NOLA #14

A few weeks ago my whole family went to NOLA for the National Championship game. It was honestly the 2nd best trip I've ever been on besides my honeymoon. Boredom was the last thing I can say happened, there is so much to do there. Constant entertainment! And the great part about it was that we could sleep as long/short as we wanted and then get up and go do whatever. No itineraries, schedules, or specific times to be somewhere (besides the game, of course).

Here is the fortune teller/palm reader we went to. He was pretty good & knew we had 2 children 1 girl, 1 boy but then he said I was 5-10 days preggo with my 3rd and we about paniced. Thankfully, he was wrong on that!!

 More street entertainers...

 Eating lunch at Turtle Bay. We ate here twice in one day it was so good.

 The whole family all in one place at one time, doesn't happen very often these days.

 Kinda creepy, not sure what this guy was?

 We met up with all of our next door neighbors later on for a fun night.

 This is the stage of the bar we stayed at pretty much the entire time. It was called The Beach and it was seriously like a University of Alabama Alumni party in there. We saw so many people we knew!

 Jeremy pulled out the camera right away and so I smiled. I was confused about why he was dying laughing until I looked back at what was behind me. Whoops!

Game day!! Hanging out at the Super Dome Allstate Party!

 So much fun....I can hardly stand looking at these pictures without dying to go back.

 Aimee, me, Uncle Barry, Aunt Dory, and Aunt Di.

 Alabama fans were way outnumbered at the Dome. Look at all the purple & yellow.

 It was seriously almost a joke at how outnumbered we were.

 Taco Bell had a table where you could walk up and get free tacos and you could go back as many times as you wanted. Such a great thing on a day like that. It saved many people from drinking too much.

 The Coach's trophee

 Love this with the Super Dome behind us

 The LSU version of Hugh Hefner (he asked to take a picture with us, we didn't volunteer)

 Hightower's sister and family.



And this was the last picture before everyone headed into the game.

And to top this trip off, my Alma Mater won yet another National Championship!!! # 14!! I couldn't believe it and seriously didn't even start celebrating until about 4 minutes left to go in the game. Even though the score didn't seem close it was still so nerve wracking the entire time.

ROLL TIDE!!! And Congratulations Bama!!

JaRae's Wedding

A few weeks ago we flew to Minnesota for my cousin JaRae's wedding. She was one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen. And her mom owns a salon!! How cool is that?? So all of the bridesmaids got to get their hair, make-up & nails done too.

Formal weddings in Minnesota are done differently than weddings down here, but my little sister is considering trying to incorporate these northern parties down here when she starts her wedding planning (hopefully soon ;)). They have the wedding at 2pm in the afternoon and then go bar hopping on party buses in between the wedding and reception. Then there is a sit down dinner at 6:00pm followed by dancing and reception. It's a good way to make your wedding day worth the money you pay instead of just a few hours and it also gives kids/parents time to go home and change clothes and nap in between.

Isn't her hair so cool & different?!

 The bridesmaids wore sunflowers in their hair which went perfectly with their yellow dresses. So summery!

 their first dance

 Once again, love love love the hair! So unique! Her hair is usually really straight and long so it was so different to see this on her.And this picture below is my absolute favorite!

 Father/Daughter dance

This is Taylor, the sister of the bride and maid of honor.

Bar hopping in between the wedding and reception. Of course, we had to go to the "Bar and Grill" places because of kids, but it was still so much fun!

 Uncle Mickey and Maci Rose

 We partied the night away. I havent had that much fun dancing at a wedding in a long time.

There were these little puppies there that Maci Rose threw a fit begged to bring home. She literally woke up and went to sleep every.single.day. asking to bring one home. I mean how do you explain to a 3 year old that you are in another state?? She thought we were up in the sky and then the airplane was going to take us back down to the ground and home. I tried explaining a million times. So frustrating!! needless to say, she didn't get to take one home.

 

 At Uncle Mickey's cookout.

We had so much fun and always enjoy every second we are up there!! They provide tons of entertainment! I have over 100 family members that all live in one small town called Buffalo. This is my moms side of the family or I guess you can say my grandmother's side?? Her 5 siblings & their kids and grandkids & great grandkids!! Can't wait to go back! We miss you guys already!

FOJ 2011

This year we got to spend the 4th of July with aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, siblings & grandparents at the beach!! And a good time was had by all!

Here are some of the 1 million beach pictures I took....



On our way down to the beach for the first time

 My dad...the whitest full blooded Italian I know!

(yes, seriously this is how he came out to the beach every time)

 My family played a game to see how many people they could fit into this boat at one time before it turned over, I think the record was 18....pretty impressive!

 My aunt was burried as a mermaid and Maci Rose loved it...

 So she went next!

 Thanks to Uncle Matt Matt for letting her wear your sunglasses!

 Hunting for crabs

 Me & my crazy aunt!

 Playing yard darts or "sand darts"

 Minus the "sweaty-ness" I think this is a cute picture....I swear it was 180 degrees at this place. It was called The Hangout and it was a lot of fun but they seriously DO NOT have air conditioner. They have huge open windows to let the breeze in from the beach. I don't know how the servers do it!!

 Aimee and her boyfriend Matt

 Haha....Aunt Neisa in rare form!

 and again...

 About 1/4th of the crowd with us

 3 generations! (My mom, me, sister, Aimee & Maci Rose) If only we could have convinced my grandmother (who was fully clothed and sitting in the shade) to get at the very bottom we would have had 4 generations (if she could survive the weight).

 Maci Rose could have collected sea shells literally for 24 hours straight. I'm tempted to get a sandbox in our backyard and hide her sea shells in there and have her find them again. Kept her entertained for hours!!

 My favorite part...around 6:30 when the sun went down & we were all feeling "good". The weather was so enjoyable and everything was so humorous! Can't even tell ya what was so funny but sure do miss those fun nights with all my family around!

 Great pic Matt!

 My sweet girl! Maybe it was because I didn't have Carter around for this trip, but seriously Maci Rose was perfect! Not a complaint or peep outta this kid. Everyone can agree. She's definitely a beach baby!

 Our famous pose we've been doing since our 4th date!

 Cousins.

 My sexy man

 She did this for hours

 Yummy FOJ treats!

 Watching the fireworks!

I hope you all had a great 4th as well!!

On another note, my camera broke the weekend we got back and I just got a new one this past weekend. So I've been a few weeks with only an I-phone camera. It was long overdue!! I still have a lot of learning, but hope to be back to blogging with some better pictures soon. It's fun to adjust the lighting & try out different settings but I'm not good at it yet.