Let the Good Times Roll

We made one more stop in our crazy, two-week trip to the states: 

New Orleans!

Some of you may remember that last year on our way to the states we stopped off in Amsterdam for a few days to visit some dear friends. Well, those same friends are living in the states this fall, so we decided to arrange another little meet-up. However, this time, since we were meeting on the same side of the ocean where all the grandparents (a.k.a. babysitters) live, we made this one a parents only trip!  

We just had two short nights in town, but we crammed them full of fun...and food! I mean, how can you not enjoy eating in a town like New Orleans? We savored every bite of gumbo, shrimp creole, jambalaya, red beans & rice, bread pudding, and of course beignets!

We were a bit amused when the trip was over to see how many photos we had taken of us eating!

This meal was amazing...

 and this one... 

 and this one wasn't too bad, either!

We did take a few non-eating pics, like this one of me and Ashlie by the river...

and this one of the guys. I'm pretty sure their expressions mean, "Please can we go in one more cute little shop in the French Quarter? Please? Please?" They may have had their fill of home decor stores, but they never hesitated to follow us into the candy stores. In fact, they often led the way. I think Jason made it a personal mission to sample all the pralines in New Orleans and decide which was his favorite. 

One afternoon, we rode the trolley out St. Charles Avenue and admired all the beautiful old homes. Then we rode it back into town and picked up our shopping and eating right where we left off!

We had such a great time being with good friends and just relaxing for a few days before we made our trek back across the ocean. It was a perfect end to another whirlwind trip to the states. 

Sweet Reunions

When they weren't smiling sweetly or making silly faces for family photos (see previous post), our kids were soaking up all the precious time with friends and family. Uncle Andy got to hang around a few days longer than the other aunts and uncles, so he got in some extra niece-and-nephew time. 

They loved story time...

and ride down the hill on the skateboard time!

After a few more days at Mimi and Papaw's, we headed to Mississippi, where we got to see even more friends and family. We visited Gran one day and spent some time at her house.

Lee Anna was so excited to give her the vase that she had hand painted for her!

Here are the kids, ready for their meal at Gran's. As usual, she fixed way more food than we could possibly eat. And as usual, it was delicious!

Gran gave us our Christmas presents while we were there, and Sawyer's gift included a frisbee. It got a good workout that afternoon in the yard, as did we!

We also got to visit Grandmother and spend some time catching up with her. It was wonderful to see her!

Here she is with three of her many great-grandchildren. 

And the kids got lots of good playtime with these sweet friends!

It was such a blessing to get to go so many places and see so many special people. We are grateful!

Say Cheese!

Our first weekend in the states was a big family weekend. Everyone was in town to celebrate Papaw's retirement. Since the whole crew was there, we seized the chance to take some family photos. The whole tie-wearing thing sort of started out as a joke, when I told Jason (who wanted to wear one) that there was no way either of my brothers would be wearing a tie for the pictures. Well, the next thing I knew, both of my brothers came in wearing their ties (having been prompted by my silly husband, of course). By the end of the day, even poor Jesse the dog had his tie on.

We took lots...some serious and some, well, not-so-serious.

I love this crazy family!

On the Road Again

Well, we've done it again...gotten so far behind that it's just too intimidating to try to catch up. So instead I'm going to just abruptly jump ahead to our most recent trip, in hopes of just starting fresh and getting back into the blogging groove. You can just guess what we did between the beginning of August and the end of October!

Late last month, Jason and I had the incredible opportunity to attend a conference in Austria. It was breathtakingly beautiful. See?

This is the view from our hotel. We felt like we were looking at a postcard scene. We had to drive about three hours from the airport to the hotel, and the whole time we just oohed and aahed at the scenery. The trees blanketing the mountains were all changing color, and it was just delightful. But it was a good thing we enjoyed the fall scenery on the first day, because by the second day this was what those hills looked like!

 We got snow! Beautiful, peaceful, lightly-falling snow almost every day we were there. We were in heaven!

We took a few early morning walks around the town. This gorgeous church was just down the hill from our hotel.

And here we are with those beautiful snow-capped hills behind us. We wanted the kids to see that Mom & Dad were really in the snow!

Where were those kids, you ask? They were having adventures of their own! Before we left for Austria, Mimi and Papaw flew over to visit us, and we spent a fun week enjoying our city. Then, a day before Jason and I needed to leave, we packed the three kiddos up, and they headed to America with Mimi & Papaw! They spent the week at Camp Mimi, as Papaw likes to call it, and then we flew to meet them when the conference was over.

As always, they were super excited about getting to see Jesse the dog! They were also pumped because Halloween fell during that week, so they got to experience that American-style for the first time (though we have had some overseas Halloween fun in years past). 

Mimi made these amazing costumes for them. Aren't they perfect?? They were still wearing them when they picked us up at the airport later that night! We were very excited to be reunited with our little pharaoh and Cleopatras, and they were excited to show us their huge stash of candy!

It was a wonderful week! I'll be back soon with more about the next part of our trip.