Seeing The Big Easy

Our trip started last Friday. We drove to Colorado with a stop in Laramie. We were able to visit my friend Sarah. It was so good to see her! I've missed her so much this year so I was excited that we had some time to chat. We continued on to Trevor's brother's home to spend the night. It was fun to see them and their girls. Abby and Brinly had a little sleepover with their five-year-old.
The next morning we got up at 4:00 a.m. so we could be at the airport by 5:30. The kids did great for being up so early. We only had one mishap at DIA which involved Brinly not hopping on the escalator. She was at the top, we were at the bottom, Abby and Jordan were very scared for her! We made it to our gate just as they began boarding.

Abby was very excited to be on a plane for the second time in her life. The first was when she was 11 months old, but she still liked to talk like an experienced air traveler.
Jordan and Brinly did GREAT on the plane. Bryant had his moments, but overall did really good too.

We had a layover in Dallas. We ended up being there a little longer than we planned because we missed our connection. Long story short, we had an hour layover, the gate changed three times during that hour, we made two of those changes and were running for the third, but didn't quite make it. :o) Luckily the next flight was just 90 minutes later. The kids wore themselves out during those 90 minutes and all but Abby fell asleep before take-off. We finally arrived in New Orleans later that afternoon. It was about 55 degrees when we left Denver and 95 degrees and humid when we got to New Orleans.

Thus began the "falling asleep within minutes of stopping" that was part of the rest of the trip.

Amy and Matt had a great meal for us that night. We also got to have fun swimming in their pool.

The next day, my niece got baptized. We were so excited we could be there for it.

Abby and Brinly got to have a few more nights of sleepovers. There was a lot of talking until very late at night and a lot of Polly Pocket playing. They had a really good time.

Bryant really liked their screened porch. A couple geckos managed to squeeze in and Bryant and Jordan really liked seeing them.

The next day we went on a swamp tour. It was so hot and humid, but the tour was really neat.

We saw lots of alligators:

They like hot dogs and marshmallows.

We also got to see the rivers and swamps and lots of other animals and enjoy the humidity (who knew we all had curly hair!)

Bryant did well, but I think he was getting hot and tired by the end.

The next day, Amy watch the kids for us (thank you!) while Trevor and I walked around the French Quarter and downtown New Orleans.

We walked along the Mississippi River.

View of part of the down town area.

We had a great lunch at Mr. B's and saw some things we'd like to do if we come back.

We went back to Amy and Matt's that night and went swimming again. We really enjoyed their pool.

The next morning we went on a nature walk.

Here the kids are looking at some turtles.

They saw this one on a log and thought it was a statue turtle. They were pretty surprised to find out it was real. They also saw some lizards and bugs.

After a great lunch, we drove back to the airport. It was really hard to come back. Amy and Matt were excellent hosts and we really had a wonderful time.

The kids were excited when the plane pulled up.

It was crazy, but fun, to travel so far with the kids. We were glad we got to see Amy and Matt and the kids and have fun seeing New Orleans. Now we are back trying not to freeze in Wyoming. I guess we got used to the heat while we were there!