New Orleans Fun

We had to go to New Orleans to take my niece to the airport and decided since she was leaving first thing that we would explore the city a little. We have been there to the airport a number of times, but never did any sight seeing. So while I waited with my niece at the airport Dustin took the kids and did a little scouting and saw the Superdome where the Saints play. (Jake's favorite team) Apparently that area is not where you want to be first thing in the morning, 5-6am. (Lets just say the number of hookers and bums was crazy.) Luckily the kids where watching a movie and didn't see all that. After they came and picked me back up we back down to go to a few museums and sight see, (The Bums and H where gone by 8am when we went back).

 The first museum we went to was the D-Day WWII museum. It was pretty cool.

This is a Dustin and the girls next to Dustin's dream jeep!

We, being an EOD (bomb) family loved this poster. We wanted to buy one in the gift shop but they didn't have one :( I may have to try finding one online for Dustin's birthday.)

After that museum we headed to the trolley to go over to the Insectarium for the kids.

Jacob, Bekah & Dustin

Bekah LOVED the trolley or "train" as she called it.

 Me & Gracie

The St. Charles Street Trolley

It is a really old, wood trolley and was really cool to ride.

 Looking at the giant ant farm

 Grace touching a beetle

 And Jake. Bekah would have no part in this!

 Looking at the baby alligators in the tank

 My cute kids

 Dustin trying to beat a beetle at a race with the kids cheering him on. 

Those little suckers are fast!

 Bekah loved the butterflies. Here we watched one hatch from its cocoon.

My cute family. (Not sure why this loaded funny, sorry)

After lunch we headed to the Garden District to see some old houses and cemetery!

 Outside the Layfette Cemetery (spelling?)

 Me one week shy of 6 months, and void of makeup and dressed for comfort, sorry!

 Cute little heads peeking out of everywhere!

 Dustin & I

Cute kids trapped in the gates!

This is the cemetery that is in several movies and books. It was really cool to see.

We also walked around the neighborhood and saw some cool old houses, but I didn't get any with people so decided not to post them, sorry.

Overall we had a great day exploring and were all exhausted by the time we made it home :)

Floating the River!

We went up and floated our awesome river Thursday. It is suppose to storm all day today, Saturday, so we went during the week, and as we were driving out there, and I mean like right after we started, it started raining! After our last trip down the river, see past post, which you may remember was not the greatest, this did not sit well with us! But we kept driving hoping it would stop, and it did. Then after we unloaded everything and were just getting ready to set out, it started raining again! We stopped, said a prayer, and decided to just go. By the time we were all in the water it stopped and turned out to be a great day!!! 

Since there were 5 kids and us, we brought some small floating tubes. (We had our 3 kids, my niece Sara, and Graces friend Mallory.) When we first set out we were a little nervous about one of the kids getting pulled under a tree or something, but everything turned out great. 

 For most of the trip the kids all wanted to be in the water, even if just in a life vest to float.

 Mallory and Bekah

 

Jacob in the lazy chair float I found

The 5 kids, Bekah, Mallory, Grace, Sara, & Jake

As always we stopped a few times to just relax and play.

Here is me relaxing in the lazy chair. It was really nice to lean back in the water like that. 

My big belly, aka baby girl, needed room to spread, since most the time I was paddling and she couldn't.

It is hard to tell from the pictures but due to all the rain we have been getting the water level was up by more than 2 feet! It made it easier to navigate down trees, they were all under water, but most of the beaches were underwater as well.

One of the places we stopped to play had this down tree hanging over a deep section of the river, perfect for jumping into!

 Sara jumping

 Mallory jumping

 Here is Mallory, Grace, Dustin & Jake getting ready to jump

 Grace jumping

 Jake jumping. Jake was the first to jump, having no fear.

Mallory soon followed, both of them jumped several times. 

Sara & Grace each jumped once but did not want to do it again.

 Our little water bug Bekah loved floating in the river. Here she is floating on her back.

Since her swim lessons, at which she screamed her head off, she LOVES any water! It is crazy!

We had a great day! Days like this make the upcoming move a little sad.

Fun Times!

So we have been having a great time the last few weeks! Here are a few pictures of our fun!

 Bekah and I played Black Light Mini Golf

 While Dustin, Jake Grace & Sara played Black light Laser Tag!

 We spent about 6 hours at our local water park! We were all a little red and very tired afterwards!

Above is Jake coming down a water slide

 Bekah has no more fear of water and LOVED the big water slides!

 Mallory (Grace's best friend), Grace & Sara in the lazy river

We went shopping at the Outlet mall and I found this cute set for the baby, sorry it loaded upside down for some reason, but it is a sleeper, a onesie, pants with attached monkey feet, and a monkey hat! This and a few tops are all this little one has so far! And a few other non clothes items, sadly we moved twice since Bekah and weren't sure about any more babies so we got rid of almost everything. But it is kinda fun looking at all the new things we can get for her! (And my fab sis-in-law and family, and a friend are both giving me a shower. Apparently now days you have showers even if it isn't your first, just to celebrate!) So this little one will be spoiled, like her older siblings!

A few days of fun!

We have had a few days of fun doing a bunch of things! First was going to see Gulliver's Travels. It was a funny movie, the kids liked it alot. Then the kids played in the Splash fountain. (One of our malls, called the Commons, is an outdoor mall and has a kids area right in the middle with a water area.) 

 Left: Bekah running through the water; Right: Sara, in Black, Grace in blue, and Bekah

After they got cooled off we went home for lunch then headed to a lighthouse about an hour away.

 It is 177 steps up to the top of the Pensacola lighthouse

Left: Jake going up; Right: Taking a break going up! Sara, Bekah, Grace, & Jake

 Left: Sara & Grace going up; Right: Bekah going up

 Left: They made it! View from the top! Sara, Jake, Grace, & Bekah; Right: Sara with light house

 Left: Me (I stayed at the bottom and waited! Dustin took them up.) Right: Bekah

 Left: Sittin for a minute! Right: Grace

Few of Lighthouse on our way down to the beach.

After seeing the light house we headed down to the beach just below it to cool off.

Not a bad beach, and no one was there, except the Jelly Fish!

 Left: Swimming before we found jelly fish; Right: Jake's stung back! It really hurts!

 These are the two different kinds of Jelly fish we found. 

And there were a LOT of them!!! We found over 20 easy. 

Bekah was the first to get stung, on her leg. A few minutes later Jake got attacked on his back. 

So we mostly splashed on the beach and played in the sand.

Still fun though. However it would have been nicer to play in the water! 

In the 2 years we have been here, we have never seen so many! We hardly ever saw any in the water.

The day before we did all this fun stuff, we went to the local Air Force Museum and looked around.

 The kids by one of the planes outside; Sara in a cockpit trainer thing (It is just the cockpit of the plane, they use ones like it for training, can't think what it is called.)

 Bekah at the controls; Grace & Sara by the EOD tank they have outside.

So, we have been having fun with my niece Sara here, even though I have to have a day of nothing in between the fun ones!