NEW ORLEANS!

My sister-in-law took these amazing pictures in New Orleans and captured beautiful moments! Isn't she good! It was so fun to be back in a place I loved as a kid! It's a place where your dreams and imagination comes to life in full color and beauty. You can be yourself. There is music and talent on every corner. It feels good to pay someone for doing something entertaining, not just begging. It feels good. I have a hard time giving money to people just standing on the street begging, but for people performing and sharing their gifts and talents...it's not a problem!


The single ones in the family...anyone a taker?

This is the color I was talking about...look at all the colorful Mardi Gras Masks. They can't even have a normal colored door! Color is everywhere and it's truly awe inspiring.

This captures the other part of New Orleans that you don't see until dark...the sadness of living a life of drinking, smoking, doing drugs and living for the night life that Bourbon Street and parts of New Orleans is famous for. Who knows what this guy is doing, but under the bright colors, art, music, acting, etc. there are sad lives, sin, and false happiness. I guess that is how it is anywhere in the world, but this has two different sides in the daylight and at night:-)

We passed by a bar and this dog was perched up on a stool looking out the door! It's classic eh? I'm glad Lacey got a good pic of it!



Lacey took a picture of Lael doing this and had all us girls do it! It's a great shot eh? Good job Seth! Gotta love New Orleans!

Our family in front of the Catholic Church in New Orleans. We were able to go inside and they had a nativity scene and Abby kept saying, "baby diaper." while she pointed to baby Jesus. It has great acoustics and I am sure everyone heard her:-)

Madison and Abby were looking at this performer who is perfectly still and frozen until you put money in his box and then he performs. It was great! Abby refused to smile for him.

Lacey and Melissa

They made Brian pose by this Mummy...he looks great eh?

New Orleans

New Orleans...what a fun place! I loved going there as a kid with my family when we lived in Louisiana. I loved the jazz players, the mimes, the beniets, pigeons, fun shops, puppeteers, masks, Mardi Gras colors everywhere, saint symbols (football team), art, talent at every corner, smells, Mississippi river and the levee, and best of all was the pralines:-) We all went and had a grand old time. We had to take two vans to fit and off we went. We went down bourbon street and saw all these cool colorful doors everywhere. Partway down I asked my sister-in-law Lacey to take some pictures of the doors (I didn't have my camera since I was watching the girls with Brian) for a collage I wanted to make...here it is. I love the colors there...these are real doors and the real colors!

Kyle and Delyn's Reception

While we were there Kyle and Delyn got married and we got to participate. They had a huge party where they roasted a whole pig (head, apple, and all), had a cake, fun! They are such a good couple and will be great parents to their three children! What a fun day! We went with the bride-to-be and got fake nails (french tip) and had a great lunch at a Mediterranean place. What a day!

Louisiana Cabin

This is the cabin we went to. Not what you would have thought huh? A trailer on stilts. It has to be up like that since the river flood once a year and the water comes up to their cabin. All the houses and trailers are up on stilts like this. It's so funny! Look at the steps, there isn't a railing on the side so anyone could fall...maybe I'm just a bit paranoid:-) They use this a lot during the spring and hunting season. Hunter was up there that week hunting and Smokey and Becky were heading up once we left. Happy deer hunting!

Baton Rouge Zoo!

We got to go the the zoo while we were there. They had fun things like Alligators, Ant Eaters, a kangaroo, baby rhino, crazy birds, Snapping turtles, snakes, wandering birds, a petting zoo, fun playground, and an elephant show. It was tons of fun and brought back memories of when we went. They had elephants you could ride back then and a huge tortoise you could pet. I remember being most fascinated with the turtle we saw over a bridge on our way out. We would have been happy just spotting those turtles when we were little:-)

Abby and Madison loved the playground the best. The slides would cause static and this is what happened to Abigail's hair! I had to take a picture.




Daddy and Abby! Cute pic.

Four Wheeling along the Mississippi River!

What a crew! Look at all those camo kids! I just love it! Miss Becky, Smokey, and Kyle took us up to their cabin (see picture) and we rode the four wheelers in since it is so muddy from the rain and the river overflowing. At times you can't even get to the cabin due to all the flooding from the Mississippi river. It was so much fun! Abby loved it along with Madison. They would ride on the front and just bounce up and down with delight. It was 63 degrees that day and we only had to wear our jackets on the four wheelers. It was so much fun going through the mud and puddles! We had 7 four wheelers and the whole group had a blast! We went with Miss Becky, Smokey, Kyle (Jacob, Victoria, Garrett), Jason (Reid and Layton), and our whole family. The kids love to be up there with their grandparents and even know how to drive the four wheelers by themselves.

This was right in front of the Mississippi river. There was a huge barge that was pushing 6 flats up the river that passed while we were there. It was amazing to see how much they are able to push up the river.

Madison was born to ride don't you think?

Abby would hold on to the handle bars like this while Brian drove. It was so cute! We asked her once if she wanted to go riding and she came running while saying, "I go ride. I ride." She even fell asleep in Miss Becky's arms on the second excursion.

