Day two

Day Two:  New Orleans

We left Lake Charles, LA and drove a short way to New Orleans.  Matt picked this Jamaican place to eat.  It was in the slums of New Orleans and looked like a warehouse.  I was not too thrilled.  When we went inside I changed my mind.  It was decorated nice and was clean and the only other people who were dining there were a couple of police officers, so I felt ok:)

 This backdrop against the wall made it look like we ate right on the beach.

But no, it was just the backdrop.  We all ordered the lunch buffet so we tried all kinds of different foods.  It was good and Matt especially loved it because he served his mission in Jamaica.  He talked to the owner about Jamaica for about twenty minutes.

After lunch we went to the zoo.

Cute elephant fountain

The real elephants

I couldn't resist adding these cute photos of Kelsey.  She loves to pose for the camera

Ethan is resting in the play area.

Jules knows how to relax and put her foot up

This was my favorite part of the zoo because we could go to a zoo almost anywhere but this made it unique to the area

Alligators

Big front porch rocking chairs

Digging

After the zoo we found this cute ice cream place called the Creole Creamery

The kids loved these ice cream clowns

We still like Leatherby's better, but this is the second best place we have ever found for ice cream-and we look everywhere for good ice cream.

Even Jules got a little taste

We then headed to Meridian, Mississippi.

When we got to the hotel we went swimming.

All of the kids have new swimming suits and they were happy to use them.



See Ya tomarrow.

Back to Blogging

So, it has been a long and tiring adventure moving to Virginia.  It has been a while since I have been able to blog... so to make up for it I am going to [try] to write a blog every day for a while.  I am going to start with the vacation-y part of the move.  We took four days to get from Texas to Virginia so I am going to approach this by blogging about it just one day at a time.

Day one:

The day started out well.  We had stayed at a hotel the night before because all of our house was packed and on its way (I love that we didn't have to lift a finger or pack a box. Celanese hired people for that).  Matt purchased a Nintendo DS for each child.  I was against that at the first, but as the trip progressed I was kinda glad because it made it so I could sit back and read Fablehaven:)



The kids did quite a bit of this (playing DS)

And a little of this

We stopped at our favorite stop that is in between Corpus and Houston.  It boasts "Restrooms Mom will like" and it is just a fun place.  Here a few pics.

When we reached Beaumont Texas we stopped here to let the kids play.  It was inexpensive and fun.

After bounce bounce bouncing, we were hungry.  Matt is obsessed with finding obscure places to eat when you are on vacation and he picked to eat here:

 We all tried fried alligator for the first time.

This is Kelsey thinking "I can't believe I just ate that!"

We continued on to Lake Charles, Louisana where we stayed the night - and I will have more for you tomorrow.

Valentines and Virginia

I was reading everyone's valentines posts and I decided to share a little about our valentines day this year.  I am too tired to upload the pictures, so that will be for another time.

Last week my neighbor offered last week to watch the kids on valentines since her husband was working that night.  I was so excited because we havn't been on an official date in a while.  Well, monday morning she texted me and said her kids were sick and she could no longer watch them. 

Crushed.

But I was determined to not let it ruin my day.  I thought, "oh well, it's not her fault.  We will just have to take the kids out to eat with us-again-this year.
But then...

My amazing visiting teacher came over with some flowers!  Really pretty orange roses.  Her children are all grown up and moved out.  She said, "Do you have someone to watch the kids tonight?"  I told her my story about the neighbor plans.  She replied, "Well, we are having valentines lunch, so if you want to go out with your husband for dinner I would love to watch your kids."

Hooray!!!

She even watched Juliet and it was the first date Matt and I have been on with NO KIDS since Jules was born last July.  I felt so happy, like a little kid at Christmas.

Matt came home from work with beautiful pink roses for me.  I love them.

We went to Waterstreet Grill and had VIP treatment.  We got to sit upstairs by their best window with the best view.  The room was decorated with flowers and candlelight.  Romantic music playing.  It was so nice.

And we got to talk about our new plans to move.

Matt got a new position at the chemical plant in Virginia.  They called us that day and said they wanted Matt to be working there by March 14.  That means we have to move in 3 weeks. AHHHHHHH!

Excited. 

When we moved here we always said that if we had the chance to make it to the Virginia location that we would go.  So we are happy, I just wish we didn't have to move so suddenly.  Oh well, we will still take it.  So there you go- If I don't blog for a while you will know why.

Dishes

I am teaching Kelsey how to do dishes!  She LOVES it.  She says she wants to do them every day.  I wonder how long this will last.  I of course have to supervise the whole time which stinks because she washes sooooo sloooow but hopefully in a couple of weeks she will have it down enough that she won't need any help at all and I can go jogging instead of doing dinner clean-up. yay.

And she can have her wish of doing dishes EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Until Ethan learns.

Perhaps our last trip to San Antonio, but maybe not.

It has been a while since we've been to San Antonio so we have been trying to go for a while.  We had not yet gone to visit the Alamo, so here we are.

Not a great picture.  Matt doesn't know how to step back a little to get the whole building.  Oh well. It is what it is.  Our kids won't remember this trip, but at least they can say that they have been there.

Victory or Death!

 We then walked a block to the River Walk-which was so awesome.

 And we took the boat ride.

 It was a 40 minute ride and it was so worth it.  I highly reccomend this if you are ever in the area.

 It was still early in the day and we didn't want to go home so we tried going here.  I DO NOT recommend this.  Very expensive and not that great. But I will highlight a few of my favorite parts.

 Smallest Lady.  Only two feet.  Can you imagine?

 Fattest Man. Ha Ha Ha.  This is just so funny.

 Then we went on this ride.

 So then we went to eat at a restaurant that has been highly recommended to us called Pappasita's.  It did not dissapoint.  Matt and I shared the fajita's and they were great!

So that's it!  It was really a nice day.  I am so glad we went.  The Alamo was so cool, I just wish we didn't have little kids with us for that because I could have spent a lot longer there and probably would have purchased the audio tour.  Also, when we were leaving the area we saw a children's museum just around the corner from the Guiness museum and I wish we would have known it was there because it would have been a better choice to spend our money.