Heading home & the other side of the family

On Sunday morning, we began the LOOOOOOOONG drive home. We headed to Scott's brother Brian's house in Mississippi and spent Sunday night there. It's about 3 hours away from my parents'. The boys got to see Maw-Maw Lin & Paw-Paw Bip (Scott's parents) and their cousins & run around "in the country" all afternoon. They had more pool time & Kristy's (my sister-in-law) dad took them driving on a "mule", which is like a small truck for working on the farm. William got to actually sit on Paw-Paw Doug's (Kristy's daddy) lap & drive it. We went down to one of Mr. Doug's friend's farms & the boys got to feed some donkeys and geese and then they got to see the new baby cows eat. Of course, my camera was buried in the van, so bad mommy didn't get any pics of this mini-visit either. Kristy took a few pics of William driving the mule, so I'll post them if I can get more copies. I managed to forget mine right on her counter since we practically ran out of their house at 6AM so my boys wouldn't wake up the whole house. They were so excited to get home & see Daddy that they were up by 4:45. The rest of the drive home was never-ending for all of us, but we made it, thanks to lots of caffeine & two very long naps! I've sworn off driving more than 4-5 hours by myself with 2 kids for at least a year :-)

Pool Days

It got up into the 80's while we were here, so the boys were excited to play in Nana's blow-up pool. Oh, the splashin' that went on!

pool days

William's first fish!

William's first fish

Grandpa Sam is a big fisherman & one of the things William looks forward to when we head home to Louisiana is going fishing with Grandpa Sam. First, they catch their own worms in the backyard. Then, they head to one of the ponds around town for a little fishing time. This time, William managed to catch not one, but two fish. They were very little & had to be thrown back, but he was pretty excited. He even threw them back himself. Check out the pic of him reeling it in! **Be sure to click on the pic**

Zoo Trip

Zoo of Acadiana

Today, we went to the Zoo of Acadiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. It's privately owned & pretty impressive. The boys got to see a panther, leopards, way more bird varieties than I've ever seen in one zoo, a wallabee (which is a small kangaroo)--and they have a baby kangaroo which isn't on exhibit yet, zebras, alligators of course, & LOTS more animals. We took a train ride & got to see the zebras running wild with antelopes & two very silly monkeys who were quite good at catching grapes. Our train conductor stopped the train & threw the monkeys some grapes, which they very nonchalantly caught & popped in their mouths. The boys (and the grown-ups!) thought this was pretty funny. If you look very closely at the picture of the tree, you can see one of the furry monkeys hanging by his tail. **Be sure to click the pic**

Grandpa Sam & Daniel

For those of you who've never met Grandpa Sam, he has a huge, fluffy moustache. When I was teeny, a favorite game was "neck", where he would tickle our necks with it. The game has been passed onto my kids & it's a favorite with him & Daniel. Aren't these sweet????

Visiting relatives

On Monday, we took off for Baton Rouge to see Aunt Catherine & my Aunt Sarah. We did a little shopping & then headed to Aunt Sarah's for the evening. The boys ran themselves ragged playing with Biscuit & Snickers (Aunt Sarah's dogs) while we ran ourselves ragged trying to keep them out of the swimming pool. We got to see Uncle Jim & both of Aunt Sarah's boys. Ben was nice enough to avert a catastrophe & get William & Daniel some "Skinnles" (see Easter morning post for further explanation) since Mommy & Nana forgot to bring the massive amount of candy that the Easter bunny dropped off!

In the morning, we headed to Mama Sue's for the day. The boys were very well-behaved at her house & Daniel took to her right away. He kept bringing her stuff to show her. Although, I think the highlight of the day was Aunt Sarah teaching Daniel to say "YUUUUUCK!" William still likes to ask Daniel what Aunt Sarah says & they both dissolve into giggles & shout it out.

We ended up at Aunt Laura's for the night, where the boys again ran themselves ragged chasing Zoe (Aunt Laura's dog) & we ran ourselves ragged trying to keep them out of the swimming pool. (Sound familiar?)

On Wednesday, we headed back to Nana's. I was a bad Mommy & didn't pull my camera out on this entire mini-trip, apparently, so no photos, but it was still lots of fun.

Happy Easter!

Here are the kiddos on Easter morning. Too much candy--"Skinnles" (aka Skittles) for William & "beans" (of the jelly variety) for Daniel. Wish you could see how cute they looked in their Easter clothes, but they were done with behaving by this time! Be sure to click the picture for more.

Easter morning 2008