The Big Easy

On the agenda after the Aquarium: see the steamboat, Jackson Square, and have beignets at Cafe' Du Monde.

(There's lots of closed eyes in these pictures- not sure what happened. Guess we weren't being very photogenic this day!)

Having a cold drink at Jackson Brewery.

Jackson Square

Cafe' Du Monde
In the words of Braden, "This was totally worth all the walking it took to get here!"
Yes, buddy. Yes it was.

What a fun day!!
We are definately planning to go back to New Orleans for a several day family trip. We always love being there and never have enough time to see and do everything and really enjoy the city.

Day in New Orleans

On Wednesday, Mom, MaMa Dennie and I took the kids to New Orleans for the day. It's less than an hour from Ma and Pa's house. And we love the drive over the Causeway- It's the longest bridge over water in the world. Well, MeMe doesn't love it, but she tolerated it!

First stop: The Aquarium, of course!

Up in the tree house in the Amazon exhibit

Gracie wanted a picture of her with the smiley face of the spotted sting ray.
Bonus points for Mom! I got 2 in the picture!
The boys LOVE the sharks
Can someone please tell me when my "baby boy" got so darn big and grown-up looking?
And I'm loving Gracie's pose in this one... especially the big wink!

My handsome Rhett! He enjoyed looking at the old Navy diver's suit.
"Let's play like Nemo and hide in the giant Anemone!"
Can you find my little fishies??
The 3 sweetest kids on the planet. So glad I get to be their Mom!
Sometimes I think I need 3 more just like them. Sometimes!

Can you say daredevil?

One more post on the rest of our day in the Big Easy still to come!

Spring Break Trip 2

We spent the 2nd half of our trip at my MaMa Dennie and PaPa Dick's house. They have a horse farm so there's plenty of room to run and play. And that's what they did!

BLOWING BUBBLES

Pa and Rhett sharing a secret

It was a gorgeous day!

Me and my sweet babies plus one of Ma and Pa's 4 dogs, Misty
Gracie fell in love with their newest puppies.
She fed them more snacks than they probably should have had!

With Frankie

With Maddie

Pa gave the little ones rides on his electric scooter

Braden was big enough to ride by himself and he loved it. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it. And I forgot to take a picture of all of them with Ma and Pa. And I forgot to bring my camera with me to several of the places we visited. :( I have to do better next time!

More to come on our day in New Orleans!

Spring Break Trip

My mom and I took the kids to Louisiana to visit family for spring break last week. WE left on Friday and came home the next Friday. It took us 11 hrs to get there but the drive home was only 10 hours- we didn't stop much on the way home- we were just ready to get HOME!

We had a great time getting to visit family. It had been 3 yrs since the kids and I had been down there.

Gracie and her favorite cousin Rhylee. This is the first time they ever met and Gracie's been talking about her everyday since then.

My mom's brother and sister in law, my Uncle Gary and Aunt Michelle had us over for boiled crawfish. Can you say YUMMMMY?!?!?!
This was "our" pile. They had their own pile, which was so spicy they told us not to even touch the stuff from theirs!

Last time we were in Louisiana for crawfish season, Rhett wasn't even born yet and Braden was only 3 years old. But they swore they didn't like them.
(Even though Braden LOVES shrimp.) It took some convincing, but they finally decided to try them.

Can you see the look on Rhett's face as he's about to consume another tasty crawfish tail?! He LOVED them!

Braden loved them too, of course!

The kids with my mom's parents
MaMa Beverly and PaPa Jr

More to come on the rest of the trip!

The soccer part of the weekend trip

Braden had 2 games. And it was FREEZING cold- in the 30's!- and raining. And they played in it. And apparently, unless it's lightning, the games will always go on.
We've sure been spoiled to indoor soccer the past couple years! This outdoor stuff is tough!

We didn't get any pictures during the first game because it was raining. But, the rain stopped for the 2nd game and we got a few good ones.

Braden scored a goal in his first game and also got a couple good assists.

He was happy to get a chance to play goal-keeper for the last part of the 2nd game.

I call this one, "Get that outta my house!" He used the good training he got at the winter soccer camp- spread his legs wide and scooped it right up. He didn't let them score on him!

After the 2nd game, on the way back to the hotel Daddy decided it was milkshake time! And who are we to argue with that?!

If we're gonna spend every weekend for the next 10 weekends busy with soccer, we might as well enjoy it as much as possible, right?!

Life is Good!

Weekend Trip

A couple weekends ago, Braden had his first soccer jamboree of this season. It was only about 1/2 an hour away. Jason had been working out of town for the previous few weeks and we hadn't spent much quality time together, and frankly mamma needed a little break. So, we decided to surprise the kids and spend the weekend at a hotel near where the soccer games were.

We didn't go far, but had THE.BEST.TIME. and it was ABSOLUTELY worth every single penny.

The thing about being self employed is that it's the best and it's the worst. There are too many pros to name here, but the list of bad things would include that you can never really get away from it. When the weekend rolls around, if we're not "working" we're still right in the middle of it because our office is in the house. And all that work that needs to be done screams at you 24/7. It's been crazy lately and we just wanted to get away so we could relax and have some good quality family time. The way we do that is leave the house. And Daddy turns his cell phone off. Hallelujah!! We go on a weekend getaway to a hotel or even out in our camper. We hadn't been away since November when Jason and I went to Vegas and the kids hadn't been away since several months before that. The boys have been working so hard in school and with the hours and hours of homework each week, and sports, and chores... just life. We all needed a break from the routine. We didn't tell the kids anything about it. I got an early check in and was able to take all of our stuff for the entire weekend to the hotel and get everything set up and unpacked before picking them up from school. They were so confused when we got to the hotel! They were so excited when they found out... It was just the best!

We got a hotel with an indoor pool, of course! And obviously, after we got to the room and everyone checked it out, that was the very first thing we did.

Rhett was messing around with Sissy's floaty, and I had to hurry and get a picture before he could get out!

Braden "Daddy surfing"

We ordered Papa John's for dinner and sat in the living room and watched a movie together.

The room was perfect. There was a kitchen, a living room, and 2 bedrooms-each with a King size bed and a full bathroom.

Bedtime! They were excited to get to sleep together in the big bed.

Didn't take long for them to snuggle up and crash out.

Day 2: After the soccer games, we headed back to the pool.

Night 2: Gracie slept on the couch bed in the living room all by herself.

And the boys got to be kings of the King sized bed!

And on Sunday morning: one more quick trip to the pool, of course!

Life is short! Make the most of every day!

You know you're sick when...

As you're working at your desk, you just keep tossing your used kleenex's towards the trash can and could care less if they land in it or that the trash is so full that nothing else is going to fit in it.Oh, springtime allergies, how I hate you. Ick.

(This was supposed to auto post last week while I was on vacation, but it didn't...)