New Orleans: Friday

So this morning was the day of me.
The night before we'd stayed up until 2:30am which wasn't all our fault. Our room's TV wasn't working properly and we had a fix it guy come in and try to sort it out. The guy was super chatty and nice. He was white and told us there's more black people than white here. He said they've taken down some statues of historic people because some find it racist. It's all pretty interesting. I guess the statues are really old but they're not even in a museum. About an hour later they moved us to a new room down a couple of floors. So we had to pack up in the middle of the night and move all of our stuff. But our TV worked, so that was good.
We got hooked on a movie and so had to finish watching it hahahaha

So I didn't wake up until 10:48am. I looked at my phone and that's what it said hahahaha
I then turned on the TV and did some knitting while watching a cool house show for an hour then met Dru for lunch and tasted some Gumbo for the first time. It was amazing. I was scared to try it but am glad that we did. We both loved it.
Then I went and worked out for an hour and jumped into the hot tub and met some locals who'd gotten a groupon to the hotel's spa they have there. It was cool to talk to them and I got caught up in the moment I didn't get back to our room in time to be meeting Dru's cousin and their family who were driving 5 hours to be with us!!
I quickly went upstairs and jumped in the shower and got ready to meet Dru and his cousin, Noah and his family, Jeanny, Briana and Dani.
It had been such a great day so far of doing nothing and not feeling bad about it. No housework, no cleaning, no kids, no responsibilities, for this morning it was pure bliss.

I then ran down and met my family who I hadn't seen in over a decade!! It was pretty awesome to see them.
We headed down to the tram's to catch one to the markets.


Here I am at the tram station.

The french markets had everything you could think of there. I wanted some local artwork but there was way too much to choose from.

Look at all these spices they sell and hot sauce.

They had some amazing chocolate that I tasted a little of.

I thought my little friend Toby would've loved one of these.

Saw one of these barges that they have on the Princess and the Frog movie. Apparently they're pretty lively boats I was told. Fun.

Here's Dani, said Danny, and I on the tram. She's so fun and cute. It was great getting to know her a little better.

We then decided to go get something to eat at a popular restaurant called "Mothers"
I was excited to try their food.

I found this sandwich or Poboy as they call them here in New Orleans, which was named after my Uncle John. So I sent it to him. It sounds like a good one right?
It was hard to decide what to get, but in the end I chose this one and we got some more gumbo.

It was pretty amazing. Their machines went down so we had to pay cash.




We sat and talked the night away together and tried each others food. All of it was great. It was really nice to get to know family you know. These guys are awesome and I'm glad they planned stuff out for us. After we'd eaten it was time to say goodbye and part ways. We each headed back to the hotel.

This time I got dressed up before we headed out to the Jazz place. I felt a lot better placed this time. Its nice to dress up sometimes you know. We scrub up pretty well don't we?

I wanted to get a full pic of my cute dress!


Some of the new band players this night. The bass was awesome to listen to. The new girl was good too but not as entertaining as the Thursday night lady and the band tonight took way more breaks. It kinda sucked.

We walked hand in hand back to the hotel as happy as could be. It's nice to be together. I love Dru.

New Orleans Wed-Thursday

So Dru's sister, Kristin, came up Tuesday to hang out with us and help Dru and I out by watching the kids while we went to New Orleans for the rest of the week. Dru had a continuing education class there for the Thursday and Friday and I went because I thought it'd be awesome.
We'd planned it all out ages ago and none of us even remembered it was Father's Day. Oh well.
We sorted everything out with Kristin and had a friend dropping us off super early the next morning. We had to be at our flights by 5am So that's lovely.
They almost didn't have us on the same flight!! Dru did some ringing around and go it sorted so we could fly there together, thank goodness.

Here we are tired and ready to get there.
We had a 6 hour layover in Salt Lake City. So Dru's father came out and got us and I was able to take a nap on their couch until it was time to leave. It was pretty nice.
We then got some lunch and headed out.
We got into New Orleans at 6pm their time and it was muggy but not too bad.
Our Hotel was very nice.

We dropped off all of our stuff and headed out to the town to wander around, find something to eat and experience the culture a little before we slept.

Who could wear this necklace? Seriously, look how big that is?

