The Fall season for us this year has meant the end of football and the beginning of softball. Braden was a lineman and he did pretty well. He played a lot during the games and really came out of his shell. Braden was pretty sad when the season ended. I feel like we have FINALLY found a sport that he likes so we were pretty sad when it ended. He has grown up so much in the last year and as a Mom, I just want it to slow down! I do enjoy his new found independence, though! Coming up soon, we have a banquet so that will be exciting to get all of the boys together again! Sophia has gotten much more agile and athletic this year. Her hitting has improved a ton and she made it onto the Marshall SheCats traveling softball team. This team has had much success in Marshall through the years and we are pretty stoked that she made it on the team. It will be expensive but well worth it. Yesterday, we finished our last tournament. The girls dressed up as Dalmatians and were pretty stinking cute!
My Vacation times were just set for next year. I took two weeks for my kids' spring break and two weeks in July. Unfortunately, Brad and I will probably not be able to take a week vacation for just us this year like we had originally planned. We wanted to try to go to either Dominica or St. Martin. We MAY be able to squeeze a week in at the end of the year but it will depend on work. It sucks, but the kids are more important. We are planning a trip to Disney the end of July. We would LOVE to take the kids and we want them to have the experience of going. I am already starting to plan it and I am pretty sure we will do 2-3 days at Universal Studios and at least 4 days at Disney. Of course, we will work some sort of beach vacation in, so I'm planning on St. Augustine for a few days. I did some research and I am pretty sure there will be some sea glass waiting to be found on some of their beaches! I'm also thinking the bioluminescent kayak tour on Indian River Lagoon. I think the kids would be mesmerized. I know I was when we got to do the bio bay in Vieques! Overall, I'm excited to share my planning with everyone in the months to come, so get ready for loads of Disney!
The last three years, we have slaughtered the battle ground that is the WARRIOR DASH. Seriously though, it's a ton of fun and just about any activity level can do it if they would just put forth a bit of effort and accept people helping them. The obstacles are all about team work and mostly everyone is willing to help lift a hand or shove an ass. Every year we have a ton of fun and get stoked to sign up for it again. The first year was a learning experience for us. We had never done a mud run, nor had we even done a 5k together. I wore a tank top and Victoria's Secret yoga pants. I decided from then on that I would never make the mistake of wearing cotton ever again. Wearing cotton is a terrible choice because cotton gets wet and sags and wants to fall off as well as weighs you down. The following year I wore compression shorts with some others on top and a cotton tank top. Obviously I still didn't learn my lesson! The shorts were fine, but the shirt was just a saggy mess when we got done. This year I wore booty shorts, no undies because the shorts had a liner and a dry fit top. Much better! I didn't feel weighed down during the events and it was very breathable. We donated our shoes and that was a wise choice. You can never wear them again as muddy as everything gets.
And....Last but not least, the before picture from our very first WD! Notice that every year we do the Warrior Dash eye black. You can order it when you sign up, or at any time from their store.
This year, the obstacles were the best we have done and they even had the Alcatraz swimming obstacle which was a blast! We were a bit worried about swimming with clothing and tennis shoes on, but really it just got a lot of the thick mud off, so it wasn't too bad. Overall, we highly recommend this mud run and we will be doing it with our kids next year. It is already scheduled and is pretty cheap right now. We will be signing the kids up to go with us because they will FINALLY be of age! Custom shirts will be made, fore sure!
Last week we went to Holiday World. We try to go every year and each year it gets bigger and more crowded. This doesn't stop us, though!!! Every other year we end up going on a weekend because Brad has to work. This year was wide open and we went on a Tuesday. We knew that it would be busy, and it certainly was, but it wasn't as bad as going on a Saturday. The best part of Holiday World would be the prices and freebies. I get a discount from my hospital that takes about $10 off per ticket. I believe tickets are normally $49.99 for an all day pass. Of course, there are discounts for children under a certain height and for seniors. The freebies are what bring us back every year. I'm a nurse and a Mom, so sunscreen is always packed. I don't have to worry about packing it at this theme park, because they have huge gallon jugs of it at the free sunscreen stations around the park. None of us got burnt the day we went, so it must not be too bad! The best freebie, in my opinion, are the unlimited soft drinks. All over the park are little buildings with fountain drink stations. The kids LOVE it, and I can't even begin to think how much better hydrated we are during the day and how much money we save! We get ice water and Gatorade most of the time and after a few waters we will get a pop. I will also say that Holiday World is one of the cleanest and friendliest parks I have been to as well. The food is nothing to brag about, but it is good. They have a decent variety. We got a large pizza for all four of us at the Wildebeestro in the water park portion. The pizza was huge and I believe it cost around $25. There are little stands all over the park where you can get Dippin' Dots, funnel cakes, and other sweet treats.
