More New Orleans

 We spent last weekend in New Orleans again. We started off with the insectarium. We saw lots of bugs.

 Jack was a little nervous that these huge worms and ants were real and were going to jump out at him. We reassured him that they were fake, but I'm not sure if he believed us.

 I loved these displays. The butterflies were my favorite.

 Jack was standing by the biggest butterfly, and if you look close by the writing, you can see the smallest butterfly.

Then we headed out to the streets of New Orleans. We has some time to kill so we walked around for a while. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to be outside.

 The French Quarter.

 Then we headed to a park to run around before meeting up with Justin's cousin, Julianne. She is filming a movie here in New Orleans.

 We were able to go to the set and watch them film, which was so much fun. It was really cool to watch how they did it. Jack and Anderson sat in the director's chair watching the whole thing. We didn't stay too long because I was so afraid that Anderson was going to let out a scream or say something loud in the middle of them filming. So we left and went to Julianne's house that she is renting while she is here in New Orleans. 

 This is the room we stayed in. Isn't it awesome?! It's a really old house, and I loved all the character it had. I loved the super dark wood floors and all the glass door knobs.

It was fun to see Julianne. Jack for some reason was really excited to see her and loved staying at her house.

 We went out to lunch and then walked over to a St. Patrick's Day parade. Anderson slept in the stroller while Jack collected more beads and random treasures. We had a great time.

Anderson

 Anderson is at a funny stage right now. We look at him and think that he just cannot be any cuter. Then, five minutes later, he is yelling at us for something we did. He definitely has a naughty/sassy side to him. But I guess he is two, and this type of behavior is normal, right?? :) Or that's what we tell ourselves. I was helping him get dressed the other day and he backed into a basket and fell in. He stands up, gives me an evil look and says,"Hey!! Did you push me?! Did you push me Mom?!" Last night at dinner Justin ate one of his black beans to see if it was hot or not. He puts his mad face on and says, "Hey!! Did you eat my bean?! Did you eat my bean Dad?!........Uugggghhhh!"

 He has a soft side too. He LOVES this dog. He carries him around and tells us that he loves him and asks us if we want to pet him. "Isn't he so cute? I will hold him so he won't fall in the water. I love him. I love my gog". He says "gog" instead of "dog". He wraps him up in his blanket to keep him warm.

If you ask him what his favorite color is he says, "Umm, my name's......red." Or what's your favorite food, he says, "Umm, my name's...pizza." Not sure where he got that from, but it's pretty cute. He loves to sing and his little singing voice makes me happy.

The Beach

 We had a nice warm day, and decided at the last minute to run over to the beach. The boys have been asking for weeks when it will be warm enough to play at the beach, so when I told them we were going, they were super excited. We dressed our extra white bodies and filled our bag full of shovels.

 We chased seagulls,

 dumped water,

 ran up and down the beach multiple times,

and played with our friends.

It was the perfect afternoon.

It felt so good to be out in the sunshine and soaking up some vitamin D!

Mardi Gras

 Mardi Gras is a BIG deal down here. Justin didn't have to work, and Jack got the whole week off of school. We thought it was a little strange, but we were excited to have the break. We experienced our first Mardi Gras parade. It was quite the experience. We set up camp and waited for the parade. We waited, and waited, and waited. It was supposed to start at one but we didn't actually see any glimpse of it until about 2:30. But it was great weather and we ended up finding a couple more families that we knew, which kept the kids entertained.

 Justin decided if there was one word that he could choose as the theme for Mardi Gras, it would be redneck. :) This flag was flying in the back of a pick-up truck across the street from us. They were quite the crowd. But I would have to agree with Justin.....redneck pretty much sums it up! My friend Krista turned to me and said, "I feel like I'm at the zoo!"

 Finally we saw the floats coming around the corner, and then the beads started flying! There were beads coming at you left and right. You seriously had to be on the look out because as soon as you weren't paying attention, you would get pelted by a necklace flying through the air. 

 The start of their "collection" of beads.

 You love the guy behind Justin with the perm and purple headband?

 The parade went on, and on, and on. We thought we were never going to get home. There were so many people, and no way you could ever leave before it was over. So we kept gathering and collecting the loot.

 Anderson eventually fell asleep amongst the chaos. Not sure how he could sleep with all the loud music and loud people. I'm glad he did though.

 Jack decided that was the "coolest parade we have ever been to".

When we got home, we weighed our bag of beads...20 lbs!!! If every family went home with 20 lbs. of beads, I can't imagine how many beads they start with for that parade. It was crazy. We had a fun time though, so I would call our first Mardi Gras experience a success. Not sure I would go again, but since we are only here for a year, we figured we better live it up. :)

New Orleans Aquarium

 Over President's Day weekend, we went to the aquarium in New Orleans. We got there right as it opened, hoping to beat the crowds that were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend. We were so glad that we did. When we came, there wasn't a single person in line to get in. When we left, it was around the block! The boys had a great time. As soon as we got there, they were both running from one thing to the next shouting, "Wow! Cool! Awesome! Look at this one!" They were making us laugh. There is something special about seeing your kids so excited with pure joy across their faces.

 We thought the lion fish was cool.

 There was also an outdoor bird exhibit. Anderson was patiently waiting for a bird to land on his little stick.

 One of the birds started to crawl up Anderson's hand and he felt it's sharp little claws. He quickly pulled his hand away and said in an angry voice, "You stinky bird!" That is his new saying for anyone or anything that makes him mad. "You stinky Dad." or "You stinky Jack." (Emphasis on the stinky)

 Nice, right? I guess there are worse things he could say.

 We went and saw "Born to be Wild" in 3D at the imax theater. Anderson would rip his glasses off and give out a little squeal when something looked like it was coming for him. He didn't quite understand the whole 3D concept. Jack on the other hand, loved it. It was his first 3D experience and he thought it was awesome. He is getting so big, and I think it's fun.