Category Archives: travels

Mar 12 2017

Irish parade 2017

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Took the girls to the Irish parade in olde town Slidell with Maw-Maw, Aunt Laurie, Michala, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Chris, Emma, Jackson, & Aunt Stacey too! Got a little lost finding our way. Gigi had an emergency come up and Paw-Paw wasn’t feeling well. We may have briefly ended up in the parade line up before finally getting to a spot. But it all worked out in the end. We had a blast makin groceries on the parade route! Afterwards we all went to Speckled T’s for lunch and wrapped up the fun watching Mad get invited up on the stage to play two tambourines wearing a giant leprechaun hat. It was a good day to say the least. 

Our Irish parade haul: 

  • 23 cabbages
  • 1 lone brussel sprout 
  • 3 lemons 
  • 17 onions
  • 30 potatoes
  • 16carrots 
  • 9 bags of carrots 
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Mar 11 2017

Spring break in NOLA 

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Our little ladies have spring break this week. So my husband encouraged us to enjoy a girls getaway. While I really suck at being away from him, I knew the girls would really enjoy it. So a week after getting home from spending a little over a week in New Orleans I loaded three little ladies and their Maw-Maw in the car for a three generations roadtrip back to New Orleans! Also, this is mom’s first getaway after being put on oxygen three years ago. So talk about some happy grandbabies.

It’s been quite the day. Saw countless accidents today, really a horrific amount. We drove through rain from our driveway to Baton Rouge, that was a lot of rain, it felt like the rain clouds kept following us. Had a tire fly at us and ended up hitting the car behind me and caused them to run off of the highway. Bitty ran into our car door and needed an ice pack for her little nose. Saw a lot of police cars surrounding a bullet ridden car in Baytown. The drive took us three hours longer than planned due to all of the rain and accidents. We were sent through a couple interesting detours to avoid more traffic. But we made it. Safely. And tomorrow these little lovelies get to go to an Irish parade! So all is right in the world again. Only I already miss my husband.

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Mar 4 2017

Adios NOLA (for now)

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We had such a good time over the last eight days in New Orleans. We squeezed in as much fun as possible each day and saw as many people as we could. I even got to see a few friends from high school and one that grew up down the street from me at a few of the parades. 

It “only” took us about nine hours to get home and that was including a good bit of rain during the last few hours. Thankfully we were able to unload the car without rain. 

We picked up dinner on the way home and B-Boo and Mac came over to visit and pick up their goodies we got for them back home. I’m not sure who was more excited to see us Maw-Maw or Najah?

As I lay here in our bed with Najah by my side all I can do is smile about the memories we made and how good it feels to be laying here now.

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Mar 3 2017

The Lumineers in NOLA!

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Woke up this morning and headed to the Parish. We dropped Mad & Bitty to play at Aunt Sandy’s for a little while and Matt and I went to the shooting range with dad.

He had a proud dad moment watching me shoot his 22 LR, 9mm carbine, and 500 magnum. That 500 magnum was no joke!

Then we went to get the girls and had lunch with Sandy and the kids before we had to say our goodbyes. Which is never any fun. 

We headed to Slidell to meet my sister and the boys at the park before making a few groceries to bring back to Texas.

Then it was time to bring the girls to Gigi & Paw-Paw for an evening of fun with them!

Matt took me to have dinner at Sassafras before the show. This was our first time going there and it was delicious! The Lumineers were even better than the last time I saw them! Over the last few years Matt had started listening to one of their albums with me often, so even he knew all the words to most of the songs. It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary away from home and I’m so thankful that he took me to see them in my hometown.

It’s been a fabulous time in NOLA but I think we are all ready to head home to see Maw-Maw, Najah, B-Boo, & Mac!

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Mar 2 2017

A day in the Quarter…

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Since we get to stay in New Orleans a few extra days and Mardi Gras is over we decided to bring our little ladies to the Quarter.

We had lunch on a balcony on Decatur St before exploring various stores, Jackson Square, and the French market. We wrapped the day up with a stop at Cafe du monde to get our dolls some beignets & milk. I’m going to have to start making these iced cafe au laits at home again. Forgot how much Matt & I love them.

Aub got to spend the night at Sandy’s with her best friend. And we took Mad & Bitty to get their baked mac at Rocky’s before heading back across the lake.

Oh and how could I forget, Aub and I (sorta) bravely tried Matt’s alligator poppers at lunch. We tried them, but next time he can have them ALL to himself:)

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Mar 1 2017

Change of plans…

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So we were supposed to head home today. Only my husband being the loving man that he is surprised me with tickets to see The Lumineers in New Orleans this Friday on our 10th anniversary! Beyond excited. I got to see them a few years ago with my son in Austin and they put on a fantastic show. Really looking forward to Friday now!

