Visitors: A Recap...

Well, here is a recap with lots of pictures from Hillary and Cash's visit to the Big Easy. Going through pictures, I realized we really did pack it all in! But that's half the fun of having visitors--taking time out of the our usual routine and just playing, playing, playing! So, here is a recap of what we did, and don't say I didn't warn you--there are A LOT of pictures... I always debate on whether to break it up into a few different posts or just do one big one, and I opted to do one big one, so here you have it.

THE AQUARIUM
It's mandatory to get a picture by the Mississippi River before you head into the aquarium, so we did just that. It's such a fun spot to be!
Silly boys!

Sam happened to absolutely LOVE the aquarium this trip. It's a sign to me that he's getting older because he really gets it figured out and knows what's going on. He just loved looking at all the fish, it was fun to watch him! He was fascinated!
THE ZOO
Our crazy boys had fun at the zoo because they fit right in, especially when we were watching the monkeys. :) The day at the zoo was perfect as far as weather is concerned and there were so few people there, it was just great. We felt like we really got to see the animals do some fun stuff that day, it was so entertaining.

We came up to the gorillas just as they were getting their lunch and we watched them catch big huge carrots, bunches of broccoli, and big stalks of celery and just go to town eating them. We watched them for such a long time and the boys thought it was SO great.
And of course, with so few people there, the boys could really get RUNNING... We got a workout, that's for sure!
This elephant put on quite the show for us because he was mad at a zoo worker who was doing some maintenance on a tree across from the exhibit and he would pick up stuff in his trunk and throw it at him. It was hilarious. And it seriously felt like he was just going to walk right out of his exhibit and trample the guy. After he would throw things, he would curl up his trunk like this. Apparently, these elephants are quite territorial, who knew!
And Cash was dying to see the tigers, so we did just that. The white tigers are so pretty! Unfortunately, they were sleeping so they didn't do anything too exciting, but it was fun to see them regardless.

And last but not least was the sea lions! The sea lions never seem to disappoint and this time was fun. They were working with their trainer when we got there, so we got to see one get her teeth brushed, she waved bye bye, clapped her hands, and played peek a boo. All the boys absolutely loved it!
Proper oral hygiene is good for the sea lions, apparently!
THE INSECTARIUM
This was SOOOO much fun, and I don't even like bugs, trust me! But this was our first visit here since it opened and I was way impressed. Yes, the bugs were creepy, but the boys were just fascinated by it, of course! And we had a great time!
Here are a bunch of hissing cockroaches (they were huge!) and Tyler pet one (not a great picture, but it's the only one I got of him petting it). Ick!

A millipede:
An ant farm:


We got to look at bugs and DRIVE a bug, how fun is that?
Tyler especially loved the "Build a Bug" game where you put your own bug together and released it into one of three environments find out if it can survive or not. He could have done it all day long...
And the last spot to hit was the butterfly garden, which was my favorite, of course. There were tons of butterflies and they are just beautiful. I went a little nuts taking pictures of them, so here are just a couple...


CAFE DU MONDE
You can't visit the Big Easy without visiting Cafe Du Monde for beignets. Yummmm! After we went on the steamboat ride (which I got no pictures of since I was more concerned about making sure my kids didn't jump overboard), we walked on down to Cafe Du Monde where we all enjoyed some beignets. One of my favorite things about New Orleans, for sure!

They were a hit amongst the entire crowd, washed down with some thick cold chocolate milk, of course! (Usually washed down with hot chocolate in the colder months, yummy!)



FISHING
We barely fit this in, but we had to let Cash try his hand at catching a fish at our house. It wasn't our most successful outing ever, but both boys caught fish, so we were happy about that. It's always fun to take little boys fishing!


And that's a wrap. As you can see, we had a BALL with our visitors and hope we can see them again soon! And we're gearing up for another round of visitors over Thanksgiving. We're so excited to see Grandma & Grandpa T!

And today starts my attempt at participating in National Blog Month (or whatever it's called). I know some people who started out November posting every day of the month. I knew this wasn't in the stars for me with having company in town, but I figure I may try to post something every single day for a WEEK. To some that may not be a big feat, but I've never done a once-a-day type of blog, so it might be kind of fun. I've usually done more of blogging an 'event' type thing on my blog, so this may make me step out of my box a little bit. So I don't know what my posts are going go be like (I suppose some may not even have a picture, {gasp!}), but I'm going to try to post every day this week (before it gets quiet again on the blog when our next guests are here!), so I guess I'll have to come up with something. Now, aren't you excited?? ha ha So check back and leave a comment and say hi, why don't ya?! :)