Hey Honey at Work...

 1 1/4 days at the office and it's the weekend!  

Hurry home hottie.

XOXO,

Jess

Oh My Nola...

  

This is the last of my pictures from the pretty Parrish of New Orleans.  We spent the last of our trip walking around the old mansions in the Garden District.  I loved every minute of it and as I strolled around the neighborhoods my arm linked with John, I pretended I was living in the days of parasols and petticoats. 

  Someone give me some sweet lemonade, and a good book, and a porch swing!  I adore these double decker  houses.

The branches are all accessorized with shimmering pearls- pretty remnants of the Mardi Gras Parade.

We walked through a lovely old cemetery in the neighborhood.   All the headstones are above ground because of the low watertable.  It may be morbid, but I think graveyards are romanitc. You can surmise stories of love, life, and tragedy from the engravings and memorials.  I always leave reminded of how precious this life is and how I need to enjoy every minute. 

Bob the stroller does the Bayou.  I can't believe the miles we are putting on this guy!  He is definetly part of the family.  

We were constantly sprinkled with a light powdering of sugar from the beignets we bought along the way.

John said this pose was not appropriate:) ...

So I tried again:)

Our travel companions, The Carter Fam. Jackson's face looks like he might have seen a ghost.

This is how we would tame our tots so we could get our gumbo on.

Here is my Top Ten New Orleans in a Nutshell, for my blogging friend, Michelle. I hope I'm not too late:)

• Walk down the Exchange Place- a quiet narrow street with a few restaurants and galleries. 
• Stroll down the streets of the Garden District and enjoy the beautiful architecture and old graveyards. 
• Eat Beignets on the patio of Café Beignet. (Just watch out for the birds in the trees above. ...speaking from a traumatic experience...ick!). 
• Eat somewhere with live music.  We ate at Market Café late at night and watching musicians  play under the moonlight was magic.
• Pretend like you know what you are doing and find a court yard of a fancy hotel to rest your feet.
• Enjoy the street performers at Jackson Square
• Take a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride at night and get a history tour.
• Stand in the long line at The Central Grocery for a Muffuletta sandwich.  It's a long wait, but worth every bite.
• Get lost strolling around the safe parts of the city, visiting the art galleries, and peeking in the windows of the fortune tellers and Voodoo doctors.
• Next time I hope to take an alligator swamp tour or visit one of their old plantations.  Can’t wait!  

My Partner in Crime...

What is it about January that makes me resolute like I'm Tony Robbins one minute, then polish off a pan of brownies while watching The Bachelor the next?  I seem to be having a problem with motivation, and moderation this month:)  I must be missing my cross-country ski buds who help keep the winter time blues at bay.  Hhmmm, maybe I will have to start a mama's bicycle club to compensate for me missing the ski skate:)

I Am Grateful For

Date night with daddy

A morning of exploring

Good friends and family

My sister coming in March

Freshly painted toenails

Lemonade...

Our play-date with our friends turned into a play day when I accidentally lost the car keys at the outdoor mall.  (I need a gps for my key ring...and phone)! John had meetings and wasn’t able to come to our rescue for five hours later so we set out to make the best of being stranded.   It was pretty much impossible to take the boys into the posh shops so we mostly just followed them as they ran wild through the walkways.   Our lemon-ey day turned into sweet lemonade as we were able to get into some deeper conversation, watch our kiddos leisurely lap up ice-cream, and let the boys run free in the car-less confined space.                                                                              

We just wish we had our cameras for when we were digging through the trash for my keys next to Kate Spade,  when the kiddos were covered from head to toe with chocolate, and when the Nestle man couldn’t scoop up our ice-cream because he just had a cast put on his arm- it was comical.

The afternoon was a good reminder that I don’t always need to rush home for nap time.   I hope to just go with it more, let James snooze in his stroller, and allow destiny determine the day.  Thanks for being such a good friend and sport Jackie :)

TGIF-  I can't wait for my man to be home for the weekend!

A Birthday Gram For Grandma Sent from Our Backyard...

We hope you have a perfect day.  Love, Jessica, John, and James.

We Are Thinking of You Grandpa Gregory...

We love you and hope you feel better soon!  Love, Jessica, John,and James.

Happiness is...

For me, it's being around Heavenly Father's creations with the people I love...

God is Great.  Amen.  

My Heart Just Skipped a Beat For The Big Easy:)

We finally made it to the real Mardi Gras mccoy, New Orleans!  As you can see from previous posts: here and here, we've been pretending to take a Cajun vacation for quite awhile.  My dear great grandma Nana was a French speaking Creole lady and she didn't pass until I was in college, so I've always had a Cajun connection and longed to visit this lovely place.

I guess I had low expectations because of Katrina, but I was completely blown away by it's beauty and I felt like I was in a different country.  The streets reminded me of a small scale Paris...but less pretentious and a lot more colorful.  Oooooh!  I am absolutely crazy about this place and the delicious food, art, architecture, music, nice people...I could go on forever.  But I am afraid my prose will  fail me...so I'll do what I do best, post too many pictures...

We went with some of our awesome new friends, Jackie, Ryan, and little Jackson.  Props to Jackie for walking all day with a baby on the way.

 I stole this picture from Jackie.  This place was to die for...or just wait in a really long line for:)

 Beignets, a breakfast staple if you are wandering the streets.

 

Baby Brees in honor of Drew's record-breaking game as we walked down Bourbon Street.

This is me getting duped by a street dude.  We gave him a dollar to do a trick, but the trick was on me. It turned out to be a mannequin.

 This was so worth the hour wait John stood in line!

Chandelier Shop

 Sneaking into a ritzy hotel.

The fabulous hotel courtyard where we rested and let the boys run wild..  

John enjoying the view of the balcony.  J/k.  Honestly I didn't even know that stuff went on until we came home and my mom told me.  I guess we stuck to the more family friendly parts and missed the flashers.

We took a romantic (as romantic as it gets with two rambunctious toddlers) night carriage ride through the French quarter.

 My favorite memory of the trip was our last night eating a bowl of gumbo in a warm cafe while Jazz musicians serenaded us from the street.  I live for 'life is good" moments like this.

In Utah we lived seven hours from Vegas and now we are seven hours from New Orleans.  I guess we are destined to live seven hours from sin;)  But what's life without a city of lights, and a little spice...Cajun spice that is:)