New Orleans, and Jack turns 5!

Today we celebrate a very special day - our little man turns 5 years old! It's so hard to believe that he went from this:

To this:

In just 5 short years! He really keeps us on our toes. You can't get away with anything with him around. He's super funny, really smart, and it's so much fun to hear his take on the world. We really look forward to everything that this coming year has to offer. (Kindergarten!) 

This past weekend, Justin was at his buddy Joey's bachelor party in New Orleans. I made the drive Sunday morning to both hang out for a grown up night, and pick him up to come back to us and the kids so that he can fly with us on Sunday back to California.

We had a really great time. Neither of us had ever been to Louisiana before, so it was a new experience, and we had fun tasting all of the awesome food.

My first time to Mississippi too! 

Biloxi. I really saw all the sights. 

Louisiana! 

Our hotel was on the corner of Iberville and right up from Bourbon Street. Good thing it
was walking distance to everything, because cars in the French Quarter are ridiculous! 

Yummy full southern brunch at the Court of Two Sisters.

 So it rained while we were having brunch. We looked out the windows (we were seated on a balcony on the second floor) and were all like, "wow, that's pretty, look how hard it's raining..." (says us Californians who haven't seen real rain since about November 2013.) Anyway, as soon as we finished and paid the bill, we walked outside to a flash flood!

Yes, it's very disgusting, but we had to ditch our shoes and walk barefoot. The water was literally up around our calves in most places. But we tried to make the best of it and had fun splashing our way back to the hotel (although I tried not to look down at what was in the water. Ew.) 

Pop-Pop and SuSu went to New Orleans on their honeymoon in 1977. They
ate at this restaurant. I had grand plans for us to eat at it too, but...let's just
say that New Orleans got in the way. 

Probably not my best decision to wear all white...

We waited out the rain and took naps, and then headed to a nice dinner out at Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse. It was superb! Yummy yummy.

After dinner, we walked around to see (and smell) some of the French Quarter sights. We also had delicious beignets at Cafe Du Monde but somehow they all got eaten before I took pictures :) 

almost bought this for Caroline...

After a few drinks we headed to Pat O'Brien's where we got really great seats at the dueling pianos bar. It was amazing! We had a great time singing and laughing for hours. Also, we drank sneaky sneaky hurricane drinks that came back to haunt me later. Ouch.

When we took this picture, I thought "wow this is so cute!" Now I look at it and think,
"wow, we look rough."

Beads!

 I stopped taking pictures with my phone at this point, which was probably a good thing. It was a long night but we had a lot of fun and stayed out way later than we thought we could. However, Monday morning was ROUGH (at least for me...)

This is my doing-my-best-not-to-be-sick-and-throw-up look on the ride back to the beach.

So Monday we got up, drug ourselves out of bed, and hit the road. Soon we got home to see the kiddos...and MAN were they PUMPED UP to see their Daddy!!!

We've had a great time so far hanging out as a family again. We are loving our week of vacation but really can't wait to get back to our friends, our routines, and our own beds again in California on Sunday!!

Summer vacation, part...um. Hm. Part 3?

Our never-ending summer vacation is rapidly drawing to a close. We spent a little over a week with the Farrell's again, and then the kids and I made our final drive to Valdosta to spend a few days at the Crosby's. Today, we made the (looong) drive to the beach, where I am staying tonight and then leaving the kids with Gigi & G-Doc and going to New Orleans to pick up Justin in the morning! I'm really excited...but the kids are soooooo ridiculously giddy to see Daddy again soon.

Anyway here's the last week in pictures....

We did a lot of this. Apparently being in the sun all day, swimming
and beaching and eating a lot, make for really tired kiddos!

Everything awesome about summer, in one shot! 

Enjoying the SI Beach Club...

#selfie

SuSu the Dolphin...

More sleeping. More #selfies :) 

Last Saturday, it was raining on St. Simons, so Mom & Dad took Jack to the movies to see Echo (which he loved!) Anyway, after I put Caroline down for a nap, I took a shower, and then I went to take Winston out to go to the bathroom. He wouldn't walk outside by himself, silly dog who didn't like the wet ground, so I picked him up and stepped out to walk him down to the grass. I took either one or two steps (not sure,) and my feet slipped out from under me. I threw the dog on accident in order to catch myself (thankfully he's okay!), and landed HARD on my elbows on the top tile step. I slammed my head back too, but I had a towel wrapped around my wet hair (thankfully too!) I slid down a few steps on my butt and completely knocked the wind out of myself. 

The poor dog knew I was in bad shape. He immediately came over and started sniffing me gently to make sure I was okay (and if you know Winston at all, you know he doesn't do anything gently!) I got him inside, shut the door, and laid down on the floor. Literally everything hurt. The pain was so bad that I threw up on the floor. I knew I was in bad trouble, but I wasn't sure if I had broken anything. 

I crawled over to the recliner and sat for awhile, catching my breath and letting my body settle down. As the pain in certain areas started to recede, the pain in my left elbow kept getting worse. I couldn't straighten it out and touching certain spots was like stabbing needles into my bone. Finally I gave in and called Dad, who was thankfully on his way home. Mom got right in the car and took me to St. Simons Immediate Care.

The offending steps. 

The immediate aftermath - waiting to get x-rayed.

I was so lucky that I landed more on my forearm and not directly on my elbow.
Nothing showed up broken in the x-ray, but I had BAD swelling & bruising, and they
called it a sprain and put me in a sling - "until you can extend your arm fully again."

Yea. Seriously. 

Later that night...still swollen. 

Caroline making fun of my sling!

I spent Sunday on painkillers and the kids hung out with SuSu and Pop-Pop,
cutting the grass, playing in the sprinklers, and having a great summer day.

 Later in the week, we took the kids and Winston to breakfast and over to the SSI Pier to walk around, go to the playground, and run out some energy.

Hi Winston!

Um. Caroline doesn't look happy, but I promise she is!

The historic SSI Casino.

We also took the kids to a puppet show at the Brunswick Library...which Jack LOVED....

And we kicked off Jack's birthday week celebration
with sea creature HAPPYCAKES! I can't believe he will be 5
on Thursday!

Swelling and bruising, day 4-ish. It still hurt. 

 On Wednesday, we were SUPER SUPER sad to say goodbye for the summer to Pop-Pop and SuSu...but we hope we will see them again really soon. It's always very hard to say goodbye after such a long trip together...but I hope they enjoyed the relative peace and quiet after we left :)

On the ride to Valdosta, I let Caroline feed herself M&Ms...lol. 

Feeding her baby mid-diaper change. Demanding baby!

Look! Another #selfie! 

Miss Diva Toddler-Pants in action. 

 I spent a few minutes visiting newborn baby Charlotte Hull, who was born last Friday. She's so adorable and that new baby smell...ahhhhhh!!!!

I got my nails done and the polish that just looked pink in the store
was SERIOUSLY NEON outside!!! Whoa! 

Looking at the fish at the hibachi dinner place!! 

The kids had a blast!

Caroline got her nails done again (SERIOUSLY)

And even dried them like a pro.

Bruising day 7! Still sore but not nearly as bad.

2 kids in a pool.

Tired last night, watching the iPad together. 

So yes, we've had an AMAZING time, and we are definitely looking forward to our week of vacation with Justin next week! Then, next Sunday, it's back to California (and back to school and schedules and routines!) for all of us!! Until next time....