All strapped in with Dad getting ready to launch
Every year we go, we get a picture going down this famous ride!
Selfie!
The day we went, the park opened up at 10am. We parked and walked right to the ticket line. I had the ticket barcodes on my phone so we skipped through the huge lines and got right in. There is a huge Santa statue that is a must for pictures. Have someone get your picture or just take a selfie like we did.
Here is our annual Santa picture!
We waited until later to snatch our picture because we were on a fast track to the lockers. I always bring towels in with us, cheap flip flops for the water park, dry clothes for after swimming, and Braden's Epi pen. We bring a change of clothes, because we always do the rides where you will get wet before the water park and we wear our bathing suits under our clothes when we arrive. It makes it a lot easier and it's much more comfortable once wet. We headed straight to the water park because it's the best place for lockers. The water park doesn't open until a little bit after the park opens. We rented a large locker and paid $15. We threw all of our crap in, including our phones and headed off for some rides. The first rides we always do are the Frightful Falls log ride and the Raging Rapids. We got wet, of course! Those two are always fun and they are definitely my favorites. After these two rides, we were ready for the water park and it had just opened. The water park is always a blast. We did the majority of the water coasters and family tubing rides. We spent quite a bit of time on the lazy river and in the wave pool as well. There are cabanas that families can rent, but I feel like we wouldn't utilize them. We found some beach chairs and threw our towels down as kind of a home base. This was unusual, because on the weekends, we have never been able to find any open chairs!! After the water park closed, we got dry clothes on and hit up the main park again. We did the Liberty Launch, a turkey blasting ride, and a few others. On the weekends, they have fireworks and sometimes stay open later.
Overall, we love Holiday World. The only problem is, it's too far from home!
This post is going to be very boring. There were not that many places to eat and definitely not many places to shop. I enjoy going into a few souvenir shops to pick up some local stuff, but the few we visited didn't have much. Groceries were out of the question. We went to a Wal-Mart 50 miles away before we came onto the island. We were warned to do this. Thankfully, we listened. There was one afternoon when I needed an SD card. Nobody in town had anything like that and some of the locals looked at me like I was a crazy woman. Definitely need to come prepared when visiting! We generally only eat dinner out while on vacation, but this time we ate at the condo because of the lack of places to go. This was the draw of the island, though. We wanted fewer people and places. We wanted to have the beach mainly to ourselves. We got that, so we are happy! The few places we did go to were pretty decent. Everything was fresh and tasty!
The first place we visited was basically just a shack near the condo that didn't really look like much. The name is Island Rainbow and is located on the main drag on Bienville. They had snow cones, pizza, and other items for sale. We ended up just getting snow cones because the kids were hot from the beach. The syrup was horrible and watered down. We decided we would not make a return visit.
One evening for dinner, Brad and I walked down to the "Islanders" for a meal. The slogan was cute and read "Fine Dining in Flip Flops." We got it to go and we were not disappointed once back at the condo. We had the best sweet tea ever. I said to Brad that it tasted just like my Nene used to make. It took me back a few years and made me miss my Nene. Brad got a burger with A-1 on the side and I got the shrimp alfredo with Italian bread on the side.
I apologize for the poor picture quality. I also scarfed my food down before I even remembered that I didn't get a picture!
The following day, we headed back for lunch and I got the shrimp basket with sweet potato fries. Again, the sweet tea was amazing and I didn't take pictures! The sweet potato fries were probably the best I have ever had. They didn't even taste fried, which was a huge plus.
During lunch one day we decided to hit up Pirate's Bar & Grill. The day we were there, they had some sort of kitchen malfunction that was causing the place to fill up with cooking smoke. No big deal. We opened up the windows and let in the island breezes. The food was fresh like it was plucked from the ocean. They shut it down for repairs and we ended up being the only people dining. I got the crab cakes with baked beans and cole slaw and Brad got the shrimp basket with baked beans and cole slaw.
Their margaritas were pretty tasty. I always get mine on the rocks with sugar instead of salt on the rim. They used cuervo in mine.
They had a view to die for.
