cleaned everything up, tried not to freeze our tushies off, and went back to my sister's. 

Of course my nephew was being adorable as ever!

Here he is showing off his muscles!

Here he is making faces. haha. He was feeling my sister's knee (she had surgery on it and she has a rod in there.. you can feel it! its pretty much disgusting!). It was too precious because he kissed it to make it feel better. so sweet!

And we ended the night sooo sweetly with Starbucks peppermint hot cocoa with a homemade marshmallow and crushed peppermint candies! Mmmm! 

The next day was Martin and my 2 year anniversary of being together. So we got up and headed out so we could make it back to our hometown to celebrate! 

We packed up our stuff, took tons of extra food and sponges off my sister's hands, we gassed up, and Martin even cleaned our windows! 

We got back to town and celebrated our anniversary with Chinese take-out, a couple of rented movies, and cheesecake. It was wonderful! We have been through a lot in the 2 years we have been together.. and i am so happy God gave him to me! :) 

We had a wonderful time at my sisters... she of course sent me a lovely text when i got back to town about how much she cares about me. I truly have the best big sister! 

big sisters, 6 gallons of New England clam chowder, and love. - Monica

♥ . ♥ . ♥