New Orleans

We had to high tail it to Louisiana because Carl and Kristi were flying into New Orleans to meet us for a few days :) The drive was uneventful and beautiful as we started to see flooded swamp lands. We spent one night in Alexandria to break up the drive. 

The city of New Orleans is unique, I especially loved the architecture. The food was heavy for us, but we all loved beignets! 

It was great to see the muddy Mississippi. This video is a woman playing an organ which is steam flowing over the tops of bottles!

Bourbon street was only kid friendly (sort of) during the day!

This swing  was in the courtyard of our hotel, the Maison Dupuy. Kristi and Carl took turns spending the night in the hotel and going out on Bourbon St. with me. The unlucky adult each night got the rv park next to the highway and lit up bright as day with the lottery billboard!

On Friday we went on an awesome airboat swamp tour! We all held a baby alligator, even Kristi! 

After the tour Carl and I ubered to Whole Foods and got groceries to bbq by the rv park pool :) 

Kristi and I hit Bourbon Street and collected some beads that night ;)

On Saturday morning we walked around Audobon Park. I never realized that Loyola and Tulane are right next to one another. They have this beautiful park right on the edge of their campuses. After much searching we found the Tree of Life, planted around 1710!! 

This isn't the Tree of Life, there were hundreds of beautiful old oak trees.

Ella counted over 200 caterpillars on our walk!

Ella is amazingly good at catching lizards. I remember always trying to catch them as a kid, without much luck. She pretty much can always catch them!

Our park adventure was a little longer than we had expected. We had our uber driver bring us back to the rv park to drop Ruby off and then she brought us to the Jazz Festival. We found it to be very similar to a state fair: crowded, hot, and full of over-priced underwhelming food. There were some great art vendors. We bought a cool vase. 

Ella and Carl danced to Alabama Shakes. 

It was a cool experience, but a reminder that our kids don't love this kind of thing, and we prefer small venue concerts! 

That night we were all exhausted, but we wanted to take one more walk across the French Quarter to see the Mississippi. We had dinner at Cafe Beignet. Apparently the jambalaya had crab in it, and I spent the rest of the night sick so Carl and I didn't get to go back to Bourbon St :( The kids and I took a bicycle cab back to the rv park while Kristi and Carl walked Ruby back. 

On Sunday morning Kristi and the kids met us at the hotel for a scrumptious breakfast. Then we all rushed back to the rv park to try and back everything up before the storm hit (there was severe rain and tornado watches coming our way). We finished just in time and it was pouring as we left. Apparently everyone else in town had the idea of going to the WWII Museum to stay indoors, the line to get in was around the block. So, we went to the aquarium instead. We had to park two blocks away. We got soaked running those two blocks, we literally looked like we had gone swimming in our clothes. We bought the kids dry t-shirts there and even tried the hurricane simulator to dry us off (it didn't work). The aquarium was good, all of us agreed that the best part was the IMAX movie: Hurricane on the Bayou.

We all love red beans and rice :) 

Sadly it was time to take Kristi and Carl to the airport and for us to continue on to Mississippi. 

Great Wolf Lodge, TX

For Ella's 9th Birthday we spent 3 days at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX. 

 Ella had a great birthday! Her favorite part was probably when Carl told her over the phone that she can get the pet hamster that she has been begging for (after summer camp).

The arcade was definitely a highlight of Great Wolf Lodge for all of us! 

Ryan won the jackpot of over 1000 tickets on the Storm Stopper 6 times! Apparently it's exhausting to be so amazing!

Much to my dismay, we have to find room in the camper for all of this loot.

We found an awesome sushi restaurant for birthday dinner.

I keep treasuring these moments of finding my kids between being little kids and big kids. I love this picture of them texting their older cousin while clutching their lovies :)

It was very similar to the one in Southern California,  but it had an outdoor ropes course that Ryan loved. I did it with him, and found it SCARY, especially the final jump!  The employee at the top told me to just step off the platform, but be careful to step out enough to not hit my head on the platform, and don't jump out and hit the fence. His assurance not to worry because he is an EMT didn't soothe my nerves! There's no picture of the final jump because Ella was down below crying that I was going to die! 

I had made arrangements in advance with a dog sitter from rover.com. It worked out great. She text me and sent pictures. Ruby was very happy to see us when we picked her up! The sitter reported that the only problem was the first night she came home late and found Ruby in her bed, perfectly positioned like a human,  snuggling with her deeply sleeping husband!

South Llano State Park & Austin Texas & Magnolia Silos

It was a LONG drive to South Llano State Park! Driving at night allowed us to see tons of nocturnal animals, including an armadillo! We pulled into the site at midnight. Thankfully Ryan was still awake, and was a trooper helping me get everything set up in the dark.

The next morning it was HOT by the time we woke up at 8:30. I had planned a hike for us, but with the heat and NM souvenir sunburns we weren’t up for it. The state park was gorgeous, I would definitely stop there for longer if we are ever in the area again. We took a short walk and then started our drive to Austin. 

The drive to Austin was full of bucolic views, wildflowers and cows galore! I wanted to stop and take pictures constantly, but there weren’t good places to pull over and,  pictures taken at 75mph don’t turn out great. When we arrived in Austin we got Ruby situated at a La Quinta and headed to my cousin, Danielle’s. Her apartment complex was having a pool party with live music, free food and drinks! The kids had a great time swimming and it was nice to catch up and have some adult conversation! 

In typical Ryan fashion, he picked up the hover board quickly.  

Danielle and Ella are two peas in a pod! 

Ryan was impressed with the Texas waffles at La Quinta!  After he had put syrup on it I broke it to him that it was backwards:)

We randomly stopped at a restaurant named the Kitchen, it was amazing! 

We got to visit with Carl's Aunt Peg. She is a jazz pianist and Ryan really enjoyed playing with her. We got to hang out with her daughter, Sarka, and her family. That evening we all went to an Italian restaurant where Peg was performing.  She called Ryan up to play with her for a bit, which was fun!  

We spent the night in Peg's driveway. The next morning we spent hours in Zilker Park. I LOVE when cities have huge parks. We walked a lot, played at playgrounds and found food truck park for lunch. 

We spent much longer at the park than we expected.  Afterwards we met back up with Danielle. We all went to Rudy's BBQ. It was the best bbq we have had so far! Then we rushed off for our boat tour where we got to watch 1.5 million bats fly out from under a bridge. 

The tour guide told us that it's lucky to get peed and pooped on by bats.  Ryan got SUPER lucky ;)

Our last morning in Austin we enjoyed breakfast tacos at Taco Deli. I can't wait to come back to Austin with Carl!

Driving through Waco, we HAD to stop at the Magnolia Silos! The kids were not impressed. I thought it was neat, but it would be much more fun with sisters instead!

We randomly stopped at another great restaurant!  The salads were delicious, and Ryan said it was one of the best burgers he has ever had (and he has had a lot of burgers lately!)