So, while on the island, we ate out three times. Twice at Islander's and once at Pirates. I suppose we saved quite a bit of cash!
On to shopping. It was certainly not a shopping destination. You could barely get the necessities, let alone if you forgot something major. I'm not sure how long it would take to drive somewhere to get something you just HAD to have. I mentioned before that we went to a Wal-Mart like 40-50 miles away before we even got on island. There are a few gas stations and bait shops where you can get a few items, but I noticed the prices were up and there wasn't much to choose from. I went to the Octopus shop to look for a few souvenirs and ended up getting a Purvida bracelet and some earrings. I also went into a few other touristy shops but we didn't get much other than a magnet for our fridge and a sand toy for Sophia. Overall, we mainly enjoyed the beach. That's basically the only thing to do and you want to make sure you are prepared!
We did have some cake while on vacation, though! My Mom, Grandma, Brad, and Sophia conspired at Wal-Mart to surprise me :)
On the way home, we bought some Alabama peaches. They are AMAZING!!!
After buying the peaches, we stopped by Sikes & Kohn for some shopping. I love this place. They have all sorts of brands and for a decent price. Brad ended up getting an Under Armour shirt, a Columbia fishing hat, and some Teva sandals for the next vacation (his Nike sandals chewed up his big toe). Braden got a Guy Harvey shirt. Sophia got some Choco sandals as well as a Guy Harvey shirt. I got some Choco shoes that will be put to good use when we go on hikes and for vacations! While at the outlet store, the kids got a bit hungry. We ate at the Hamburger King and got scrambled eggs and breakfast sandwiches. Quite tasty and cheap!
We drove for quite awhile and when the kids were hungry again, we stopped at Milo's. They had burgers and such and had some kind of special sauce. The burgers were awesome and the tea was amazing! What is it with the south and their tea?!?
We were lucky enough to be able to take a cemetery tour. This was one of the big things I wanted to experience while in New Orleans. I was extremely happy with the outcome and we learned a ton!
Our tour is beginning! The kids are already super curious about the history of New Orleans. Especially how it was founded. The were very intrigued when they found out it was built by pirates, thieves, and the ladies of the night. I'm almost positive they had no clue what ladies of the night are, but they still thought it was pretty neat sounding. LOL
They were also interested to learn about the Kings, Queens, and Dukes. The city was named after the Duke of Orleans. Many of the streets are named after royal family members, such as Bienville (the founder of New Orleans) and Dauphine (French Princess, is what we think he said), as well as the famous Bourbon street (French family Bourbon, not the drink like some of us would assume). The French founded New Orleans and certainly left their stamp; however, Louisiana was purchased by America with the Louisiana Purchase, so there was a lot of influence from that side, as well.
There was a neat little story behind this building. The two sisters were described as the mean girls of the times back in 1886. These two sisters had their shop and they would make gowns and Mardi Gras outfits for some of the elite women in New Orleans. They would hold court with some of the finest women in New Orleans and they would gossip and talk badly about any of the women who didn't frequent their store. This business is now a lucrative restaurant.
If you know me, I love wiener dogs! This has nothing to do with the cemetery tour, but I loved this picture!
We were also told about the Jesus statue. The hands of Christ were always open at night when the lights shone on him. After the Saints won the Super Bowl, some of the grounds keepers adjusted the lights just a bit to make it look like Christ was making a touchdown with his arms. He is now called "touchdown Jesus."
This building doesn't look like much to some, and it really didn't to me either, but it really has a lot of history. The building to the right would be the Master's home. The middle portion would be a small court and the building of the same color on the left was the help or slave quarters of the times. Another thing to note about the buildings of New Orleans is how they were built in the first place. New Orleans is a swamp. What they would do is drive telephone poles down until they hit bottom and then continue to do this until the ground was firm and there would be no sinking when the building was built. They have been having problems recently with the cemeteries. The cemetery we visited had some graves and monuments 1 1/2 deep that were buried and the historical society has no clue who is buried there. They are in the process of starting to rebuild and restructure them.
Many homes in New Orleans were decorated up for the holidays and we were told that they generally decorate for every single holiday in this fashion. Again, if you have read my other write up, I mentioned house colors. The owners of the homes are not allowed to change anything on the outside of their home. It must be kept historically accurate. The inside is whatever the owner decides. Any changes to the outside must be approved or there are a multitude of fines and troubles the owner can get into.
