New Orleans

Fogg and I have been married for 10 years (on May 15^th).  We always said that we would take a big trip on our 10^th anniversary as we did a pretty small honeymoon.  We wanted to do something like France but when it came down to it, that was just a bit too big for us.  So we decided on New Orleans.  We also decided to not go during an event like Mardi Gras or the Jazz Fest in order to avoid the crowds and inflated prices.  Last week was the trip!  I’m not sure that we could have planned a better time.  There weren’t very many people, the weather was perfect and everything worked out in our favor everywhere we went. 

We have such amazing people in our lives that were able to help us by taking care of the kids while we were gone.  My mom, Dianne and Jim, James and Michelle and the East family were just so awesome that they sacrificed their own time to watch the kids.  I’m fairly confident that the kids had no clue we were even gone, they had so much fun.  In the entire 5 days we were gone, they talked to us for maybe 5 minutes of it. One time we called, they said they didn’t want to talk to us! 

We took off on Monday morning, after dropping the kids off at school.  We arrived in New Orleans around 7pm.  We dropped our stuff at the hotel and off we went to dinner.  We ended up at a little sportsbar/restaurant in the French Quarter called Huck Finn’s.  After eating, we went down to Bourbon Street to take in the insanity.  For a Monday night, it was pretty rowdy.  We stopped at a bar called Pat O’Brien’s and had Hurricane cocktails and watched the dueling pianos.  What a good time it was!  

Dinner Monday Night - we called this our "Elegant Selfie"

 Bourbon Street

 Famous Hurricane Cocktail

Tuesday morning, we got up and walked around the river in the French Quarter.  We stopped at Café Du Monde (for the first time of the trip) and ate beignets and drank chicory coffee. Then we walked the French Market and Flea Market.  After lunch at a café in the market, we walked back to the hotel to take a nap!  We utilized the gym at the hotel then got ready for dinner.  We had a beautifully romantic and delicious meal at the Commander’s Palace restaurant in the Garden District.  It was a huge house built for a royal daughter’s wedding gift but she never got married.  The house was never lived in, instead always used as a restaurant, since 1880.  After dinner we hopped a cab to the Hotel Monteleone to have a drink at the Carousel Bar.  The bar and seats move around in a circle, 15 minutes to make a lap.  The center stays stationary, so the bartenders are always having to find where you’ve moved to!  They were filming a show there at the time we were there, we’ll have to find it when it airs.  What a neat experience and we had a great time chatting with everyone that came and went.

Before:

 After:

 At Jackson Square

 A church in the opposite direction of the last picture.   Beautiful and super old.

 Dinner at Commander's Palace

At the Carousel Bar, two guys in the background being filmed for the show. You can even see the cameraman with the backwards hat.

Wednesday, we went to the WWII museum.  It was completely fascinating and we both enjoyed it quite a bit.  The exhibits were so thorough, interesting and engaging.  We then headed to Juan’s Flying Burrito for lunch in the Garden District.  We were able to walk around the area after and passed by an old Gothic Style house originally built in 1860 that was being renovated.  We talked to the contractor who was there and learned about the area and the house.  Totally fascinating.  We then hopped on the street cars to take us all the way back to the French Quarter.  Fogg really wanted to ride the street cars, they are the oldest in the country!  We ate at Café Du Monde again and gathered up some goodies to bring home.  After a lot of walking during the day, we hit the gym at the hotel again then had a pretty low-key evening at a sportsbar near the hotel.

 Fogg likes the streetcars

 The French Market

 lots of pralines - yum

 I just liked this tree growing over the fence.

 Me at my favorite place in New Orleans

Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel and grabbed a car.  We found lunch on the lake and then we went out to take a swamp tour.  I found this on a groupon that I signed up for when we booked our tickets (a good idea if you plan on traveling somewhere new!).  It ended up being a little cheesy but a ton of fun!  We took the most pictures while on the swamp tour.  We saw so many gators and turtles and other swamp life.  Learned a lot about the area and culture too.  After that, we went further east to Biloxi Mississippi to stay the night.  We stayed in a beautiful casino/resort called the Beau Rivage.  It was really nice.  We got to workout there too and then sat in their huge hot tub.  Then we went to dinner at a really great Oyster place.  We ended up spending the rest of the evening at the bar at the hotel, listening to the band and meeting more people.

