New Orleans!

Jason and I love the Phelps! About once a year we venture to Dallas to swim, play poker and just hang out. When we are with them we always have a great time and laugh a ton. I think back in August of last year we started talking about how we all wanted to visit New Orleans and a plan was hatched.

We decided to go for Jason's birthday and make it a weekend trip. We flew out Friday and met them in the airport. We immediately headed to a NO institution, Cafe Du Monde. We ordered their famous beignets (I think this might be the only thing on the menu).
They like their powdered sugar:
We then took a short walk over to the St. Louis Cathedral.
After exploring the Quarter for a few hours we ate lunch at Johnny's Po-Boys. We took ours to go and found a spot along the river.

After lunch we headed to the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. This cemetery is one of the most visited in the entire world. There were graves dating back to the 1700s. One of the graves had voodoo paraphernalia all around it. Jordan thought he might leave a business card like some others had chosen to do, until I looked up the grave on my iphone and determined it belonged to the most famous Voodoo Priestess. We decided it was in all of our best interest to just walk away!
Jason and Jordan enjoying a beer
We then headed to Magazine St. to the Bulldog pub:

For dinner we decided there were too many options. We started with appetizers at Bourbon House. We ordered Oysters for the table and while I typically don't care for Oysters, I have to admit they were decent.

For our main course we headed to the Gumbo Shop. Their Gumbo was good although, to be honest I think my father-in-law's is better. It just did not have as much flavor as I was expecting.
After dinner we headed to a balcony on Bourbon Street. Unexpectedly, a small "parade" made its way up the street throwing beads to the crowd:

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to a restaurant featured by this show:

I had the lost bread and it was fantastic!
We spent the first part of Saturday exploring Royal Street. We then decided to take a trolley down St. Charles Ave. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip. The weather was gorgeous, the houses were beautiful and it was a perfect way to take it all in. I had no idea that Loyola and Tulane were right next door to each other. I also had no idea how gorgeous both campuses were and it made me wish I had considered going to school there. We ate lunch at Parisol's (also featured on Triple D). Jason said his Roast Beef Po-Boy was outstanding. I thought the Po Boy from Johnny's was better.

For Jason's birthday dinner we headed to Galatoire's. We were told that we should expect to wait at least an hour before we could get a table (they don't take reservations). We headed to the bar after we were told it would be about an hour and a half. I had not taken a sip of my drink when they called our name! We were at our table in less than ten minutes, I think it is birthday luck!

The food here was exceptional and we all agreed it was our favorite meal. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had not been so full from all the other amazing food we had consumed!

If you celebrate your birthday at the restaurant the ENTIRE place sings you Happy Birthday. Here is Jason with his birthday cake:


The crew:
Pompano with crab meat on top:
My favorite part of the meal was the bananas foster bread pudding. I could not eat this fast enough (mostly because if I didn't eat fast Jason would have eaten my half too)!
This trip is one of my favorites that we have taken. I was really impressed with New Orleans. However, I do not plan on eating anything for the next week. I got off the plane, laced up my shoes and went for a run!

Thank you Phelps for the amazing weekend!

Girl's Weekend

This past weekend we headed up to Dallas to see the Allison family. Although four hours is still a long way, it is way better than having to fly to see them!

Blake sent Amy and I to the Elm Creek Manor for the night. We were greeted with these:
The views were amazing! We had the room on the third floor-it had a small patio that you could stand on and see for miles.
My iphone pictures don't really do the landscape justice. The sun set was nice but the view that unfolded after the sun went down was breathtaking. I could not believe the amount of stars that we could see from our patio. If it had not been so cold I would have slept outside just so I could sleep looking up. I stood on the patio and thanked God for his artwork!
We had a nice time meeting the other guests who were staying at the end. There were four couples (including us) and each of them had a fun story and were interesting. Here we are at our romantic dinner for two:
We were celebrating Amy's birthday so we had to have a cake with a candle!
While we were away the guys took care of the kiddos. Amy has three adorable kids but we were a little concerned about leaving the guys in charge of four kids under the age of six. However, we were happy to return to four kids all in one piece!

Davis had a blast playing with his friends. He hated to say good-bye. Group hug (just missing Reid):
We had a wonderful weekend and it was so great to get to spend some time with a lifelong friend!

Dates

Davis had a date with Mommy and Nana to see his first movie! We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks on New Year's Day. Davis did great for about 45 minutes or so then fell asleep! He slept through the remainder of the movie. Before he fell asleep we ate popcorn and drank lemonade-he had a ball! We practiced putting our finger over our mouth and saying "shhh!" before we left so there were several times during the movie he said "shhh!"Davis had so much fun on that date that he asked his little friend Ellen out for some milk and cake. What Davis loves about Ellen is she is not a salad girl-and she is not afraid to have anything in her teeth (or all over her face) :)
Notice the candle that was placed on the middle of the table for ambiance! Don't worry this was a chaperoned date!