Checked the little ladies out of school today and traveled 600 miles to enjoy our first parade of the season in Slidell with my dad, gigi, & my best friend’s family. We got there just as the first float was rolling by. Bitty caught her Nannie Boo’s frog that she asked her to get for her. Aubrie lost her tooth on the parade route…it was never found. And Mad had a blast hanging out with her best friend too.
Laissez less bon temps rouler!
After a long weekend alone in Chicago with my love for our first time since our honeymoon seven years ago we are finally home with our lil monsters again! We had a fabulous time in what has easily become one of our favorite cities in just four short days.
Some of the things we enjoyed on our little vacation:
FRIDAY….
Wicker Park! My love got to stand in front of a building that was in a scene of one of his fave movies “High Fidelity” for a pic. We had lunch at an old lil pub called “Pint”. We hit up a rad lil local Skate shop to get our son some souvenirs we knew he’d like. We rode the El for the first time. Bought some goodies at Hershey’s & Ghiradelli’s for our lil monsters. Had dinner at Giordano’s at the recommendation of our friends. Then that night Matt went to catch his friend’s punk show while I went shopping with my friend Mandy before she left to go out of town the next morning. After his show Matt met up with us and we checked out the lounge on top of our hotel and then the three of us had a drink at Gino’s East next door to our hotel. Gosh I love that lady and the fact that her doing a hash tag search for #brusselsprouts two years ago gave me one of the kindest souls for a friend!
SATURDAY….
At the recommendation of my friend we had breakfast at an absolutely beautiful place called “The Grand Lux” overlooking Michigan Ave. Then walked to Millennium Park to take pictures of “the bean”. Probably my favorite part of that moment was that our daughter facetimed us while we were there and we were able to show her as well. The complete look of awe that she had was priceless. After a little more exploring it was time for our Chicago mob tour. It was ninety minutes full of all sorts of interesting facts. That evening was our much anticipated murder mystery dinner. Our Mother’s Day/Father’s Day gift to each other. By far one of our favorite things we did while we were there. We had to pick our own alias names, of which Matt picked out for us “The Blacksheep & The Blacksheep’s Wife”. It was in a beautiful hotel downtown. The entire show was full of comic relief. And we even got to channel our inner detective in us and we solved the case! So much so that we figured out all four of the actors that were planted amongst the guest too! We jokingly attributed our mad detective skills to watching far too much Investigation Discovery over the years, ha ha.
SUNDAY….
We got up early and headed over to the Sears (Willis) Tower. Apparently the locals still call it the Sears Tower. Pretty much like we still call a bridge back home “the green Bridge” when it obviously hasn’t been green for many years now. Tell that to a local though! I have an incredible fear of heights, but am thankful we weren’t in the Hancock Tower that has a new glass box that tilts out. We had a perfect view of that box from our hotel room and that looked terrifying to me. After coaxing myself into it I somehow managed to step out into that stinkin’ glass box that is on the 103rd floor that is 1,353 feet in the air. I faced my fears. Mainly so that I could tell our lil monsters. I never want them to let their fears control them or prevent them from seeing the world (even if it happens to be from a glass box at a frightening 1,353 feet in the air). They can do ANYTHING they set their mind to! Outside of that glass box there was an absolutely stunning view of Chicago that I just couldn’t get over! From there we went Oz Park to take pictures of the Wizard of Oz statues for our lil monsters since it’s one of our family faves. Did a little more last minute shopping before dropping off our things to the hotel and meeting Phil & Katie for lunch at Gino’s. Then we went to the a Navy Pier and explored the Stained Glass Museum and loved taking in the beautiful view of the Michigan Lake and city skyline. Then we walked over to Garrett’s for the infamous “Chicago Mix” popcorn (that happens to be cheddar & caramel, interesting mixture) for our popcorn loving daughter before walking back to the hotel. Sunday night we went to the “Midwest Live & Loud” show and Matt got to see his favorite band, Noi!se. He finally got to meet the lead singer that he genuinely admires for his musical talent, his family values, & his military background. Just an all around good fella. Sounds like I just described the man I am blessed enough to call my husband. It’s no wonder why he looks up to him.
MONDAY….
We enjoyed out last breakfast in the city out in front of our hotel before walked over to Giordano’s to pick up pizza to take home for our lil monsters to have yet another taste of Chicago. I loved exploring that city mostly by foot and really getting to take it all in. After checking out we headed over and caught the Metra out to Buffalo Grove and got to spend the day with Matt’s cousin Rachel. Her dad & step mom even came out to spend some time with us, incredibly sweet people. We just love Rachel! She is one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. I’m so thankful we were able to spend some time with one of Matt’s favorite relatives and well one of mine too! On the way to the airport she took us over to see the place that his grandparents’ home once stood. It’s now a big building there, but still so amazing to be able to show the picture to our lil monsters and show them even a tiny piece of family history. Back when we went to New Orleans my dad showed us the home that my great grandparents once lived. It’s almost unbelievable to me that it’s still standing and in fantastic condition. How amazing is it to show our monsters the home that their great great grandparents lived in?
I have to say it wasn’t easy being away from our lil monsters, and I likely wouldn’t have gone had they not been able to stay home and in their environment with their maw-maw. Two of them even got to go have some fun with my friend and her girls. FaceTime was also extremely comforting to be able to still see them daily. It was a fantastic four day weekend spent with the love of my life. The last eight years we’ve shared together have been full of amazing experiences and I’m incredibly thankful to be able to add this to our ever growing list! It was fun Chicago, but we are so happy to be home with our monsters where we belong!
