And what a nice Mother’s Day weekend it turned out to be. The weather was great here, which is unusual. It wasn’t too hot, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky… All in all, atypical Pittsburgh weather.

To start things off, Friday was a bit of a milestone day on the my side of the family. My cousin Lisa and her husband Corey had a little baby boy. And if that weren’t enough, Uncle Shawn took a step closer to confirming the “Uncle” title when he and Aunt Emily got engaged. So congratulations to everyone on such milestone occasions.

We headed to Grandma G’s on Saturday to celebrate Mother’s Day with her. With a short stop at Economy Park for my first 5K, we got to Grandma G’s around 10:30 which gave us a little time to visit with Grandpa G before he went golfing. We had a very nice time just relaxing around Grandma’s house.

Sunday we headed over to Grandma A’s to complete the holiday shuffle. Dana and I ran in the morning, then Dana and Grandma went tanning while Deuce took a nap. I went to the driving range for a little bit, and then, finally, we were ready to cook. Grandpa was in the mood for some beer can chicken, which has become a new favorite around our house. Before we started running, we began brining a few (see 6) small chickens in a simple salt/sugar water. While Dana was making and applying rubs, I lit the grills (one Weber kettle, one gas grill) and made some smoke packets.

It was some of the best chicken we’ve made to date. Between Dana’s spice rubs and some new “techniques” for smoking, the chicken was exceptionally moist and very tasty. If it weren’t an insane amount of work, we’d open a roadside stand.