ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

We spent a few hours in the French Quarter area this morning and early afternoon. Andy's brothers all took pics too so I may add more of theirs later. Some of my pics...

David and Andy, in their matching red shirts.




By the Mississippi River...













We didn't have a real goal in touring but just wanted to walk around. The only thing specific I wanted to find was beignets which we did and ate in the courtyard area of a small restaurant (Andy's brothers have pics so I'll post those later). We also ate at a little restaurant bar so the guys could catch part of today's NFL draft.

Naptime now and wedding later. Hopefully I'll be able to post some of those pics later tonight. We leave tomorrow morning early.

Thursday night, I picked up two of Andy's brothers, their girlfriends and Andy's mom at the airport. Andy stayed at home to get some sleep so he could drive the next morning. I ended up staying up w/his brothers and their girlfriends most of the night and Andy was up before 4 and ready to drive. So off we went w/5 of us very, very tired while Andy drove us to New Orleans. Had an easy drive, drove on the longest bridge we've ever been on and ended up getting in around 2. Some pics I took as we drove in....



Huge tombs...


After some lunch and a nap, we were off to the rehearsal dinner which was held at La Maison de Creole. It was a beautiful venue with fantastic food (including beans and rice, jambalaya, etc.). Some pics of our time there...


Andy's brother, Nick...


Andy's brother, Mark and his girlfriend Liz...


Andy's brother, David, with the groom, Tony...


David and Tony again with their friend Jimmy...


Jimmy introduced Tony to Angela and they made a bet that if they got married, Tony would give Jimmy his Yoda so this is him officially giving it to him...



The couple making announcements, giving out gifts to the wedding party, etc.


After the dinner, it was decided that we'd go to Harrah's casino downtown. I wasn't terribly excited since it didn't seem uniquely New Orleans but it ended up being very fun and gave us a chance to see downtown...and Andy and I both won some money! Some pics of our night out downtown...

On our walk from the parking garage to the casino...



They had one room that had great dance music playing with girls dancing on platforms. They had a small dance floor that I went out on for a bit...


Band that walked the aisles playing music...


Bridges at night on the way home...


Tomorrow - French Quarter and the wedding!

At least that's what Blake keeps calling them (he means tornadoes). We took cover twice today due to tornado warnings as three storm systems pushed their way through this area. We were just at the tail end of most of the systems so we didn't get the worst of it but tornadoes were spotted within 10 miles of where we live. I snapped one pic and I'm not sure you can tell that it's pouring down torrential rain in this pic with some small sized hail but you'll just have to trust me. :)

The decreased swelling was especially good news since our school district was out on Monday for a teacher inservice and I really wanted to take the kids to Fossil Rim since Payton hadn't been on the last two visits. She wanted to invite Aubry since Aubry had never been and because she said that she wants to spend as much time with Aubry as she can before she lives farther away.

So off we go to Fossil Rim and had a really great day together. Some pics from our day (Payton took nearly every picture that she isn't in)...











At the halfway point, we always stop at this overlook which contains a restaurant and there's a gift shop close by.


And always take a pic from this spot at the overlook...


The always fascinating pressed penny machine that all the kids got souvenirs from...


While we were touring Fossil Rim, I made a deal with the kids that the girls could sit in the back and Blake would sit up front with me (just while touring since maximum speed is usually 10mph). Blake initially was concerned ("what if the airbag goes off and hurts me?") but then was so excited as he's never sat up front before.


Beautiful view...


More animals...




At the end, we stopped at the Koi Pond to feed the fish and explore the picnic area a bit.