Other than being a beautiful home, this one has a lot of history packed in as well in which a typical person would know nothing about. This was a typical Mistress home. Historically, women have had much fewer rights than men. The Mistress, had almost as many rights as men. Her lover was to go into a binding contract with her that the Mistress's Mother would secure. The Mother would make sure that her Daughter was well taken care of and that he would pay for any of her expenses, purchase her a home of her choosing, would pay for schooling for any children born, and would pay a monthly payment to the Mistress for her services. This was great for the family because they would be taken care of. If the man's wife found out and threw a tantrum and the man had to call it quits with her, the Mistress was able to go into contract with another man. She was able to keep the home and her children would still be paid for. This woman had more rights than the Wife, in most cases. The reason behind these women becoming Mistresses instead of wives is related to their color. If a woman was found to have even the slightest black or anything other than white, they could not marry. There were balls held where these women would be put on display for the men to choose them as his Mistress. The men loved these women because of their beauty and their coloring. This was quite acceptable back then.
This is the entrance to a park where many of the African Americans would spend their days off. They would have singing and dancing, would sell their wares, and would even wait for someone to need some work done.
A statue within the park that I found interesting.
The cemetery had certain hours where it could be seen. They have had a horrible time with vandals. Even recently, they had tombs broken into. Such a sad thing.
Where the people of New Orleans thought Marie Lebeau was buried for a long time.
Some of the monuments
As you can see, some people still frequent the grave sites of their family members
This is where Nicholas Cage is set to be buried. Cage bought a home in New Orleans and later found out that it was one of the most haunted houses around. It just so happened that while he owned the home, his acting career took a huge plummet, and when it was sold, he came back out on top.
Many of these resting places have unknown families and people inside.
This is where jazz musicians of New Orleans who have little or no money can be buried for free.
They call these the vampire tombs because the people inside are buried face down. It was some sort of protestant ordeal. The cemetery didn't want protestants buried there, so they made a rule that they had to be buried in this fashion.
All of us in front of the true resting place of the Voodoo Queen Marie Labeau. There was a ritual that must be performed if you want a blessing from the Voodoo Queen herself. I will post our video below.
Braden gave some money and Sophia gave a hair tie for beautiful hair. I won't say what I asked for ;)
There is a ton of information on Marie Labeau. Brad knows a little bit from watching American Horror Story. I don't think it is accurate, but he found it interesting that they used her and we were learning the real story behind the Queen herself. So, Marie was a hairdresser who was the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. Marie was a good listener and while doing hair, she gathered many secrets about the high society. She used these secrets to help spread the word that she was the true Voodoo Queen. Nobody doubted her. She would gather many secrets from slaves and from workers. They trusted her and she would always give favors. back. The men never questioned her and many of the elite owed her. She would keep their secrets about their mistresses and about their estates. She would even have balls where these men could intermingle with the gorgeous mixed women of the time. When she did need to cash in a favor, they were always more than willing. Marie had many children. She had a few daughters that looked almost identical to her. She named them Marie as well. These daughters looked, talked, dressed just like her, and acted just as she acted. This was all part of Marie's brand. Now she was the Voodoo Queen but she also never aged thanks to her offspring. When the daughters got older, they had a pretty good bank account set up thanks to their mother. When they retired, so died the Voodoo Queen. This is what our tour guide told us, and I quite like the story. It seems to me that Marie was an entrepreneur of the times and that's pretty amazing since she was a woman, let along a woman of color!
We found out that if you are an owner in the tourist area, you have to paint your home and leave it like it was historically. The tour guide for our cemetery tour said that the historical society of New Orleans will even scour around for old newspaper clippings and photos of your home to confirm any colors. If any changes are to be made to your home, it has to be approved and that is highly unlikely if it is to the exterior.
We spent a small portion of the first day just walking, but we did run into the Voodoo Authentica Museum. It was quite interesting and there was even a medium doing some work with a customer. There were oils, spells, voodoo dolls, and other spell/witchcraft items. They did not allow pictures inside, unfortunately.
Somehow, we ran into Jackson Square and found some good opportunities for some pictures. We decided that when the rest of our family arrived, we would have to show them our find. There were many artists set up along the street, lots of shops to check out and gorgeous apartments. We found out that the apartments run $3000 and up per month! Wow that's pretty steep to live in that area! My Husband also informed me that "Brangelina" lives in the area. We never did figure out which home was theirs, but we did find out that it is for sale at a hefty price!
Of course, we had to get a picture of the whole family!
