Lake Time

When school let out for summer I was bound and determined to spend as much time as possible at the lake house. We struck out early one Friday morning (Laurie, Suzy, and I), and headed that direction.

Little Miss Priss was ready to go!! 

 I thankfully had downloaded some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Suzy's iPad. It kept her very well entertained. Thank goodness for technology. By the time we had made it to Tupelo, it was time for a break. We stopped at TJ Maxx to stretch our legs and look for this Mama a bathing suit. Suzy thoroughly enjoyed our little adventure.

Nothing beats a little Radio Flyer that we can leave at the store when she is worn out! 

"I'm coming, Mama!"

Kicked back and relaxed like her Daddy. Mickey had her hooked! 

We left earlier than the rest of the family, because I don't really like to travel with Suzy in the late afternoon. She tends to get a bit stir crazy and cranky when it gets close to suppertime and bedtime. Mimi and Memaw were the first two of the family to arrive. That night we went for supper at Troy's. It is a little cafe that is right around the corner from the house. Suzy was a perfect little girl. You know, we have had a lot of trouble in the department of "eating in a restaurant" and "eating period". She is usually a pistol, but she proved me wrong that first night. She was so good that she even got some ice cream. The second night at Troy's was not so picture perfect. We will skip that evening. I am trying to forget about it. :)

Just soaking up some sun waiting on the crew to arrive! 

YUUUUMMMMY!!!!

When the rest of the crew arrived Suzy was already in bed. I was not far behind her. Traveling wears me out. We slept in a little later than normal, and headed out for the day. We went swimming and for a nice little boat ride. If Suzy is near the water or splashing around in it she is one happy baby!

Doing what they do best... blowing bubbles!

Suzy loves riding in the boat too. I think she likes the wind in her face and going fast. She is my little dare devil, for sure.  

Yay for riding in the boat! 

Sitting with PawPaw! 

Solving all the world's problems...... 

Dance! Dance! 

Co-Captain Suzy! 

God, I love her.

I had made the complaint that I don't have enough pictures of myself and Scott with Suzy, because we are always the ones taking the pictures. Laurie took my camera and got some great ones for me that weekend. Good friends think about stuff like that. I didn't know she had taken so many. I am glad she did.

Had to have a ring pop from all the bubble blowing and boat riding! 

2 of my very favorite people..... Sue Baby and PawPaw.

She loves laying/sitting on our legs and us to drop her in the water. The simple things....... 

After a nice weekend on the water it was time to wrap up the fun. The only way you can successfully "call it a day" is with an ice cream sammy, of course! Lucy made sure she was sitting close by, just in case Suzy wanted to share. She's a smart little pup. We took the sad trip up the steps to the house for the last time Sunday afternoon. We love going to the lake. It is the perfect "getaway". I am so thankful that Memaw, Papa, Mimi, and PawPaw decided to buy it. We have already made some of the best memories there. We are super pumped about spending the week of July 4th there again. This will be Suzy's second Fourth of July there.... oh the memories are being made!!

She just HAD to try on Laurie's hat! 

The Crescent City Classic- Part II

The girls and I spent the rest of our weekend away purely enjoying the sites. We did a little shopping, sight seeing, and a lot more eating!

 After walking around the French Market, we headed to Cafe Du Monde. Kalon and been wanting to go there ever since we pulled into New Orleans. Her wish was granted! We munched on some fabulous beignets. They were DIVINE!

I think we may have liked them! 

 After leaving Cafe Du Monde, we took a stroll by the river on the way to our car. We had to stop for a photo op. The bridge behind us..... That's the lovely Mississippi River Bridge that we ran the night before :)

We then headed to find a trolley stop. Someone told us that we should just ride the trolley around New Orleans because it would take us to see everything we would want to see. It didn't. It was fun, but it didn't show us anything we wanted to see.
The trolley dropped us back off at the car and we headed to the hotel to get dressed for the evening. We didn't have any major plans. All we wanted was something divine for supper. Big Sue (Mimi) requested a steak. We researched where to go, but all the top restaurants that served steaks were closed on Sundays. We decided we would go back to the area we rode the trolley through and try out one of those restaurants. As we were paying a meter for a cute little restaurant, some locals came by to inform us we didn't have to pay on Sundays. They also told us we really probably didn't want to go to the restaurant we had scouted out. It was a Mexican joint. They told us where their favorite place to get a steak was, so we took their advice and headed in the correct direction.

YYYUUUUUUMMMMMMMY!!!! 

Look at Mrs. Cindy's Bloody Mary glass, then look at KK's...... She was having FUN! 

That little dive bar had awesome food! We will definitely visit it when we go back! Good food, good music, and good drinks--- exactly what we wanted! Well, I said good music... but one song was horrendous. The lyrics were awful, the meaning was awful, but the beat was something that Mrs. Cindy just couldn't get enough of. She was dancing and carrying on to the tune exclaiming how much she loved it. We finally asked her if she knew what they were saying; she didn't have a clue. We told her the artist was saying, "Lap Dances are so much better when the stripper is crying". She misheard us and thought we said, "Lap dances are so much better when the stripper is dry". Needless to say, we laughed about that forever!! God love her. She just liked the beat of the song...... She didn't love the song as much after we explained the lyrics, but it was still hilarious!

