Vacation-Part 1

Hello world! After a long break, I am finnnnallllyyyy back. We returned from our whirlwind of a vacation last Wednesday, but after all of the unpacking and settling back in, I am just now getting around to posting about our trip. I'll admit, I have also been somewhat dreading the daunting task of posting this trip because it is going to be a novel. So, that is why I am going to break our trip up into 4 posts. Mainly to save my sanity, but also keeping the sanity of my lovely readers in mind :)

We blasted out of Wichita Falls on Friday (July 29) around 11:20 p.m. We fed Caroline her last feeding, put her in her carseat and hoped for the best. We made the journey to Lafayette and arrived a little after 7:00 the next morning. Caroline actually did great. She woke up once when we stopped for gas around 4:00 a.m., but I rigged her up a bottle, she ate a little, and she went right back to sleep. When we finally arrived in Lafayette, Pops practically ran out the door like his hair was on fire, grabbed the carseat (with Caroline in it), and took off back inside, all with barely a word in our direction. Steven and I just stood there in the driveway looking at each other. We see where we stand now :) Sugar had fixed a big breakfast for us, so we ate and went and caught a couple hours of sleep while Pops and Sugar took care of Caroline. Glorious.

We pretty much just lounged around the house the rest of the day. Caroline was eating up all of the attention from Sugar and Pops. Steven and I got ready and went out to our FIRST dinner sans baby. I'll admit, it was weird... We didn't even know how to act. We kept marveling at the fact that the other diners might look at us and think that we were just a "normal" couple. I guess in our eyes, "normal" now means "without children".

Anywhoo, we enjoyed an awesome seafood dinner at Don's there in Lafayette. Steven ordered the fried alligator (duh... I mean we were in the land of Swamp people... watch that show and you will understand a lot more about my crazy Cajun husband) and I had the fried oysters (don't judge... we were on vacation). Can I say how AMAZING it was to have fresh, albeit, fried seafood??? That is one of the things that I have missed most here in dry, hot, water barren, hot, dusty, dry, hot Wichita Falls.

After dinner, we headed to a little bar called The Wild Salmon to hear Steven's nephew's band, Pretty Price and the Shack Rockers, play. Pauly, said nephew, is awesome on the guitar. He has been playing in this band for a little while now, and we were so excited to go hear them play. All I have to say is..... WOW! They were phenomenal. I'm no music guru, but they really were outstanding. They play a little bit of everything from Elvis, to the Stones, oldies, and even a little disco. You can sing along to every song, which of course, I love (only when in places loud enough that others will not hear me). I will not be surprised at all when very soon, they are playing in New Orleans. Yeah, they are that good.

Pretty Price and the Shack Rockers
The lead singer, Jared, is the one in the middle. He is so good. He may be a big guy, but don't let that fool ya. The boy can move. And he can sing like no other. Pauly is to the left of Jared.

Pauly
This kid is absolutely amazing. For what he has been through, (liver and kidney transplant when he was just a wee babe), he has such an amazing attitude and heart. He is going to school at UL right now, but the band is his passion. It makes Steven and I SO proud to see him doing something he truly loves.

This is Jesse. Not only does he play the keyboard, but he also plays the sax. Not only does he play the sax, but he plays 2 saxophones AT THE SAME TIME!!!! I can't even play one saxophone...

Steven and I with the man, Pauly, after the show

One of Steven's biggest wishes has always been to have his Granny (on his mom's side; his only living grandparent) hold/see his baby. Granny is 93 years old and is living in a nursing home in Abbeville. Unfortunately, she is no longer the vibrant Granny Steven remembers. Old age can be so cruel. Never the less, we still took Caroline to see Granny on Sunday.

This little lady had 8 children of her own and has somewhere around 44 grandchildren, approximately 48 great grandchildren, and about 5 great-great grandchildren (sorry for the estimates-I asked Steven here next to me and you know how men are with details). Needless to say, this woman has rocked and bounced more babies than I can count.

I never knew the Granny that Steven talks about, but I would love to have known her. She sounds like such a neat little lady. And tough. You would have to be to have 8 kids.... Without the miracles of modern medicine.

After the visit to Granny's, we headed back to Sugar and Pops' house to rest up and get ready for the next leg of our trip the next morning.

Caroline played...

And I played with Caroline. I know, cheesy pic, but how could I resist with that adorable little smile??? You know I am a sucker for that smile because I posted a picture of my side profile, which I loathe.

Well, that does it for Part 1. Check back soon for the next thrilling installments of the Broussard Family Vacation. And this time I promise it wont' take me 3,000 years to make the next post :) Toodles!

And we're off... Almost...

I will be taking a little break from blogging for the next week or so. We are leaving on vacation tonight and we could not be more excited to blast out of Wichita Falls! We're going to Destin, FL, but we're driving to Lafayette tonight to stay with Steven's parents. We're going to leave around 10:30 or 11:00 tonight, after we feed Caroline for the last time. We figure since she can sleep the whole time, this will be the easiest way to get her through the 9 hour drive to Lafayette. But, nothing ever goes according to plan with babies, so we shall see. We will be leaving Lafayette for Destin Monday morning and spending the entire week there. I am SO excited to see water again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I might just die right there on the beach.

I'm taking my computer with me, but let's face it, I'm probably not going to be on it much when the beach is right outside my door... I'll save that for when we get back to dry, dusty, hot as hell, dry, boring, (did I say dry already?), Wichita Falls.... (You want to know how I really feel?) Did I mention that we are really excited to get out of here for a little bit? No? Well, we are.

