Playing Catch Up!

May: Eric and I decided to go on a bike ride at a nearby park one Saturday. We noticed that there was a cement trail and so we thought we'd check it out. The bike ride turned more into a very low key mountain biking adventure. It'd rained the previous day and Eric, being a guy, rode through every puddle he possibly could. It definitely was a new adventure for me as I'd never been mountain biking before or even anything close to it. After riding through the trees on a tiny trail, we decided to call it quits and head home. But then Eric spotted a big pile of dirt and thought it'd be fun to jump it. He rode it a few times and as I was about to go next, he cautioned me to make sure I got enough speed and went up the right "track" that he had made. I asked him to go one more to so that I could see where he meant... he straight biffed it! I saw him go up the side of the dirt pile but I didn't see him land and ride off like before. I rode towards him and just as I got there, he was getting up from off the ground. I laughed so hard! Oh, good times. The orange color on his shirt, arm, and leg is from him falling. The mud is from all the puddles he rode through.

April: The first time Eric and I had driven down to check out New Orleans. This large crawfish was outside of the restaurant we ate at.
May: The pictures below are from our Crawfish Boil that our ward put on. It was mine and Eric's first time eating crawfish. It's definitely a messy food. The crawfish are served to you whole and you have to rip it apart in order to get to the meat inside the tail. First, twist and tear of the head. Next, grap the tail and squeeze it so that the top of it breaks and then peel of the hard shell of the crawfish and voila! you have successfully found crawfish 'meat'. Now the meat itself is unbelievably small. In a good sized crawfish, it's about the size of half of your thumb (smaller if you're male). I told Eric that I was okay with never eating crawfish again unless I absolutely had to.

You can see by my expression that I wasn't thrilled to be trying crawfish, but I might as well have tried it sooner rather than later, right? The flavor really wasn't bad and the texture is similar to that of shrimp. It's more the concept that I was kind of turned off by. I mean, they're whole when they're served to you for crying out loud!

One of our favorite senior Sister Missionaries, Sister Dustin. She's a hoot! She's loud and outspoken and so much fun to be around.
This is Sister Goodin, her companion. She's more on the quiet side and so sweet. We always have fun when we spend time with these ladies. They're like our grandmas out here.
Sister Matson (no, Grandma, you guys aren't related at all), another senior missionary, and her husband are two more people that we love here. The two companionships live in our apartment complex in addition to one more senior couple. They're all so nice and we enjoy spending time with them.

Swamp Tour!!

It was SO humid that day and it rained for a few minutes before we go in the boats, which only added to the humidity. Such fun.


Baby feral pigs.. they really like marshmallows.

CHOMP!!
Here she comes!
Can you see the bird??

The second video is of the other tour boat and their guide is feeding the gator a hot dog. You can see how long the alligator really is. Crazy big!!

Weekend With My Folks

In front of the Baton Rouge Temple.

My parents took Eric and I out to dinner in White Castle, near Baton Rouge, at The Mansion Restaurant at Nottoway Plantation. The food was very good as was the service. We got lost on our way to the restaurant and it ended up taking nearly an hour and a half to find the restaurant... thank goodness we found it and that they still accepted our reservations, even though we were so late.
Beautiful!!

My silly parents. I thought this picture was super cute.

My mother and I picked up my father at the airport and went straight to the French Quarter for lunch. We ate yummy jambalaya, gumbo, po'boy.. it was good eatin'! (Eric would've joined us, but he was at work)

See that large white building? Now see the highest blue overhang? Look straight below that at the orange sign. See it? Well, that's where we ate lunch? Cool, huh?!

Uncle Eric

Eric's setting up the stroller for Jacob.. such a great 'Uncle!'
I love how Jacob is looking up at Eric. Too cute.

My cute nephew, Jacob!!

Jacob's first day in Louisiana.. playing in our bedroom. I sure have missed him (and his mommy, of course)!!

He is the cutest kid ever! I love his laughter and Vovinha (Grandma) does an excellent job at making him laugh :D And, I love her expressions too!

Bubbles!!

Dunno how this happened?!! Somehow I accidentally put dish soap in the dishwasher.. can we say distracted, or something?? haha It sure made for a fun 'adventure' before we left for New Orleans. Even little J had fun!

The French Quarter

I just about died laughing when I saw this picture. Jacob's expression is absolutely priceless!! HUH?! Oh man, I just love him!
Look Annalisa, you pose like mom! heehee
The curly crew + Jacob in New Orleans.
Downtown New Orleans -the French Quarter. It was so humid that day, but thankfully it was overcast and not sunny. The heat from the sun in combination with the humidity makes for a not-so-fun thing to deal with, especially if you're outside all day. We seemed to always have been in either the tour bus, indoors, or in the car every time it rained.. lucky us!
Look how he's just quietly listening to the wise words from his Aunt. JK.. though I think I told him that he needed to be drinking more water.
Vovo (Grandma), mom, and son/grandson. Precious moments.

Lunch Time

Lunch time after our tour.. yummy food and excellent company!!
Little J is the cutest kid ever!! I love, love, love him!!

New Orleans City Tour

One of the many graveyards in New Orleans..during Katrina there were a ton of bodies that came out of the ground (can you imagine what that must've looked like?!) The rows in this graveyard goes on forever!
See that yellowish line just below the roof of the house?? Well, that's the water line from Katrina. It's incredible to think that the water was that high and that in most areas, homes were at least 8 feet under water. 80% of the New Orleans area was under water. Amazing.
Mardi Gras!! Check out all the mardi gras beads in the trees!

A week with my family

My mother, sister and little nephew, Jacob, flew in for a few days at the beginning of June. My mom really wanted to see the 'beach' full of white shells.. She was fascinated by it!
We spent the day in Gulfport, Mississippi at the outlets and took a walk on the beach afterwards. Jacob didn't care much for the sand and water.. poor kid.
The water was warm and not so clean - though remained unaffected by the oil spill, for now...
The three curly heads together again!! The humidity here is ridiculous, so Annalisa and I convinced my mom to just let her hair be curly and not worry about straightening it..