We decided it was time to get Buggie (4 years old) & Bitty (2 years old) back home for their first real Mardi Gras this year. We had planned to do so long before my unexpected surgery and almost thought we would have to wait until next year since I wasn’t fully healed. But seeing how excited my lil Buggie was, there was no way I could let her down. So we went, knowing I would have to take it a little easy. It was a fun filled vacation with my love and our four lil monsters to say the least, regardless of my aches and pains. We were able to see lots of family & even a few friends. We made it to almost every place we had on our things to do list. Ate at all of our favorite local spots and even tried out a new to us old local place in the Quarter one night, The Old Coffee Pot on St. Peter’s. We enjoyed several nightly parades with family all around the city. My dad even got to enjoy a parade with all six of his grand kiddos together one night. I think my favorite part was hearing Buggie scream “throw me somethin’ Mista!” over and over again, even when a float was no where near us. A memory I am sure I will never forget. We loved watching our lil monsters’ excitement as they collected a wide variety of fun throws from each parade.
One night paw-paw watched our three little ladies so that along with my cousin and her husband we could take Budah to the French Quarter for a few hours. While most people enjoyed their night on Bourbon Street, after a nice dinner on St. Peter’s, we opted to take a stroll down our favorite street instead, Decatur St, and did a little shopping and sight seeing. Of course my dad knowing me all too well texted me pictures and video clips of all of the fun he and our little ones were having! And I’m pretty sure none of us will forget the hysterical taxi ride to and from the Quarter that night!
Then as if our vacay wasn’t rad enough, we got to meet two of our fave Texans in my hometown and bring them to a down da road fave, Charlie’s. Scott & Ryan loved it, and our lil monsters were thrilled to get to see their Guncles too!
My love & I got to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary in NOLA, which was coincidentally Lundi Gras Day, surrounded by our four lil monsters and a few of our fave people. Though our big celebration is still to come in late May and I can hardly contain my excitement! I simply adore this man of mine and am being spoiled far too much this year for our anniversary!
As always, New Orleans’ crazy weather dished out a very cold and rainy day for Mardi Gras. Oddly enough we weren’t overly let down to not get to spend that day in Metairie on the parade route. By then I had pushed myself far more than I should have and it was time to slow down anyway. So after watching some of the Metairie parades and Uptown parades on tv at my cousin’s house we all headed out to Deanie’s Seafood for a special Mardi Gras Day lunch. All of that freezing cold rain washing out our day didn’t dampen our spirits at all, we were so happy to be back home. We finally slowed down a bit after a full week of non stop fun and enjoyed a leisurely last full day there.
On our way home we stopped along the way for a quick visit with one of my favorite cousin’s, Joe. Buggie loves every chance she gets to visit with her Paran!
When we got home Buggie & Bunny were thrilled to bring lots of Mardi Gras beads and trinkets to share with their classmates. I love the generous little souls we are raising!
Just some of the hundreds of pictures from our fun filled week! We can’t wait until next Mardi Gras!
Got up bright and early with the monsters. Checked out of the hotel and headed over to the playground & skatepark for all of them to expel some energy before our drive home. Of course after a group of 16 of us had an early lunch together. Just realized half of the people at lunch came home with me. We opted to have a picnic dinner at the Boerne Skate park & playground to let the monsters enjoy a break before the last stretch of our trip. Met Aryie’s mama to drop her off. Finally home sweet home! As much as we love traveling there is just something always so nostalgic about climbing in you own bed when you finally get home. As usual we have a busy week with several extra things added to this weeks schedule. Beyond ready for some sleep. Were we really only gone two days? It doesn’t quite seem like it. It was so great to get to see my love getting to enjoy a weekend with his old army family! 
It’s been such a special day for my love! We woke up early this morning and loaded six monsters into “Betsy Bleu” for a road trip to Odessa. Budah, Josh, Bunny, Aryie, Buggie, & Bitty handled the five hour drive to west Texas so well! The scenery through the hills just seemed to get bigger and bigger from the hill country on, the big windmills, & all of the oil pumps really seemed to keep their interest. Of course the boys kept us all pretty entertained! When we got here we quickly checked into the hotel, freshened up, and were back out the door. Matt was so thrilled to be able to make it to one of his old Army friend’s surprise retirement/birthday party! Especially since he will be enjoying his retirement in Germany. I ran and dropped the boys off at the Odessa Skate Park for a few hours. The girls had a blast making friends with all of the other children. And Buggie & Bunny seemed to both have a little crush on two brother there. Oh boy are we going to have our hands full with these little ladies one day. Bitty especially enjoyed seeing the pony & long horns. She even kept screaming out “moo” to the cows. After the party the old gang wanted to continue the fun. So I gave my husband the nudge that he needed to get out and have a good time with them while I took all of the monsters back to the hotel for bath & bedtime. I finally got the four lil ladies to sleep. The boys went to hang out in the hot tub for a bit and are now drying their clothes. I of course will wait up for the boys to make it back to the room for the night before I consider sleep. Oh who am I fooling, I doubt I will get sleep until Matt makes it back. I never have slept very well in a strange place, especially without him by my side.