That was our last night in NOLA. We headed home the next morning to see if my house was still standing. Scott and Gigi took care of Suzy while I was gone. Scott was such a good little Daddy. He took her to the country club pool, around town, and played with her until he had worn himself out. When I got home the trash can that goes in Suzy's room was in the BFI can outside. He didn't even know he had put it in there. He also forgot to tell me that we were out of milk. I found out when I was making Suzy's bedtime bottle. Not a happy Suzy OR Mama! When I got home Suzy was a little mad at me. She didn't want to have anything to do with her Mama. She. Was. Mad. After about 10 minutes she warmed up to me and forgave me, thank goodness! It is hard leaving her, but some time a way from home does me so much good!

We had a little photo session and a Popsicle when we got home :)

The Crescent City Classic- Part 1

After my first week of conferences I had an exciting weekend. Kalon, Lauren, Cindy (Kalon's mom), Mimi, and I headed to New Orleans for The Crescent City Classic 4-Mile Run. We left Friday morning and headed South to pick up Mrs. Cindy. She eagerly hopped in the car and off we went. Lauren planned this trip for us, because she said that it would be a "fun run". Well, we will talk about how "fun" it was later...... 

We got to New Orleans just in time to pick up or race packets at a fitness center. When we left the center we decided that we would try to figure out where we would be running the following day. We thought we had a pretty good idea of the surroundings and headed to our rooms. We got to the Wyndham to be pleasantly surprised at the location and how nice everything was. They were actually filming the next Planet of the Apes movie a block from where we were staying. At night, you could see them filming.

We made it!!! 

Besides the run, food was the most important thing on our agenda. We didn't care what we did; we just wanted good food! We lucked up every single time that we picked somewhere to eat. The first night we were there was my favorite by far. Kalon and I split Mardi Gras Pasta, fried turtle, and some divine cheesecake. To. Die. For.

Heading to dinner! 

Of course, we had to stop and be tourists at the shops we passed on the way to the restaurant!  KK and Mrs. Cindy thought they were something, didn't they? 

Mrs. Cindy and Laurie. 

Mrs. Cindy bought this VooDoo doll. It was her very first purchase. I am pretty sure she has already tested it out. 

The first Bloody Mary of the trip! 

Our fun little group!! 

No words needed. 

After filling our bellies, we took Mrs. Cindy down Bourbon Street. She hadn't been to New Orleans since she was 18 years old, so she didn't have much recollection of how the city was. We wandered up and down the street and ended up in Pat O's.

The waiter at Pat O's rubbed us the wrong way, so we didn't stay long. We each had a drink and called it a night. It was the right decision! We didn't need to get too out of hand before the big event Saturday.

We decided that we wouldn't do too much Saturday before the run, so we had a very late breakfast (we all slept in) at the cafe in our hotel, and then strolled around Canal Street and some of The French Market. We had to go back to the room pretty early to get dressed for the run.

Our little cafe downstairs of the hotel rooms was awesome. It was great every single time we ate it! 

We begged Laurie to wear a matching tank too, but she was far too cool for that :) We had a friend applique' the state of MS to our tanks for us. I think they turned out adorable! 

We were ready!!

We did our research and read the itineraries that they sent us about the run, and decided it would be best if we parked at the finish line and shuttled to the starting line. Mrs. Cindy and Mimi stayed at the finish line to wait for us to arrive. We stood in a looooong line to squeeze onto a school bus to be taken to the starting point. 

Some of the line.... 

Lauren, Kalon, and I got off the bus and headed for the Port-A-Jane line. Any bathroom that can be moved to a different location within an hour is disgusting, but add New Orleans heat, a bunch of drunk folks, and humidity.... it is a recipe for G.R.O.S.S. After dealing with all that we were ready to start. The first mile and a half (approx) was running UP the Mississippi River Bridge. Running up was definitely grueling, but it was nothing compared to what was coming. After 1.5 miles, the run that Lauren said would be "fun" was whipping my white tail! Usually, after about 2 miles I am fine. I think that is the hardest part to me. Thankfully, around the half way point I started just rolling with the motions and the pain started going away. Kalon and I stayed with each other for the most part, so we got to stop in the middle of the bridge to take a picture (we weren't concerned about our time in this event).

We had finished half of the four mile run by this time, I believe. 

The uphill was the hardest part for me, but Kalon and Lauren said that going down the bridge was the hardest part for them. Lauren actually hurt her knee pretty bad coming down, so it slowed her down a lot. We all three finished it! I couldn't believe that my tail even crossed the finish line. I didn't think I'd ever see it. June heat in New Orleans at 6:00 PM  is nothing I want to run in again (or at least anytime this year)!

Waving to Mimi! 

We needed those bananas BAD! We replenished while we waiting on Laurie!

Mrs. Cindy was the photographer again (she was for The Color Run too). My mom and her listened to the major athletes as they were crossing the finish line (waaaaaay before we did). They said that everyone was complaining about how hard that run was. I am hear to tell ya, IT WAS HARD. 

Lauren crossed the finish line and was heading to sit down. She was in  major pain! I had to stop her. She never even saw us! 

She wouldn't let us take any pictures after the run. She just was not feeling up to pictures. We got ONE!

Bless her bones! She stopped there to catch her breath then started stretching that knee out. She got up looking everywhere in a panic for her sunglasses...... see if you can find them...... She apparently just chunked them down when she got to a place that wasn't to crowded to take a breather. 

 After the run, we had to go wait in line for our t-shirts and such. While waiting a boat came by spraying this! Isn't it pretty!!

We left the venue and headed to a Shell station that we spotted as we were pulling in to NOLA. All we wanted was a HUGE fountain drink and some cold A/C. When we were in there, the store clerk asked if we had run the race. We explained that we had and his exact words were, "hell, I done walked that bridge and that was hard, so I know damn well running it would be hard"..... Those were the words of someone who felt our pain!