Organized Chaos...Smith Style: THANKSGIVING, Louisiana STYLE!!!

We went back to Louisiana for Thanksgiving to visit Boomer's buddy, Robbie and his daughter Remi. We were able to stay over a week and see a lot of Louisiana this time. It was a such a fun trip!!

We were hanging out at Robbie's this day and playing with the four wheeler. The kids had so much fun taking turns riding with Boomer.

Robbie has a kitty, and he said that it never stopped it ran up the wall and around the house. While we were their the kitty was loved, hugged and kissed ALL DAY LONG!! The kitty slept and slept and slept. It was pretty funny that my kids wore the poor thing out.

The pond is in the backyard of his house. I love the water feature, very relaxing. BUT, NO ALLIGATORS, bummer!!!

We had to go to Robbie's parents house to say, "Hi", the kids were so excited to see them. They are the sweetest, nicest people I have met. They welcome us in their home with open arms.

They have all kinds of fun toys to play on. The kids NEVER stop at their house. I love the lower picture, it shows all the toys going at once. They have a 3 acre lot that also connects to a churches lot, so lots of open space to ride.

One of the most favorite thing they have is an old bunker house.

One of my favorite pictures is the upper right, Nana went to go some chairs for us to sit on, so Luke followed her and picked up a chair and helped her. Such a big boy!! They have a big sand hill that kids loved to play on. The other thing they love to do is there is a bunch of tree's that got blown down from Hurricane Katrina, and Jos loved climbing and singing on the logs.

And, of course golfing was A LOT. Luke loved golfing with his Dad and Robbie. Look at that cute little bum in the air, teeing up!!!

Robbie's Dad made us some Jambalaya. OH MY GOODNESS, this stuff was absolutely YUMMY!!! We couldn't get enough of it. We took it home and ate it everyday for lunch. I got the recipe and can't wait to make it. Thanks, Daddy Vallot.

After everything had been ridden. Boomer and Robbie decided to hit the golf balls with a baseball bat. Funny, boys. The funny part is how SORE they were after the day...a couple of old men :0)

We went to New Orleans for a day. It was so fun. The history and HUGE old buildings was amazing. Our first stop was a fun mardi gras store, the kids loved it. They had fun trying all the face masks and funky hats on.

Robbie took us to a well known cafe that New Orleans is known for, its BEIGNETS. This place was huge and PACKED with people, no sitting anywhere. And all they serve is coffee and beignets. Which is somewhat like a donut, deep fried dough and thrown into powered sugar. The bag is half way full of powered sugar, I couldn't imagine how much powered sugar they go through in a day.

This is one of the street statue guys. He was so funny. He came over and gave the kids a sucker. As he walked back over to his stage, Boomer and Robbie gave the girls a dollar to put in his bucket. Luke saw the girls putting something in his bucket, but didn't realized it was a dollar. So, he got up and went over and put the sucker in the guys bucket that he just gave him, he thought that was what everyone was giving back. The guy looked and just laughed, along with everyone else watching. It was so funny. The performer, bent down and grabbed a dollar out of the bucket and gave it to Luke.

A little further down the street a lady had all kinds of instrument set up for the kids to play on, they LOVED it. We couldn't get them to stop, it was great.

The church in the collage is the The St. Louis Cathedral was first built in 1789. It was added to 3 more times, the last was in 1850. It was such an amazing building.

We took a carriage ride around the French Quarters.

The history was amazing, a house built for Napoleon as a refuge in 1797. Napoleon never made it to the home, but the name stuck. Now it is a famous bar in the French Quarters. And of the course the famous Bourbon street. I only had to cover the kids eyes once and make them look away, thank goodness it was during the day.

All of this information, I had to look up online because, I couldn't understand our driver. The kids many times kept turning to me and ask if he was speaking ENGLISH, it was that bad. He kept telling us, "that each building is special in its own way"...but, it is only funny if you have Robbie or Boomer saying it. Good times.

This is Jackson Square, it was a beautiful park in the heart of the French Quarters. Named after Andrew Jackson. Ya, don't ask about the picture in the upper right, I thought it was funny. I obviously had something funny to share and it got on camera.

We walked over to the Mississippi river. It was so beautiful and very busy with all kinds of boats. It was fun watching all the different freight liners, steamboats, paddle wheelers and tug boats, cruising the water.

We walked down the river for awhile looking at the sights. Remi and Rylee stopped to dance in a pavilion. It was great,

Robbie took us to the Aquarium just off the river. Joslyn's number one goal coming to Louisiana was to see an alligator gar, for those who aren't familiar with an alligator gar, it is a fish that has an appearance of an alligator. Robbie made her dream come true showing her the alligator gars and the aquarium. Joslyn was sooooo excited.

One of my LEAST favorite things in the world is a "Bird Atrium"..why would you buy food and hold it for birds to fly on you...so creepy. The kids wanted to go to the atrium so bad, I tried to get out of going in, but they wouldn't let me stay out. I have to say the funniest part was when Robbie got pooped on his head (sorry Robbie) at least it was the bald guy and not in our hair :0) it wiped off quick with him :0) Rylee liked it as much as I did, she was a champ holding the food, but as soon as a bird jumped on she was done. Remi and Boomer I think were the ones with the most birds on them.