Since Daphne moved to Baton Rouge a few years ago, I have always told Ragnar that I would like to go to New Orleans and visit for Mardi Gras. I have never been to New Orleans and it is really pretty close to Houston, so we took advantage of the President's Day weekend and headed over to visit Daphne and see New Orleans.
We got there Friday night as Ella had a presentation at school for her Catastrophic Event project she created so we couldn't leave til after she was out of school. We got there and the kids were excited to see Daphne and her dog Cortex.
Channing was so scared of him the first two times we visited, but she has come a long way and now she won't leave the poor dog alone!!
Ragnar is giving him a high five!
Daphne's already got it down :)
Saturday morning we got to experience our first King Cake that Daphne was nice enough to buy us.
Channing was really excited about it.
She was even more thrilled when she found the baby which you hide in it. The person who finds it has to buy the cake next year I guess??
Channing and Deacon also got to help Aunt Daphne make cookies.
Later that morning we headed to New Orleans for the day. We stopped to get Beignets first. They are a must in Louisiana!
We were told Cafe Du Monde was the place to go.
We waited about 20 minutes and then got our order to go and enjoyed our Beignets at the park!
We watched a few street performers and listened to some music. There were a lot of very unique people there.
A successful first trip to New Orleans. My overall take...It was interesting with unique culture to Louisiana. Many of the people are slightly unrefined in the city and several work on the streets to make money. It was a good experience, but I do not need to go back.
We drove over afterward to Slidell, LA to go to the Mardi Gras parade. We felt like the one in Slidell would much more appropriate and family friendly.
We grabbed dinner and found a spot and waited.
We bought a couple card games from the dollar store and hung out playing in the back of the car til the parade started.
When it began, I wasn't quite sure what to think or if it was worth our drive or time spent waiting. After about 10 minutes though, it really got more and more fun and we were really getting into it!
Daphne is always fun and knows how to enjoy herself so that was infectious and we let loose and had fun to!
We started getting A LOT of beads!
The boys were so excited with how many things that got thrown to them.
Channing and Deacon got quite a bit of stuff since they are younger and cute!
Having fun partying!
The bigger floats would come and throw things down from the top and you had to make sure you caught it or were watching. It didn't feel too great to get beads thrown at your head without being prepared ;) haha
Cavin got quite the haul and ended up with 182 beads! He insisted on wearing them until toward the end when I'm sure his neck started to hurt! It was a fun night of dancing and cheering and enjoying the celebration of Mardi Gras.
The next morning we headed to church with Daphne which was nice.
When we got home, the kids were excited to see what all they caught last night. Cavin's favorite thing was catching a basketball, Ella's was her light up toys, Channings was a key she got, and Deacon liked his footballs and snowman he caught.
Total with Daphne's beads, we caught 468 beads!!!!
We finished the day out playing games and going for a walk and hanging out together. It was a nice relaxing Sunday.
We had a great weekend and were so glad Daphne hosted us and showed us around the city. One more place checked off our list!