Lake Pontchartrain shoreline houses 

 Fogg actually accomplished relaxing

 Lots o gators!

These pointy things are the roots of the Cyprus trees, called the knee

The pool at the Beau Rivage

 Dinner at the Oyster Bar

 View from our room

Friday was a little overcast so we were lazy in the morning, grabbing coffee and sitting in the hot tub again.  We packed up and headed out to explore more of Biloxi.  Fogg showed me the Air Force base that he was stationed at there, his first out of Basic Training.  He says he doesn’t remember much of it, but it was interesting to think of him as a punk 19 year old there…   We headed back to New Orleans in the mid afternoon and hit up Café Du Monde one last time.  We walked around a little more before heading out to the hotel we were staying at near the airport.  We had to take our car back to the city, so we decided to have some dinner in the French Quarter on our last night.  We found another great place, Ralph and Kacoo’s with more piano playing and great food. Our server told us a lot about Katrina and his life there in New Orleans.  I really liked that guy.  When we finished eating, the rain really started to pour.  It was like the ocean was coming out of the sky!  It dumped rain and every single person outside was drenched!  It went on for hours.  By the time we got back to our car, returned the car and caught a cab back to our hotel, we were soaked and shivering!  Luckily it stopped in time for our flight in the morning home.

 hard to tell, but it's just pouring and flooding the streets

What a nice long relaxing trip with my husband. We were certainly ready to come back to the kids and regular life but it was just so nice to disconnect and recharge, we both needed it quite a bit.  A few things struck me while we were there.  Whenever there was an option to split up to accomplish something, Fogg would always say "let's stick together" and we did.  We literally spent the entire trip together.  And in all that time, we not once got sick of each other.  We never argued, we just worked so well as a team.  We understand what each other like and dislike and can read the other well enough that there was little discussion about much on that trip.  The beauty of 10 years of marriage is that some things are just so much easier. We laughed so much and just genuinely enjoyed each other's company.  I think it says something that by the end of a 5 day trip together, spending every moment together, that we like each other more than when we left.  What a renewal to our relationship! We laughed all the way to the end.  I have never felt more confident that I married the right guy!  We also so much enjoyed getting to know all the different people we encountered.  People that we sat next to at bars, or restaurants or our servers or in the hot tub.  It was so fun to experience a different part of the world.  What a perfect way to celebrate 10 years of marriage, like and enjoy each other more and more!

But like I said, our kids were well taken care of.  Here were some pictures that I received while we were gone of the kids:

After bath with slippers on night one!

This is at James and Michelle's house.  Gracie is in the middle!

Not much longer, all three sleeping on their left sides!

In the morning, happy kids!

They also spent the night with Nana and Papa one night and got to take a swim in the hot tub!

When we returned, we brought them a few gifts.  We searched for just the right masks.  

The kids seemed happy to see us when we returned, which was a nice feeling.  They did great, according to the caretakers.  Happy life!

So we return to life as we knew it, just a bit more relaxed and rested and happy cause we are relaxed and rested.  

Cheers~

33 and Easter

Good afternoon,

Apparently, blogging hasn't been on the priority list.  Life has been a little overwhelming lately for a variety of reasons.  Everything is fine, it's just a few things had to fall by the wayside for a little bit to get some other things accomplished.  Plus, really there hasn't been anything too special going on so we've been just getting some chores done and fitting in a few fun things.

First, my adorable family on Easter morning:

Reed got a haircut and when asked if he wanted it styled, he replied with "I want a mohawk". 

Getting warmer around here, the kids pulled out their summer toys.  Nora loves driving her car around.  She takes her stuffed animals to school, work and home.

Nora and Gracie

Gracie turned two and we went to celebrate with her.  They are such cute little friends.

Gracie got this adorable car.  She hasn't quite figured out how to drive it yet, but Reed sure did jump in there!  He enjoyed driving her around.

