Monday, July 15th
I went up to the 41st floor to take some pictures. It was cloudy, so later in the week I returned for more.
The Mighty Mississipp'
Steamboat!!!
The Superdome in the distance:
Tuesday, July 16th
Maddy's BIG day!!! More to come in a separate post!
Madison and Erin started bright and early competing
Everybody Talks, scoring a Gold in a separate competition (different than what Maddy was really there for.).
I finally did it! I finally snipped Renna's bangs. I am so anti-bangs, but The Girl will NOT keep bows, elastics, or clips in her hair. I was tired of that one little strand always hanging in her eyes, so I broke down and trimmed them ever so slightly. Look at that sweet face!
Johnny's Po-Boys and sweet potato fries!
Renna's in the 'Monkey See, Monkey Do' stage. She'd watch how moms liked getting pictures of their kids in front of the jester. She backed her bum right up against him
and
proudly posed for a picture before I even had my camera out.
Wednesday, July 18th
Maddy's schedule eased a bit, so we went out to explore and eat.
Maddy thought these this tie shop was cute.
It's vantage points like this that it almost feels like another country!
We took a carriage tour through the French Quarter, pulled by Jolly.
We learned a lot on our tour. The French Quarter had gotten almost totally wiped out by 2 different fires in the the 1700's. It was temporarily owned by Spain when it was rebuilt, which is why the architecture has the Spanish flare. And now, the city prevents any changes to the faces of the houses and buildings, so through much of it, it feels like another country.
This is the building where the Louisiana Purchase was signed.
Colombo and I had eaten Gumbo here! The sweetest restaurant. Part of it was an outdoor terrace.
The French built this pub. Not quite as ornate.
We hit the pool upon our return. Several of Madison's new friends were there as this was really their first free time of the week.
Thursday, July 18th
Back up on the 41st floor:
Back to the pool.
A lime, picked right off the tree!
Thursday night the girls stayed back at the hotel with Renna so the four adults could go to dinner together. It was fun to be 'out' and have a little break from The Busy One.
Friday, July 19th
I dragged Maddy out on an adventure. You can see how thrilled she was. Tired and grumpy for a bit, but then warmed up to the idea. The plan was Street Car to have lunch Uptown and then go get Snow Balls.
St. Charles was lined with beautiful historic homes.
We had lunch at a sweet cafe and then walked to Plum Street Snow Balls, a local icon.
Sure do love my girls!
Friday happened to be Miss Kandie's birthday, so the whole group went out for dinner.
The birthday girl also requested a carriage tour. Beth, Renna, and I headed back to the hotel.
Back home, Daddy took 3 of the boys to a Red Sox game.
Saturday, July 20th
Happy day!!!! Headin' home. It took us a while to pack up the room. We had gotten pretty settled in 11 days.
Renna slept almost all of both flights. Don't be fooled by the picture. This lasted for about 12 seconds.
Stretching our legs in Atlanta:
It was such a sweet reunion at the airport! We rounded the corner and all the boys were standing there with a big banner. It was a scene out of movie! So, so, so good to see their sweet faces and hug their necks!
Sunday, July 21st
The only agenda was to spend the day reconnecting...and packing 2 kids up for Kids' Camp. It was so good to see sights like this again:
Madison showed the boys her NOLA flare.
Nathanael said of Renna, "If you hadn't sent pictures and if I hadn't looked at my birthday books this morning I would've forgotten what her face looked like."
Rocco had a big surprise!