We finally found a restaurant to eat at and opted to sit up on the balcony in the sweaty, noisy mess.
I ordered redfish which I was told was good. It had a crawfish cream sauce on top. Talk about awesomeness. It was wonderful. Dru ordered a burger which was nice as well.

We then ordered a banana nut bread pudding which was a little slice of heaven.

Here's a small clip of bourbon street. We didn't stay out there past 9pm but I hear it gets pretty crazy and I can tell. It's not somewhere I needed to be hanging out after 10pm that's for sure. But I'm glad we walked down there.
It was just nice to be around Dru with no kids. I like being with him.

The next day Kristin took the kids to Quinn's pond in Boise. I've never been there but hear it's great. She said the kids had a blast. So that's good. She sent me some pic's of them having fun that Thursday.









Yeah they don't look like they're missing us at all right? It's always good to have the cuzzies around.

Thursday Dru went to his class until 5:45pm. So I had the day to entertain myself.
It just so happened that my mate Holly lived 20mins out of New Orleans and was willing to come and get me and be with me for the day. It worked out awesome.
Her husband Matt and her are there for his schooling. She doesn't like it too much and I can't blame her you know. But it was nice to be able to see her and her new baby girl, Sunday, and to be with them for the day. Better than being on my own.

So Holly lives super close to the levy and so we went walking up there. It was hot and we were sweaty but it was pretty neat to see how the water is kept out.
So this is it. Just a hillside!! How crazy is that right? So if the water gets taller than that then we're all screwed. They do the one side with concrete all the way down to the bottom so there's no leaks. But can you see how the town side is lower than the Mississippi river side? Who thought that was a good idea right?

We saw these big boats going up and down the river constantly. It's pretty awesome.



Holly, Sunday and I.



Some cool weird plants that are growing here.
So they don't have normal grass, it's a different kind of thing. It's beautiful but probably more like what the weather brings about.
The houses are beautiful as well and are made for the weather. So they're different from houses back west.

I spent the afternoon with Holly, Tony and Sunday and knitted as well as watched some movies and talked and ate. The hotel didn't have breakfast so I was on my own. I'm glad Holly fed me and kept me at her place.
We then co-ordinated with Matt and he went and picked Dru up from the Hotel and Holly took me and we met each other at this restaurant called 'Dat Dogg'
So it's a place that just does hot doggs. I was a little skeptical cause I'm not a hotdog fan, but I needed to embrace it all and so went for it.

Cool atmosphere.

All of our different dogs. Mines the one in the front. It was really good.



It was past Sundays bedtime and she was doing so great but it was time to get her into bed.
So Matt dropped Dru and I off and Holly took off home to tend to Sunday. It was so nice to see them again and to be able to hang out and talk to them. What a wonderful blessing.



Shot of us together and a shot of Tony's awesome octopus hotdog.

I'm glad we ate there and were with them.
What a good time.
We were ready to be entertained by some jazz thought and decided to go exploring after we got back.




These roses were all REAL and smelled great.

This little secret English garden was beautiful as well. Beautiful Hotel.


It was a great night and I was way underdressed. I enjoyed the lady singer though and the musicians were just wonderful. I was really entertained and grateful to be there.

Kristin assured me the kids were doing great and sent me this picture of them all hanging out. Pretty cute.
So far I've loved New Orleans and all it has to offer.

More 40th bday surprizes

So I got a card from Kat in the mail just last week and it had this gold ring with diamonds in it for me. How awesome is that?

She said she really liked the ring I got her and wanted to get me one too but couldn't find the exact one I'd given her.

She said the diamonds were because she was late hahahahaha

I like my wedding rings for sure but I realize that I'm not a big ring kinda girl. I'm a band kinda girl. So decided to put my mum's wedding band from Dad and this band from Kat together and wear them constantly.

I thought I may be claustrophobic about it, but so far so good. This is the longest I've kept rings on in decades!!

I'm grateful to Kat and our friendship. I wish we were closer man. But that wasn't meant to be I guess.

It's nice to have a mate like Kat. I'm lucky. I love her.

Week after camping

So they have $1 movies every Tuesday up here and give you two choices of kids movies to watch over the summer.  Here we are kicking it off the first week.
We chose to all watch Kung Fu Panda 3.
I love this. So cheap and you get to see some of your favourites.


Heres Yuki playing with Aria.