So, the story behind this statue is quite interesting. The man on the horse is Andrew Jackson, and he is always tipping his hat. The person he is forever tipping his hat to is also the same person who paid to have the statue made. This person is Baroness Pontalba. Apparently, Jackson would never tip his hat to her because he did not feel that she was a lady. So, the Baroness paid to have the statue built facing her apartment, much to Jackson's dismay. Now, there are a few other stories that I googled and read, but this one has some spicy juice to it, so I will stick with it!
These apartments are the ones that go for $3000 and up per month
Selfie!
I mentioned above that there were artists. I bought one piece of art that I think is odd, but I love it! I bought a painting of the Luck Dog stand. I had taken some pictures of the stand and the painting just had to be mine! The person we bought it from has no website or cards. She explained that she just prefers to sell her art there at the square and does just fine.
My picture is the white vertical photo on the middle right side and it was only $20
After checking out Jackson Square, we decided to walk down to the river. It was a gorgeous sight with the bridge we came in on in the background. There is an aquarium down there as well as some boats used for tours.
The following day, we hit up Jackson Square again, but my Grandma was too worn out from walking everywhere, that we decided to take a horse drawn carriage back to the hotel. The carriage was $126 for all ten of us and it was a brief history lesson on some of the hotels, shops, and restaurants. It was quite fun. I said horse drawn, but this carriage was not pulled by a horse. Check it out in the pictures :)
After a carriage ride, we had to get ready for our swamp tour. This was one of the items on my list of to-do's in New Orleans. We booked with New Orleans Swamp & Airboat tours in the jean Lafitte Swamps. The website to book is www.jeanlafitteswamptour.com and their prices are reasonable. We felt like it was too much to get three vehicles out, drive around New Orleans, and find the establishment, so we opted for them to pick us up at the hotel. Once picked up, it was only 20 minutes to the swamp. We got onto a big pontoon boat with two big motors and bench seating all around the edge. When we got on the boat and took off, we saw a small gator right away. The Captain said that this is his typical hangout. I definitely wouldn't want to walk along at night out there! We had over an hour cruising the swamps and saw many birds and gators. On the way back, the Captain had a small gator that he brought out so the kids could get up close and personal. It had tape over the mouth, of course.
Later on that night, we got to ride on the trollies. I had great expectations, but really that experience wasn't that great. It was hot and cramped. We got off after just a little bit of a ride. It was a cheap ride, though! $3 for the entire day or $1.50 per ride. One word of caution: If traveling with someone a bit older, let them sit down. The trolley is extremely rough to ride. I can imagine there are plenty of accidents and falls on them.
The last thing I wanted to write about is Bourbon Street. We did a cemetery tour as well, but I am going to have a whole write up about that. I didn't necessarily feel like I had to do Bourbon Street, but I wanted to say that I did, if that makes any sense at all. I'm not much of a drinker, but I did have a few drinks because what the heck...I'm on vacation! I had a daiquiri and a margarita, which were quite tasty, and Brad had a few beers. In my opinion, Bourbon street was loud and gross. There were people flashing others (this was expected and I only think it was bad because of the idiots with their kids), beads being thrown (so hard at times, I saw drinks spilled out of hands and people crying out in pain), homeless people that were getting somewhat irate if you didn't give them money (scary), and it smelled badly. I love to people watch, have a good time, and you all know I'm all about freeing the nipple; however, this was just gross drunken debauchery. We heard that down the street there was a teenager giving oral sex to an 80 something woman. Age isn't an issue, but sheesh keep it to yourself! There were some people that had their children in tow. I'm quite sure it was not the appropriate place for them to be hanging out. After some walking around, we found a pretty decent bar that was playing some 80's and 90's music and we found a seat. The music was good and we were actually enjoying ourselves! I wish in knew who the band was. We ran into one of the Tennessee Titans football players and his girlfriend and we met some others who were there for a conference. We made friends with both groups. Overall, we had a decent time. I can now say I have done Bourbon Street (I may never be back, though). The only negative thing that came out of the whole experience was my Brother's Girlfriend had her debit card stolen. I'm glad I didn't have my nice camera or any of my cards on me! I will leave you with some pictures and videos :)
"Touchdown" Jesus was seen on the way back from Bourbon Street. Our tour guide told us that the lights were simply adjusted making him appear this way.
Overall, New Orleans was fun! I loved the shopping, the food, and the architecture. I will stick to the daytime activities, though!!! The nightlife was a bit too much for me!
Selfie! 