Today we made our way to two cemeteries to visit both sides of my family and put some new spring flowers on their graves. Afterwards, we met up with a lot of my family on my dad’s side for lunch in Da Parish. 

Tonight we met up with my sister, my nephew, and my Godson for dinner. Then went to their house so the kiddos could continue to have some cousin time!

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Feb 28 2017

Mardi Gras 2017

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Forecasters predicted rain for today. Turned out to be a sunny day in the 80’s. I don’t remember Metairie being quite so crowded on Mardi Gras Day. Maybe it was the non stop running for the last four days, but today was just tiresome. Sooooo many people. 18 wheeler floats that the riders couldn’t really even see the kiddos. Even I put Mad & Bitty on my shoulders so they could be seen. Today we left with the least amount of throws. Honestly, we didn’t even care. We enjoyed the last few days so much that today just didn’t matter quite as much. We enjoyed hanging out with friends and family on the parade route. And ducked out just in time to beat most of the traffic. All in all I’d say our girls had a tremendous amount of fun this Mardi Gras season and I’m so thankful we were able to be here! 

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Feb 27 2017

Lundi Gras 2017

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We decided to attempt to sleep in and start the day slowly. While we didn’t actually sleep in it was nice to take our time getting moving. Paw-Paw went with us to da parish to meet up with Sandy and her family for lunch at Ben’s. Then we took all the kiddos to cafe du monde in Metairie (wasn’t about to attempt Decatur street on Lundi Gras with five munchkins). 

After a fun day with the kiddos, we dropped the girls off to Gigi for an evening of crafting. While we hit Bourbon street with Sandy, Chris, and Dad. We even found one of our Texas friends, Nene, on Bourbon! 

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Feb 26 2017

On Magazine…

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We hit New Orleans running since Friday night and today was no different. Late nights and early starts with so much fun in between!

Today we spent the day with my best friend in front of her mom’s office on Magazine to catch a few uptown parades.

This was our favorite parade day with the girls. Paw-Paw & Gigi seemed to love watching them enjoy their day too! It was a day of three back to back parades which lead to hours worth of fun once they started rolling past us. 

We left with so much loot I started to wonder how we would get it all home! After the parade we took the kids with Mad & Aub’s NOLA besties too (my best friend’s kiddos) to get some ice cream at the famous creole creamery. It was the perfect end to a perfect day! 

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Feb 25 2017

Endymion 

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I suck at early mornings, but today was easier to get up because it meant seeing Mandy & Derek! At 7am I was up making Mardi Gras jello shots before I even had coffee.

I met Mandy online five years ago when she looked up #brusselsprouts. Who knew a picture of something I cooked could land me one of my favorite friends? I got to finally hug her three years ago when Matt & I went to Chicago. Imagine how excited I was when she asked me to meet her in NOLA for her first Mardi Gras! 

We picked them up and took them to cafe du monde. Derek had a real interest in seeing an alligator, so we took them to the end of the world to look for one. And possibly ran for our lives from one while taking a picture. That was the day my two tall friends learned how fast these short legs could move while making sure I didn’t become alligator bait. All while my husband played it safe and stayed inside the vehicle.

After lunch at Rocky’s we took them for a quick run through the Chalmette battle field so they could see 200 year old oak trees and walk up on the levee. 

Then came the real fun. We took them to the biggest parade of the season, Endymion. This was my first kiddo free parade in over two decades! We don’t typically do Endymion because of the large crowds and knowing the girls wouldn’t have near as much fun. Another friend invited us to go to their spot on Canal St that included a clean bathroom across the street, a rare find while at parades. Matt and Derek seemed to enjoy watching Mandy and I collecting big beads, cups, dabloons, and a hula hoop.

Little did we know while we were having a blast a mile from where we were standing a young guy drove his truck into a crowd at the very parade we were enjoying. Little did we know while we had no phone service for five hours on that parade route our daughter who had been enjoying the day with Paw-Paw & Gigi had heard about the accident and also knew where we were. She had no idea that I wasn’t answering her text because I didn’t get them all until we were walking back to our car and finding out about what had happened at the same time. Talk about a crummy feeling. 

After we left the parade we took a drive through the quarter, but all opted to not go walk it because we all had an early start the following day too. 

I’m so happy we got to spend the day with them and can hardly wait to see them again!

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