Old Friends

One thing I really, really wanted to do while visiting my hometown was to have a dinner date with some very special old friends--one of whom is fighting a very brave battle against cancer. I am so happy it worked out and so appreciative to everyone who worked their schedules out in a way that allowed us this time together. A special thank you to Nikki for coming out and looking so beautiful (and not sick) and sharing your stories with us. Nobody has ever been able to make us laugh the way you can, and clearly that will never change! Though there were a few tearful moments of sadness, most of the tears shed this night were the ones that fell during the hysterical laughter! Love these girls!

Judy, Carrie, Donna, Nikki, Andrea, Sofie, and me.

After our dinner, some of us went on to our pokeno group (which Nikki started 10 years ago). I was so happy to get to join in as a guest player!

Some of our group

Andrea, me, Becki, Becky, Shana Rhea, Carrie, and Judy

and one with two ladies that were closest to me last year while I was temporarily a working mom! Sofie and Christyne

Chez Clay and Swimming

All the Peekshners picked a piece of pottery to paint at Chez Clay on Tchoupitoulas. It was super cute, and they were so tickled a few weeks later when they got their pieces back all smooth and glazed. (Someone remind me to take an after pic to post soon of all my kids' finished pieces.)
















Many days we walked and/or drove from the castle to Aunt Bec's real house for all-day swim sessions.






Good thing they'd swim up a big appetite or I don't know how we'd have dragged them out of there!

The Castle

While Aunt Becky and Uncle Simon's beautiful house in New Orleans is being redone to get rid of the evil Chinese drywall, they are temporarily staying at a really funky and amazing old house right on Audubon Park that we simply refer to as the castle. They had just moved into it the week we went out to visit, so all 7 kids were really having fun running around exploring it and making a whole lot of noise! I did beg (bribe) them to sit still clustered in one place for just a sec!









New Orleans is really so unique and more beautiful than ever.

Audubon Zoo and Hubig's Pies!

At the zoo, New Orleans author Cornell Landry was signing copies of his adorable book GOODNIGHT NOLA which I had to get a copy of. In it, he mentions Hubig's Pies, and of course Uncle Simon went out and bought a bunch for the kids to experience for dessert.

Starting from the Beginning...

Not sure how long it'll take me to share my stories and photos from our trip, so I'll just bite off little chunks at a time. Since the last photo I left here was that one with Anderson Cooper, I decided to just start from that day and hopefully eventually work my way chronologically through the summer.

This was a day during our first week while we were staying with Becky, Simon, Jack, Ana, and Charlie in New Orleans. We took the gang out to the aquarium/Imax then strolled along the river to get some Du Monde beignets. What a FUN day!






















Becky and I loved that Curran called it a Seedy Weed Dragon and had to take this pic so that we'd always remember it.