Louisiana trip- Part 3

Saturday evening, after we had gotten home from the parade, Sarah, SO generously, watched Nixon so we could have a date night. We haven't had a "date" with just us since before he was born.

We didn't have my camera (even though we totally should have brought it), because we went down to Lousiana Boardwalk. They had tons of outlet shops there, and it had a beautiful view of the Red River. We went down to the river and walked on the path along for a while. We then headed up to the shops where we got a few things from Gap Outlet and Banana Republic Outlet. I forgot how much I love outlet shops!

We then decided to go to a little place for dinner called Crawdaddy's. It was true Cajun food, which I've never had, so we thought why not? Ethan grew up eating this kind of stuff when he would visit his grandparents, so I was a little more skeptical. It also didn't help when I started looking at the menu:

Frog legs, alligator, shrimp and crab--not something I ever have thought or wanted to eat. But, I decided to be brave and we got the fried alligator appetizer. And you know what? I liked it!! Me!

The only way I can describe it is this--it tastes like chicken but with the texture of a well done steak. It was actually really good. I decided to go a little less adventurous with my main course and got a nice cheeseburger, and Ethan got the crawfish half & half. It was half fried crawfish tails and half crawfish étouffée, which is essentially non-fried crawfish tails in a cream sauce. Ethan talked me into trying the fried tails and they were pretty good, but I couldn't bring myself to try the other kind. I have a thing with texture, and it just didn't look too texture friendly, so I passed. I was pretty dang proud of myself, though, for being so adventurous!

24 Weeks

We're starting to get back to normal and we couldn't be happier! He's sleeping even longer at night and now he's back to his three hour (on average) morning nap. He has now had his first cereal feeding, which went ok, the second went better. So far, he doesn't like bottles. That could be a problem, but I guess that's why people have so many extra bottles of different kinds--try one until it works!

Still no sitting up, but he's army crawling more. He's still able to wear 0-3 months clothes, but also fits in his 6-12 month pajamas (he's long).

Louisiana trip- Part 2

The rest of our weekend was filled with festivities that can be summed up in three words: Small town goodness. Archie grew up in a tiny, little town in Louisiana called Robeline. It's one of those places where everyone knows everyone, and you're probably related somehow, even if it's distantly. While we were there, it just happened to be having the Robeline Heritage Festival. What do you do when a little town celebrates? You celebrate with it!

Saturday morning we drove down to Robeline to hit up the festivities, but first we had to stop to get gas. We were in one van while the rest of the crew was in the other. Archie pulled up to the pump. We were on full so we stayed on the side. His grandpa waved us over to the pump and told us to fill up. When Ethan told him we were full, Archie said, "Well, top it off!" I think we got two gallons in. We topped off every time we went off. It was pretty entertaining.

We got there early enough to get their regular parade spot. We walked around the little part and got some fantastic fair food.

The parade started around 2:00pm. I grew up in a small town, so this little parade brought back some fond memories of picking up candy while everyone waved at the procession.

All I have to say, is when I think of Southern pageants, these crowns are when I expect. And I thought my crown was big! It was slightly entertaining watching these girls walking around because the majority of them had to hold them to keep them from falling off!

One difference I noticed from the parade I grew up going to, compared to this one, is that it seems like anyone seems to get in the parade. I don't know how many ATV's and other vehicles were in the parade, just to be there.

They were sporting flags, so I guess they're ok to be there. ;)

 We got loads of candy, had some beautiful weather, and had a great time!

(Ethan's Grandma Loretta)

Louisiana Trip- Part 1

Last weekend we had the amazing opportunity to visit Ethan's grandparents (Ethan's mom's parents) in Bossier, LA. I have never been there before (or met them for that matter), and Ethan hadn't been for about seven years. We decided it was time to make the trip and it was awesome!

We flew out Thursday afternoon. Let it be known, Dallas is probably the worst places to fly in or out of when it has a bad storm! We got on our plane in Orange County, and had to sit there for a good hour and a half. I had it all planned out: I would wait to feed Nixon until right before we took off, and then he would sleep the majority of the flight. Everything worked out perfect until I had just finished feeding him, and then said our flight would be delayed 1-1.5 hours. Seriously? So, right as we were taking off, he woke up! Luckily, he didn't do too bad, but Baby Einstein helped!

Our flight from Dallas to Shreveport was also delayed. Long story short, we were just lucky enough that our flight wasn't cancelled. There were so many people stranded there for the night, and I was so thankful that we weren't stuck there too long with a 5 month baby. We got in late and were picked up by Grammy (Ethan's mom) and Great-Grandpa Hardy.

On Friday, Ethan's grandpa Archie wanted to take us to the Barksdale Air Force Base plane museum. I'll be honest, I'm not that in to planes and learning all about the different planes and what they were used for, but I loved being able to watch Archie and Ethan get excited about it. Archie was in the Air Force and was a plane mechanic. He could, literally, tell us something about every single plane that was there.

As we were walking along the plane path I looked and beheld this little creature.

I have NEVER seen an inchworm before and I was so entranced watching it go! I may or may have not been paying more attention to it then the planes for a bit of the tour.

These planes may just look like everyday Air Force planes, but not for Archie. These planes, not just this type of plane, but these exact serial number planes, are ones that he worked on when he was on base.

He also has a plaque on the base that has his and his son's years of service on it. It's fun to see your family have lasting history.

I loved hearing about how Archie got into the Air Force. I hope I remember it correctly. If not, hopefully Sarah (Ethan's mom) can correct me.

He tells it like this: He grew up in a TINY little town where everyone knew everyone. He was at the age to be called into the draft. People had started getting their draft letters and he was just waiting for his. One day the post man stopped by and let Archie know he had gotten his letter. Archie asked the postman if he could wait until the next day to deliver the letter. The post man agreed. Right after that, Archie went to the recruiters office and ended up joining the Air Force that day, avoiding being drafted. That's one way to do it!