Reed got a new little jacket and he looked so adorable.

On to my birthday.  I had one.  It was good.  We went dirt biking at a track in the morning.  It's awesome cause they have a large grass area and a playground, so the kids actually like going.  We take turns riding.  I love my new bike!

In the afternoon, I ran a few errands, treated myself to some goodies and came home to open presents from the kids.  Reed got me this doll and said that he thought that I needed a new toy.  He wrote "mom" on an envelope and signed the card with his name.  Nora picked out these wings.  I opened them and she said "I wear them now?".  Apparently, she'd been waiting for some time to use them.

Did a little photo shoot on Easter with the kids.

Then we went to a friend's house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt.

Off to more fun stuff - cheers~

Yurt

We trekked up to a yurt this weekend near Evanston, Wyoming.  If you are unaware of what a yurt is, it's a small round wooden and tent house, typically in the mountains.  Google it if you want to see what it looks like. We headed up on Friday early afternoon, loaded up the sled and got ready.  Here is our set up:

 We had the snowmobile, holding Fogg and the kids, Reed in back, Nora in front.  Then pulling a sled with food and gear, and pulling me skiing behind. 

Worked out pretty well until we had a few route finding issues.  We passed the trail that we should have gone up and Fogg disconnected us to scout around a little.  Meanwhile, me and the kids made snow angels, they thought that was great.

After this, it got a little hairy.  We got the snowmobile stuck after some time trying to find the correct trail.  It took hours of digging it out, then trying up the trail that simply wasn't working for our load.  The snow was rotten, and it got late quickly.  The kids were troopers, as the sun went down and they got a little cold (never seriously though) and hungry and tired.  Fogg and I pulled it together, and got our family out of there.  We got back to the truck late and decided to drive the 1.5 hour home to sleep in our own warm beds for the night.  We felt bad about leaving our friends in the yurt without half of their food and water (which we were carrying for them) but they were going to survive.  In the morning, we trekked back up, found the right trail and were there before lunch.  In fact, we ate our breakfast there.  All was good!

Anyway, the area was beautiful, we had a warm place to hang out, play games, take naps, eat snacks and meals, laugh and have a good time.  The outside was fun too, with a fun snow cave and a fantastic sled hill.  Reed was outside quite a bit, he sure loves the snow!  Here they are in the snowcave.

 The opening was quite small, perfect for little kids, a bit tight for a mama.

Reed went sledding on the nice groomed trail to the yurt.  He went down it a ton of times.  He even pulled Nora to the top so she could ride with him.

Nora sacked out after we arrived.

Reed and I played a game that I used to as a kid.  Reed won as you can see.  His number at the top is 47 if you can't read it, mine is 38.

Gracie and Nora played a little together, also fought over a few toys.  Nora is telling me in this picture that she doesn't want me to take her picture.

James brought sparklers and fireworks up which was awesome.  The kids loved it all.  

The next morning after breakfast we packed up and headed back to the truck.  Nora obviously found the snowmobile soothing because she fell asleep on it 3 different times.  She took the rest of her nap in the truck after we got back and packed up.

Reed went sledding some more and figured out how to jump.

It was a fun weekend, a little difficult at times, both Fogg and I were a bit sore from our hard work.  Fun to hang with friends and nice to disconnect a little.

Here are a few other pictures hanging around.

They hold hands in the car sometimes.  Nora gets upset and Reed will hold her hand.

They got new shoes!  Here they are showing them off.

I love little kid poses.  That would kill my knees and my feet would be asleep in minutes.  It's so cute when she does it though, isn't it?

 Reed made some chalk drawings on the driveway.  I love his little mind and evolution of his art.  There is a bike in there, actually two, which is pretty impressive.  He is learning to write his name in lower case letters so it now reads like reeb foee.  He's got the d backwards and the lower case g's as e-ish.

