We had a lovely Thanksgiving day aside from all the sickness. I was able to see cousins I have not seen in many, many years. While our feast was being prepared most of us took a break outside to try and fish in my Aunt’s pond. She has quite a bit of property with her home that includes the pond, an old barn, and old chicken coop. It was fun exploring the barn with the kids. We didn’t have any luck catching fish but it was nice sitting around the water visiting with family. We also too various family photos and attempted one big family shot…..all I can say is at least we got everyone together.

Friday was a very long and busy day. My cousin, Michael, arranged a private tour for our family at the New Orleans WWII Museum. They had so many neat things there and I really liked the set up of the museum. The kids struggled since there was not much for them to see or do, but they survived well enough. I left with a ‘map bag’ as a souvenir, but I mostly wanted it because it was the right size for a mini diaper bag!

After this the family headed over to Mothers Restaurant, which apparently is a popular place in downtown New Orleans. We were a group of 19 trying to arrange seating in a small place. The type of dining set up of this restaurant is very similar to a place I had been to before in Galveston years ago. You walk in and stand in line while looking at your menu. You go up to the cashier, tell her your order and pay, then find a seat for yourself. Servers eventually come around and call out your name and bring you your food. I can’t say that I like this type of dining set up, but it sure is different. It was raining all day Friday, we showed up at Mothers right around lunch time and so they were very crowded and we were slightly damp. The kids were tired and misbehaving and my patience was wearing thin. However, they quickly and thankfully passed out shortly after getting back in the car. I couldn’t really say I saw much damage still in downtown New Orleans, but there were definitely businesses that never reopened and the roads and parking lots were rough and cracked badly.

We continued on to a small town named Jean Lafitte. My Aunt knows a man there, Captain Craig, with a shrimp boat and she also buys shrimp from him. We got the chance to board his boat and check it all out. The kids were thrilled. I had to pee really bad and there were no other places around to go. He let me use the boat’s bathroom. He told me it was not a “flushing toilet” and I told him it wasn’t a big deal to me, it was just pee anyway. So this “toilet”, I discovered, was really a wood box with a hole cut out on the top, a toilet seat screwed over the hole, and a big blue bucket underneath. BJ lovingly took a picture of me as I was trying to close the door to the bathroom to document this experience. My mom bought 50 pounds of shrimp and then we headed back to New Orleans to check out the levees and areas of damage.

There were several houses that were still standing but had clearly not been touched since Katrina. You could see X’s marked on the houses with numbers next to them and my Aunt explained that was to show that the house had been checked for bodies and the date it was done. The roads were terrible! I couldn’t imagine having to drive through that everyday. What blew my mind more than anything is when we got to the areas of the levees there were houses RIGHT THERE.

I say that because there were literally houses 20-30 feet away from the levees to their back door. The levees were like a part of their backyard! I had no idea people lived so close to them. What amazed me even more was that it was the one area where I saw the most houses rebuilt. I am sure if we had gone down more streets I would have seen more newer homes, but the fact that so many people chose to rebuild so close to the area that failed them so horribly before……it really confounds me. What was also interesting is that these homes, the one near the levees, were really nice homes. I mean 2 stories, beautifully landscaped, white pillars, decorative doors, the whole 9 yards! We headed on to an area where the kids could get out and stretch and we took pictures by waters edge. It is hard to imagine that what we were looking at is a lake. It stretches on and on like the ocean.

Saturday we attended the Wildlife Center. BJ and I have been to other drive through wildlife parks before, but none like this. The biggest difference is you don’t have your own car. A huge tractor pulls these covered cars where you can sit or move about freely and feed the animals. No worries about your car getting scratched or covered in dropped corn feed! Phoebe was nervous and really indifferent most of the time. It wasn’t until the last 15 minutes of the tour that she became interested in throwing corn. She would take a piece of corn, hold it tight in her fist, bring her fist up to her ear, hold it there for several seconds, and then finally throw her arm forward and release. She was so funny to watch doing this. Sophia, of course, was excited and loved feeding the animals along with her cousins. The rest of our Saturday was wonderfully lazy with naps and vegging around the house.

It was a wonderful, full, trip to Louisiana and we can’t wait to go back!

Tags: fishing,Louisiana,thanksgiving,wildlife park,WWII museum
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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I say sort of because here is the story of only SOME of our Thanksgiving vacation:
I was not home almost all day Monday and Tuesday so I missed a lot of good time to be home doing laundry and packing. It was crammed into Tuesday night and I was busting my butt to get it all done. Shortly before what would have been bedtime for Sophia on Tuesday night, she throws up. She continues to throw up off and on for a little over an hour. It was almost impossible to get any more packing done due to getting in a warm bath with her and snuggling and comforting her on the couch. We know nothing is seriously making her sick because we can see it is the mucus she has been swallowing over the last several days due to an oncoming cold. She stops barfing, I finish packing, and we all go to bed! However, we bring a barf bucket in the car with us just in case.

We drive out Wednesday morning, the car drive was not as bad as we thought, albeit long, but not too bad. Thank goodness! We get there in one piece and wait for my other sisters to arrive. We get news they are delayed because my oldest sister starting throwing up in the car. I must also mention at this time that BJ and I started this trip with head colds. I had already been suffering from one for 3 weeks and had already been through an entire round of amoxicillin that did not work. By Wednesday night I was losing my voice and had a sore throat.

Thursday morning…..turkey day! We wake up to find out Jennifer and her daughter Gwennie were up most of the night barfing. I have also totally lost my voice and can barely talk. When I do try and talk I feel strained and it causes a minor headache. Luckily there was no more puking (from anyone) and BJ and I just suffered through the day blowing our noses constantly.

Friday……BJ and I are still miserable with colds and my voice is no better. Saturday…….the same. Sunday……we begin driving home and my voice is slowly getting better which leads me to believe the climate (and maybe elevation) had a lot to do with it. However, the longer we are in the car the girls get crankier and crankier. On the home stretch Granny starts throwing up (thank goodness for the afore mentioned packed barf bucket). We had previously been stuck in horrible traffic which delayed us a whole hour or more, which means more torture of the girls being in the car. We reach a point where it is the last hour/hour and a half and the girls are hungry, wet (diapers), tired and Phoebe can almost not be kept happy. Granny is suffering in the front seat barfing off and on. BJ is, of course, rushing to get home and is speeding. The icing on the cake is we get pulled over. The cop asks “Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?” and I am totally thinking “I am in hell! You sit in this car and tell me YOU wouldn’t speed jerkface!!” BJ and my mom explain the situation and I call out from the center seat that I have 2 toddlers in the back and he lets us go with a warning. Thank heavens for small blessings.

We get home and leave Granny trying to barf again in the front seat. I rush 2 little girls into a bath and step away to try and get a few things out of the car. By now Granny was out of the car barfing on the front lawn. I run back inside to find Sophia naked in the hallway telling me she pooped. I find Phoebe sitting in poopy bath water so I grab her out, scoop out what I can with a cup, give up on the idea of cleaning it right then to refill the tub, and rush the naked, wet girls to our bath. By now my dad and BJ are just dumping what they can from the car (to rush my poor mom home) into my front entryway and living room which created quite the mess. I wisely choose to ignore it, get the girls dressed, fed and in bed! Whew! What a day and what a night! I only have one request out of all this…….please! please! please! Christmas be kinder to our family!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and the happier parts of our trip are to come!

Tags: barfing,being sick,car travel,thanksgiving
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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