Then Thursday we went to free lunch at the park day as well as the Boise Park's people playing games with the kids. How cool is that?
So I'm trying to let my kids have more fun. Although today Takeshi didn't get to go due to not getting his chores done. It's always a fine line that I hate having to cross. I wish my kids would see the value to getting all their stuff done. I've lessened it this summer and for the most part they're doing great. Oh well.

Here they are all playing.

Hank and Takeshi.



That night we went out to sushi with the Braun's and I tried calamari for the first time, which is squid. It was really good!!!

Then the next day, Friday, we decided to go and watch the road to the X-games in downtown Boise at the skate park.  It was so amazing.  We had skate boarders as well as BMX riders who were both amazing. It was such a treat for the kids and Dru and I to watch. We got a pretty sweet seat beside some obnoxious teenagers which was fun.




Here are some videos of the pros



So good right?
We had a blast. Then we decided to head out to the Eagle bike park to ride with each other and have some fun.

So we just played around on the pump track for a while, having fun, then I decided to take Takeshi on the flow trail up above to let him do some real riding and see how he did with it.   He had to sort out his gears a little, which was good for him, but he did great. He rocked it on the flow trail doing jumps and trying everything out. He's so awesome.

Then Yuki decided she wanted to be part of the party. So we took her on a different trail which was still fun, but didn't have that huge drop that we thought she might be scared of. She did great and even did some jumps, much to her surprise, at the bottom of the trail.

Then Masaru wanted to be part of the action, so we took him up to our trail we just did then we split off the next time and the girls did one and the boys did the flow trail. Masaru made Takeshi do the big drop first so he could see it be done. I thought that was so funny. The kids all had a great time and then we had to go.

We packed up and headed out to Barb's house for dinner so we could hang out and see their new place.
It was fun to be able to be with them and chat and play and see how awesome their new place was.
It was also nice to be able to have dinner made for us and s'mores.
It was a great day today.


On Saturday morning we got up early to meet one of our favourite Elders for breakfast. Elder Hunt started off in our mission and then he got moved to Nampa mission. His companion happened to be Samoan as well and so it worked our pretty good.
Here's Masaru with his long hair reading the local news paper. I asked him why he was reading it and he told me to find out what was for sale and if he wanted anything hahahaha

The Elders finally showed up and we brought them breakfast and sat around and played and talked. It was really nice.
Elder Hunt finishes his mission in 2 weeks. Then he's off back home and then to BYU Hawaii. He'll do so good there.

We loved Elder Hunt and I'm glad we got to see him one last time. I hope he keeps in touch.

Then I took off to a sealing of one of my earlier YW whom I taught. Her name is Lydia. She's a twin and her twin's name is Paige. I went to the temple with Paige earlier on in the week to be with her while she got her endowments out. It was nice to be with her. Then to be at Lydia's sealing was a really nice privilege as well. It's always nice to be a part of the girls lives after they leave YW's and to see what they choose to do and go for you know. It was really nice to be there at the sealing. I went with Dani.

Then I met Dru and the boys back downtown to watch the finals of the men's skating as well as the men's BMX riding. Masaru had just gotten his hair cut by Phil. I hardly even recognized him. He looks like a new person right?
This time we didn't get good seats and couldn't see the bowl almost at all. A lot of what we watched was on the big screen right there where the action was happening.
There was a Boise guy who was in the top 12 which was awesome. He didn't make the top 6 but I was proud of him for representing. Then there was a 13 year old who was trying to make it as well that didn't. He was impressive too.
The BMX guys were more fun to watch I thought and the guy that won came outt've nowhere and won it. The guy that came second could of won it if he'd done the run he wanted. It was a sweet run man. It's a pity he couldn't finish it.

Then later on that night I met up with Jobecka where we had dinner together and talked. We then biked down to Lydia's wedding reception. It was just beautiful. They'd done a really good job. I loved all the details and I'm glad I went.
Jobecka and I took 3 pic's of each other on their camera. One for me {below}, one for her and one for the book that we were suppose to be doing. It was a neat camera and I think I'd like one.

Afterwards we biked home and I hung out with Dru and the kids. What a great day.


Then the next day at church the kids brought me out and told me that there were a bunch of baby owls up in the tree!! It was so cool. It was really neat to see all of them huddled up there together. So I tried to get the best shot I could.
Great weekend.
So far summer's been awesome.