My Side of the World: North Carolina

Several months ago, Karissa found out there was a gluten-free expo in Charlotte, NC.

Aunt Bonnie said she would love to go with her, so Karissa registered herself, Mom, and Kaitlyn for the expo!

The expo was on April 29, so Dad decided to make a long weekend out of it. We left early on Thursday (April 28) and stayed until Monday (May 2).

We stopped over in Wythville on the way to see some friends of Mom and Dad's. They made lunch for us and we visited with them for a couple hours. We probably got to Uncle Paul's house around 4 o'clock or somewhere around there. Shortly after that Aunt Bonnie came, and then Amber and Evan, then Aaron, and Uncle Bob! Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Paul always fix great big, very yummy meals when we're down there :)

Mom, Aunt Bonnie, Karissa, and Kaitlyn left for the expo around 8 or 8:30 Saturday morning and didn't get back till probably close to 5:00. They knew there would be vendors, samples, classes, and information, but didn't realize it would be as massive as it actually was. It was in a great big hotel, and Mom said there were simply tons of samples, that there were people there with Ziploc baggies and Tupperware containers to hold all the samples! They didn't eat lunch and they still weren't hungry for supper when they got home because of all the samples they ate. Mom and Kaitlyn both said that Karissa's food is better than most of the stuff they tasted at the expo.

They also attended a cooking show by a lady (Jules) that Karissa gets regular emails from. They had a drawing at the end of the show for one of the cake batters Jules made and Kaitlyn won it! :-) At the last cooking show Kaitlyn went to (a Taste of Home one a long time ago!) she won a toaster oven!!!

This is Jules, by the way!!!

Jules and Aunt Bonnie

Karissa and Jules and Aunt Bonnie

Jules signing Karissa's recipe. She gave out recipes of everything she demonstrated on stage.

She made biscuits, pop-tarts, gram crackers, and cake.

That evening, we had a cook out at Uncle Paul's house. Uncle Paul grilled hamburgers and big, sweet onions and brats.

In the picture are Jatana, Aunt Bonnie, Katrina, and Uncle Bob.

Jatana is Uncle Paul's girlfriend... doesn't she have a beautiful name! I just love it!!! I think it's so pretty :) Plus, I've never heard it before and I really unique names!!!

There's this game they play down South that they call "cornhole". So Dad and Uncle Paul made a team and Kaleb and Aaron made a team and they played until well after dark Saturday night! The point is to get the bean bags either on the board or in the hole... you get more points by getting it in the hole.

Katrina, Aaron, and Uncle Paul... still playing cornhole!!

Karissa and Kaitlyn got matching shirts earlier in the afternoon.

Kaitlyn, Karissa, and I playing Phase 10.

On Sunday... they took the cornhole boards to Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Bob's house because went went back there for lunch after church.

Amber gave me some very helpful lists for my MT courses. She took the classes before me and is a working medical transcriptionist now! So she had tons of helpful hints and advice!