That's all for now! Cheers~

Survival Mode

I'm not starting off the year real great in blogging.  I have felt as though I have been functioning a bit on survival mode.  Every other week (for the most part) there is a group of working mama's that all get together to share our struggles with being a working mom, and to encourage each other.  We have a mentor who commented to us how we all seem put together and how she always felt like she was functioning on survival mode.  We collectively laughed and said that we feel like we are on survival mode too!  But I'm guessing that's not just a working mom issue, that is probably a mom issue. And frankly, it's not just a mom issue, it's a human issue.  Our "survival" is different, but in a way, we are just trying to get from one day to another by making money, keeping house, assisting in keeping our children alive and healthy, nurturing a marriage, feeding those around us, maintaining friendships and so forth.  My life is seemingly always busy, in different ways at different times of the year but always pretty busy.  And like pretty much everyone else, my priorities change frequently.

I'm working extremely hard on my new years resolutions and I'm pretty proud of myself.  They are a daily thought to me, and a weekly check in to my journal has been very helpful.  I make mini goals every week to work toward the greater goals of improving health, fostering intentional relationships and saving money.  I'm doing better at the first two, but it's always a thought.  So I'm taking time away from things that don't directly effect the outcome of those goals.  Unfortunately, blogging has suffered.  Fortunately, my relationships are improving.  In addition, work has been super busy and chaotic and hectic, so that has been taking quite a bit of my energy.

So, to catch up on the past few weeks, here are a few more pictures. I haven't been very good at pictures lately, but honestly, it's not like anything very exciting has happened either!

Reed drew a picture of his family.  I'm the one on the far right, I have no hair because "I didn't feel like giving you hair".

I went skiing by myself one day instead of going to work.  It was nice.

Does this get any cuter?  She just looked at me like this and I quick snapped a picture.  She is getting so adorable.

Our family valentine's date with some new friends (not pictured).  We went to the monster truck rally.  Our favorite part was the half time dirt bike trick show.

Despite Reed's face, he actually really enjoyed the trucks.

Have skied a few times.  Nora's friend Lucy came up to hang in the lodge with her.

Fogg went out of town for work last week.  One morning I took the kids to get some Dunkin Donuts.

Our friend Nik returned from Afghanistan and brought us back this beautiful scarf and neat stone.

We have SOOOO much coming up in the next 3 months.  We are very excited about many trips and events.  In March we have a yurt trip that I'm very much looking forward to.  Lots of things in April, many more things in May, a few things in June.  So, there will be many more stories and pictures to come in the next several months.  In addition, work is in it's slower time, so I'll have time to catch up on some projects (and hopefully blog).

Things that Nora is up to:

• Nora knows all of her colors and getting pretty darn good at shapes.
• She is pretty close to consistently counting to 10.
• She loves her paci.
• She loves playing with her brother - the two of them laugh a lot.
• She often says "I did it!" even if she didn't do whatever she claimed to have done.
• She will look at us and say "I not funny", which makes us laugh.
• She is very opinionated when it comes to her clothes and shoes.
• She loves two shows - Yo Gabba Gabba and Team UmiZoomi.

Things that Reed is up to:

• Reed loves to color and draw.  Pretty much brings home 5 or so a day from school.
• Loves playing with his sister.
• Has started helping with his chores, picking up toys, helping with London. He loves to help with his sister, put on her diaper, pick out her clothes, play babies with her.
• He loves playing with cars and trucks and planes.
• He is getting very creative in his play, making forts or roads or trails for his cars.
• Loves to go outside and play with his friends.  He can ride his bike, or sled or run around outside for hours.
• Looking at kindergarten's for the fall - crazy!
• Very excited for his 5th birthday in May.

The two of them are my joy in life and I love them for it (even when they drive me crazy).  The two of them are just the best brother and sister ever, I hope they stay close as they grow up.  The like each other so much, they decided that they wanted to share a room.  So we moved Reed's bed into Nora's room and they sleep in there.  I actually love it because they keep each other company and we have had a significant decrease in middle of the night awakeness and "scared of my room".  It's good for the both of them.  When Nora is ready to be out of a crib, we will look for some bunk beds for Reed's room for them to share.  For now, it's ok as is. 

That's all for now - on to surviving!