So, pray for us as we make a loooonnggg drive with a 4 1/2 month old... And pray that I haven't forgotten anything. With a list about 4 typed pages long, I feel more like I'm preparing to go to a third world country for 2 months. So seriously, pray that I haven't forgotten anything because I'm not sure my type A ego or my sanity could take that blow :) Tah-tah for now!

Finding her voice...

Back in my college days, my friends would always tease me that not only would I have children (up until about 3 years ago, I swore I wouldn't... and I meant it... funny how things change:), but that my children would do crazy things in public to just absolutely humiliate me. Well, Caroline has officially earned her first badge, thanks to her *adorable* new trick.

We now have a squealer on our hands. Steven must have let Caroline watch Dumb and Dumber, because Caroline has been doing her best to imitate Jim Carrey's "Most Annoying Sound in the World" (If you don't remember what I'm talking about, watch the youtube video below to jog your memory).

Almost overnight, Caroline went from being our sweet, quiet little girl to a loud, rambunctous... baby... I am now kicking myself for at one point almost bragging that we could pretty much go wherever we wanted with Caroline in tow, and most of the time people would never know she was even there. We never even thought twice about going out to eat because she was content to just hang out in her carseat and observe or play with a toy. Well, last week, she found her voice and started making these really shrill squealing noises. At first, I thought she was unhappy, but once I just took a step back, I saw that she was just talking to whatever toy she happened to be looking at or playing with at the time.

I didn't feel like cooking last Friday, so we just went to Pizza Hut (hey, give me a break... we're talking about Wichita Falls here). I spent most of the meal outside with her because she was being so loud. Yes, I know, it is a public place and it's not like Pizza Hut is a place that people really go for the atmosphere, but I am super paranoid and maybe a little too considerate of other people when it comes to my child. I didn't want to ruin other people's dinner, so I took Caroline outside to squeal her heart out. Steven and I kinda shrugged the incident off as just "one of those days". The next day, our friends invited us to go out to dinner so we went. On the way to the restaurant, we wondered if it would be a repeat of the previous night. Annndddd it was. And of course, we go to the one restaurant that did not have ANY music playing.. Not even elevator music. So, all the noise that my Sweet Caroline made seemed that much louder. I wanted to crawl under the table. And like I said, she wasn't unhappy, she was just talking to her toy... I don't know what the toy did wrong, but I would not have wanted to be on the receiving end of that squeal.

And of course, when I tried to video her, she just sat silently and looked at me. I tried several times, and I managed to get a little bit in the following video. Seriously though, doesn't she kind of sound like Jim Carrey???

As *adorable* as that noise is, I am happy to report that Caroline isn't practicing it as much any more. I know I am probably crazy, but I swear her "regular" voice sounds different now. It is a little lower and not as squeaky. So, maybe this was just a very short phase and she was just clearing out her lungs... Here's hoping :)

My Loves

I was doing some stuff around the house the other day when I heard Steven playing with Caroline. They were having the best time and Caroline was giggling up a storm. I am not really a mushy person, but there is nothing better than the sound of a baby's giggle, especially when it is coming from your own little nugget.

I love these two :)

Caroline kept trying to chew on Steven's face, despite his 5 o'clock shadow

Buddies

Caroline has grown increasingly interested in the dogs. She has shown the most interest in Jack, I think because he has all of that crazy hair that she likes to grab. However, the other day, she was playing on her activity mat, and of course, Fred was as close as he could possibly be without me telling him to get off the mat. Caroline was being a little rolly polly, and playing with her toy and she finally rolled over to where Fred was. She had been chattering away, and then all of a sudden, she just stopped. When I looked to see what was going on, she was just staring at Fred. Then, she just started chattering away again. I think if she could have figured out how to scoot over to him, she would have latched onto those big floppy ears. But instead, she just jabbered on and on to him. The funny thing is, he never even woke up :)

"What? I'm just hanging out, playing with my crazy ball, and trying to get this big brown sea cow to wake up and entertain me."

"Hey YOU!"

Rice Cereal

Now that Caroline is 4 months old, it is time to start her on rice cereal. From rice cereal, she will transition into veggies and then certain fruits. I can't believe the time is almost here for her to eat real food! I thought it would never come!

About to get started... Leaning over to take a look at what she's about to eat
First bite... That face was priceless. Needless to say, she wasn't too fond of her first bite of cereal. She just scrunched up her face and looked at me like "Mom! What is this garbage you are putting in my mouth?!"

Most of it went in... and came right back out

"If you think I'm going to eat the rest of that slop, you're crazy."

By the time it was all said and done, she had it EVERYWHERE. I guess I just better get used to that :)

We're still trying to get a little cereal in every night, but it is a slow process. Caroline still isn't crazy about cereal (and honestly, from the looks of it, I can't blame her), but we're making strides.

A Visit from Papa Ed

Since we moved to Wichita Falls, we have had a regular visitor: Papa Ed. My dad has a cattle sale in Ft. Worth every couple weeks, so on his way to Ft. Worth from New Mexico, he stops in and stays a night with us.

Now that Caroline is getting bigger, Dad is a little more comfortable holding her for longer periods. He still passes her back to me when she starts to make any noise though :)

Having fun with Papa Ed

On his way to Wichita Falls, my dad stopped and got Caroline a little baby doll. She giggles and makes all kinds of noises when you squeeze her. It is still a little big for Caroline, but she LOVES it! She will sit in her chair and chatter away to her baby doll. But her favorite thing is to chew on the doll's hands. It keeps her entertained for quite awhile!

What?



Loves her new baby!

Staring contest

My dad won't be back until some time this fall, but we are already looking forward to his visit!