A Quick Trip to the "Park"

So, a little background here...Garrett started a work assignment the first week of January that was one of the most demanding assignments he had been on to date. He was working 6-7 days a week and working very, very long days. We had seen very little of him, it seemed. So the assignment wrapped up the Saturday before Mardi Gras. Yay!!! So, we knew Mardi Gras was approaching, which meant Tyler was out of school for the week and that Garrett's office would be closed for Fat Tuesday at least. We also figured he deserved an extra day or two off that week as well. :) So, Sunday after church, Tyler was so excited to have Garrett around that he had put together a 'schedule' for the rest of the day's activities. And it was precise, I tell you. I wish I had a picture of it. It included things like: Fishing--5:01 pm, Kite flying--3:54 pm, Play catch with football--2:19 pm, etc. It was awesome! :) But Garrett and I had actually been talking about getting out of town for at least a little bit of time since we were just feeling like our family needed something of that nature.

So, that Sunday afternoon, we told Tyler to pack up all of the items needed for the activities on his schedule so we could go to the park. And we told him we were going to a park a LONG ways away. He happily obliged. I also packed an overnight bag for everyone as well. So, it was a huge surprise to our kids when we pulled into a hotel in Biloxi for the night. I thought they'd be so excited to realize that we'd taken then for a little beach getaway, but instead Tyler got frustrated because it wasn't the park! But then he finally put it all together and figured out that he would still be able to do all those things on his schedule--they would just be done on the beach! So, here are some pictures to recap our fun little 24 hour surprise getaway, which was so fun!

When we got there and got checked into our room, the sun had just set, but we knew we needed to head down to the beach anyways. So, these first few pictures were taken at night. I was still playing with the wide angle lens and having a TON of fun with it at the beach!

The next morning, I somehow managed to get up and out of our room before anyone else woke up just to get a walk on the beach in the early morning light. It was actually VERY cold and I wasn't dressed well for the occasion!

After we had a chance to lounge around the hotel for a while, we set out to play on the beach. It was a very chilly day, so we were about the only ones there. And all I had packed for the boys was shorts. But they didn't seem to mind! It was windy--perfect for flying our Blue Angels kite. We spent a ton of time with it and got it doing all sorts of tricks. It was great!

And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep them out of the water. I knew it was cold and that they'd freeze, but at that moment, they couldn't have cared less! But later on, they definitely cared. :)

We took two soaking wet and freezing cold boys back to the car and changed them into some warm, dry clothes and headed back towards home to continue on with our Mardi Gras festivities. It was so much fun to go. I think it is true that sometimes it just does wonders for everyone to just get away...even if it's only an hour away. It's away and that's good!

Mardi Gras 2011, part 2

So, here we have a recap of this year's Mardi Gras...it was SUCH a good one! We have done Mardi Gras a lot of different ways since we have lived here, but this year, some good friends of ours who live on the Westbank have a house on the parade route for the Gretna parade. They invited us over for the day's festivities and it was fabulous. It was so nice to go to a smaller parade that had WAY less people than if we had gone Uptown and to go where we had access to a house with bathrooms, food, etc. The kids could run around and play without it being a big deal and we didn't even need to take the ladder box this year! The only downfall was the rain, but it let up right as the parade was getting to us. So, here are some pictures of our day, in completely random order--because that's how blogger decided to post them this time.

And another note--I had rented a wide angle lens to play with for a couple weeks in March so a lot of the pictures here were taken with a wide angle lens, so that may be why they look a little 'different' than usual. It was a very fun little project for me and I love the little perspective a wide angle gives. Obviously it wouldn't do me a lot of good with taking portraits, but to play with, it was definitely fun!

Definitely some distortion in this picture, due to the wide angle. But I love it in a freakish kind of way. :) Ha ha!

All hail Queen Grela (the queen of the Krewe of Grela for 2011)! Everyone was toasting her Majesty the Queen--I imagine Her Majesty was quite tipsy after all the toasts throughout the parade route that day!

And OF COURSE we were eating our king cake on Fat Tuesday! Wouldn't be Mardi Gras without it!

It seemed like we waited forever for the parade to get to us (we were at the very end of the route). But luckily it was OK to play in the streets while we waited!

A soggy, soggy day!

Lettin' the good times roll! It was a Happy Mardi Gras day! One of the best!

Mardi Gras 2011, part 1

A Mardi Gras post in November? Yes, you read that right. So...as we have already discussed, 2011 has not exactly been "my year" for blogging. But as the year is approaching its end, I am feeling a huge urgency to get it documented. Why? I'm not quite sure, especially since there are certainly a thousand other things going on this time of year--and it's not like I am sitting here twiddling my thumbs. :) But I am feeling highly motivated to get some catching up done right now, so let's hope the motivation sticks. :) I'd like to get as close to caught up by the end of the year as possible. So now anyone who still read this--you'll just have to bear with me as I trudge through the last 8 months. I may go back later and change the dates on the posts so they post chronologically (so as to fool myself and others that I actually posted them in a timely manner!), but for now, they are going to post as is.

But now, let's get back to the subject at hand, shall we? When I left off my last big push to get caught up, I had just finished blogging Valentine's Day, which means Mardi Gras was next in line. So, with Fat Tuesday (which was March 8 this year) quickly approaching, Tyler's school was in full swing with festivities. This year, instead of just watching the school's parade, he got to be in it. His class was the Kermit Kazoo Krewe and played the Mardi Gras song on kazoos to start the parade. And the teachers had their umbrellas in a second line. I loved it! They did the parade on 2 days and we decided to go on the second day. Bummer for us, since it was raining that day and they had to do it inside instead of outside. If we had gone the first day, we would have watched outside. Darn! But it was still fun and I loved that his school got really into it!

"The Kazoo Krewe"

This is just a sample of one of the floats. The younger pre-school kids got to do floats and throw beads. Some of the floats they came up with were pretty impressive!

After his class was done with their assignment of getting the parade under way, he was able to come watch the rest of the parade with Sam and me. Sam was sure glad to have him watch with him!

And after we got home, we relaxed knowing that Tyler was out of school for the entire week of Mardi Gras week! Yes, that's just as long of a break as he got at Thanksgiving and Easter. We take Mardi Gras seriously here, folks! And of course, both of the boys had to play with Tyler's super cool hat and home made kazoo! :)

Silly boys! And our Fat Tuesday recap will be coming up next. Stay tuned!