Santa Clause Delivers in Louisiana

Miss Becky, Smokey, and Mom Ellie made our Christmas one to remember. They have been buying things for our girls for months now and our girls loved it. They got dolls, animals, clothes, books, bath toys, gloves, dress up clothes, and many more things. Abby took 15 minutes opening her first present because she had to try everything on (clothes). It was adorable! Madison on the other hand opened her presents as fast as she could! Then she played with them after. The cutest story was when she went to bed Christmas night and woke up at 5:30 the next morning wanting to go down and open presents again and see if Santa came. We obviously forgot to tell her that Santa only comes on Christmas day. She was disappointed, but didn't wake up that early the next morning thank goodness!




Abby and Madison saw these first under the Christmas tree and carried them around all morning. They have played with them ever since and change the clothes on them three to 10 times a day. Thanks Miss Becky!!!!

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve we had a huge bon fire where we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The girls loved it! Madison had three marshmallows. Huge bon fires are something I loved about Louisiana. People pile up branches for months as they fall off the trees or a tree is cut down, or after a storm. Then they light it on Special occasions and make it a party. I remember one year we had a huge pile stacked up from cutting down our cyprus tree and other trees that year. It had been sitting for months as we let the wood dry out. When we went to light it, we heard this sound coming from the bon fire. We felt sick. It sounded like an animal. Then out of the flames we see small newborn kitten trying to get away from the fire. My mom and seth covered their faces, to protect them from the flames that were as tall as our house, and ran and scooped them up one by one. My friend took one and named it ashes and we put the other two in the barn in hopes that their mother would hear them and come get them. We didn't see them the next day and hoped the best for them.




Victoria, Madson, CL, Abigail, and Brian roasting their hot dogs.

We built it!

These are some pictures of our house that we built while living in Louisiana. We only lived in this house three months after we spent over a year building it. The beams are from my dad's original house that burned down and as you can see the craftsmanship is rather crude. These beams were made by slaves way back when. They even kept the wooden pegs used as nails back then. I loved the beams, wood floor, tile kitchen that was cool in the summer, the wood stairs we would slide down on sleeping bags, the wood paneling in front, and the fun side closets that would lead to the storage space on the sides of the roof upstairs. I used to love the sound of rain on the tin roof. I loved the large bathroom with two sinks and the toilet in a separate part. I used to love going right outside to a child's dream playground in the woods. Playing and swimming in the nearby creek, swinging on vines in the woods, and playing in the gully's collecting bottles. It was a fun three years!

This fireplace brings back memories of scraping off the leftover mortar on the bricks taken off the old home that burned down. We spent hours cleaning those bricks and I think my have helped lay them. This is the old wood burning stove that could heat up the house in the winter time and if you touched it you wouldn't get burned. We spent many a cold days sitting by this stove:-)

Here is a view from the back of the house. Isn't that live oak tree huge! It makes our house look tiny. When we lived in the double wide trailer during hurricane Andrew, a branch from a live oak tree like that took out our entire porch. Good thing it didn't hit our house!

This Louisiana Christmas was a trip down memory lane. We even stayed with people who live on the same street we grew up on. I even got to go running in my neighborhood...oh, that is a funny story. Whenever Brian and I would go running we would take a stick with us in the unlikely event a dog attacked us. Most people don't have fences and their dogs are free to roam. It's the Louisiana country way to do things. And EVERYONE has a dog. I'm sure people must have thought we were crazy running with a stick in our hands. I did encounter a dog on my first run. Brian ran that route right before me and said he didn't see any dogs, so I didn't bring a stick. Well, I did encounter a dog and I'm sure he was nice, but I wasn't going to find out. I ran fast and kept looking back at him and telling him to stay. I ran the three miles up the road hoping that the gas station at the end of it was open so I could just call someone to come and pick me up so I wouldn't have to run by that dog again. Well, that gas station that was there when I was young was gone, just an empty lot. So, I had to run all the way back! I carried a stick on the way back and did for every run after that:-)

Barnyard fun!

This is the old barn on the property where we lived in Louisiana. It was so fun to play in because it had all the old stuff in it from when my dad's house burned down. They just threw it all up in that barn and we discovered it drawer by drawer, in boxes, trunks, etc. It was a kids paradise up there. We even had a sleepover out there one night with all the kids and then had breakfast over a fire. Good memories.

This is one of the big oak trees in front of the barn. They are over 100 years old and huge! We used to use the moss that would hang from this tree to make beds, pillows, and fun wigs. We found out later that the moss is home to many insects, spiders, and even lizards. That was after being there for over two years:-) Oh, to be a kid again.


I love this barn! When we moved to Louisiana the back part of it was in really bad shape and I have fond memories helping my dad prop up the back to place strong large beams under the roof to keep it up. We used to spend hours there playing in the many different compartments making them into homes, pretend stables, and stores:-)