Kan't Smoke Us

It's the 3rd year in a row that these boys have participated in the Cure of Ars BBQ competition.  Which makes it probably 4 years since Heath joined the church so they could participate.  Kidding.  Kind of.

There's about 40 teams that participate, and the last 2 years the boys have done pretty well.  This year they decided to change it up a bit.  Everyone switched meats.  I was thrilled b/c I was over Tony's sausage. (that's what she said).  Meat jokes never get old, especially around the BBQ crowd.

The gals help with the set up, side dishes, and running to pick up anything the guys forgot.  There's a spirit award at the competition, and we are all about that.  Hence the coozies we decided to make this year.  Last year we got second place, and we were FOR SURE this would be our year to get 1st on the spirit end.  That is, until a plane flew overhead with another teams banner on it.  It's a little hard to compete with a real plane.  We are now in the market for skydivers for next year... any takers??

So we got 2nd in the spirit. AGAIN.  So close, yet so far away. 

The announcing of the winners goes through each category of meat, naming the top 5 teams.  Our team has never been called.  We were always sure that we were probably #6. 

So here's how the turn of events happened.

Sausage- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1  not us
Ribs- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1  not us
Pork- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1  not us

By this time everyone was starting to think we must have done terrible.  And then...

Briskett-  5, 4, 3, 2, US 

Andy's brisket was #1.  And the crowd goes wild!! We all jumped out of our chairs and ran up to the stage like we just won the lottery.  Yes, the girls did too even though we didn't really contribute to the meat.

After calming down a bit.  The announcer continued with the final places overall.  Starting with #10. 

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,  what the hell...
#1 - Kan't Smoke Us

Grand Champions!  I still can't believe it to this day.  It's a pretty big deal and the guys were so so happy.  You can bet the rest of the night we all celebrated heavily. 

Turns out the rest of the boys categories all placed 7th and with our spirit award being 2nd, our points added up to first place.  Beating the 2nd place team by about 30 points.

Pictures for your pleasure...
 (I have NO idea why some are turned sideways, but I've already spent 2 hours trying to upload them, so you'll just have to tilt your head)

Precious Annabelle

Our new addition to the joint

Sweet baby Knox

Loving this

Jello Shots

Andy with his first place brisket, going to turn it in

Celebration

Winner Winner

Waiting for the results

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Please take a closer look at the last picture.  It is my favorite.  Mainly because Erin looks super drunk, by herself in the corner. 

Congrats guys, you all did awesome!

Kan't Smoke Us

Tony competed in a BBQ competition this past weekend.  Besides it being 95 degrees out and surrounded by smokers to bump it up to about 105 degrees, and sweating through my skirt all day, it was so much fun!  The boys did this last year too but I was in Nashville so I missed out.  The team name was going to be Jacob Pullen pork for the Wally Judges.  Good thing they switched it to Kan't Smoke Us (get it? KSU), since both are long gone from our bball team now. 

We got there on Friday afternoon to set stuff up.  Thinking we were going to be the last ones there, I was pushing Tony out the door.  We pulled up to Andy standing alone in the parking lot holding a 12 pack.  He also thought he would be the last one there.  I didn't do much 'setting up' besides my chair and cooler, but I observed quite well. 

Powercats.  I wish Connie would figure out a way to make them actually look like Powercats.

This is Tony's smoker.  He's a cutie.  I'm thinking Tony might have to upgrade for next year, everyone else's big guys showed his up.

Notice the astroturf?

Tony's smoked sausage.  That joke never gets old. 

 Seriously, you would be surprised at how many inappropriate comments you can make about meat.  I think we hit them all, especially after a few hours of drinking.  They just kept coming...

Some teams were serious business.  Trophy's, beer pong tables, tiki bars and all.  Heath's dad and brother decided that the guys needed a trophy too.  So they went out and bought these.  One said 'Annual BBQ champions'.  We decided if people asked we'd just say, yep we won the Memphis BBQ competition.  What year?  Oh ya know, annually.  Every single year.   

Boys in action.

Drinking Action

 Heath was in the parking lot at 2 am to put his brisket on.  Andy had to put the pork on at 4 am.  And John and Tony didn't have to put their's on until mid morning, but they were there for moral support.  I showed up at 10:30.  I'm not crazy.  At least I made it there in time to see this:

This little man was there all stinkin' day.  How cute is he in his KSU gear?!

Wally hearts KSU

Here I am blogging about your baby again, Erin.

Family pic.  Christmas card?

And here's an abundance of meat pictures.  Vegetarians, you may want to by-pass this part. 

Tony's smoked sausage.  Har har.

Johnny's ribs.  Winning. (we'll get to that later)

Andy's pulled pork.  That was a fun subject too. 'gotta go pull my pork' 'Andy's pulling his pork'

Heath's brisket.  Not quite as funny as pulled pork & smoked sausage.

The spread.  We had A LOT of food.

Precious sleeping Wally baby

Supporting wives. 

My (pledge) mom and I

 The back of our shirts are my fav...

Pork butts, and bbq racks.... not ours :)

Mom, Dad, and I.  I loved saying this in college and unfortunately it still comes out from time to time.  They were good parents, really.  Even if Heath did try to set me up with a guy who is now gay.  I also like talking about that story from time to time. 



The crew

Wally was in Erin's tummy in last years picture.  He looks so different now :)

And a final picture of the boys.  With their legit trophy.

Now I could let you all believe that they got first place, but I would be lying.  We all went in for the awards ceremony and they announce the top 5 teams in each category.  I'm positively sure that they all had their speeches ready.  After the team 'What Would Jesus Que?' had won 3 categories in a row.  Andy quietly said 'Jesus would share.'  I might have peed my pants.  So after nobody's name was announced we were certain they all got 6th place. 

Fast forward to 4 drunk guys trying to read a spreadsheet... 

Heath's brisket got 14th

Andy's pork got 17th

Tony's sausage got 24th

John's ribs got 34th ... out of 38th

That's still a fun subject to talk about.  Erin told me they were invited to a bbq on Sunday and looked in their fridge for what to bring.  The ribs of coarse!  The almost last 34th place ribs.  I bet they were a hit. 

Overall the boys got 22nd which is pretty good for a day full of fun!

Oh, that's right, we got 2nd in the spirit award!!!!!!!! (totally deserving of multiple exclaimation points) Only to be beat out by a tent full of taxidermied stuffed animals.  Vom.

Maybe the wives should do the cooking next year.

I should have let Erin do the guest post on this.  Her summary = John's selling his smoker, Sally's last name is back to Crabb, and Tony would still be sitting in the parking lot waiting on our name to be called.