Ana and Alex’s Visit to Atlanta!

First of all I need to say “Hi Ana” my number one blog follower apparently (next to mom)!

That’s right! Apparently Tara made it her homepage and she checks it daily! So each picture I took of the kids this weekend (which was a ton) Ana would follow by asking “Is this going to be in your blog Mrs. Jen”?

Yes, baby it sure is!

…and Hi Alex in case you see this too!!

(No worries Nicole- this was only a pellet gun and Lou made him wear safety goggles- promise)

You guys were so sweet loving all over Tucker and Milly this weekend, using them for a pillow every time they layed down :)

Ana even tried to help Milly potty in the rain -which Milly hates doing-  So Ana held up an umbrella for her :)

…..and Miss Tara was so sweet to spend 8 hours in the car with these munchkins just so Lou and I could see our loves for the weekend :) As you can see Friday it poured and we spent most of the time- yes all of us- asking “When is Lou going to get home” which I do even if the kids aren’t there :) because we were starving and Ana/mini me ofcourse wanted Mexican :)

That’s my girl!

Saturday was the real deal:   

We woke up, cooked cinnamon rolls & bacon (ana loves it), braced ourselves, and headed to White Water!

  THEY COULD NOT WAIT TO BE THERE :)

Sneaky Miss Tara snapped this one of me and Ana racing down the slide!!

I guess She knows now that I lied when I told her she “won”…….whoops! Go Ana!

Seems like just yesterday she would not go down the Beaumont slide and now look at her!

I think the lazy river was Ana’s favorite, she swam like a mermaid with the current so it makes you feel like you are swimming super fast!

Speaking of Mermaids….. Ana and Alex fell in love with our “Netflix” …. Ana especially fell in love with A particular show about Mermaids and I think it may possibly have been the reason for Tara’s migraine by the second day she was with us :)

I have to admit I was a little into the show….

Notice TJ down below in his favorite spot :) Hope no one wanted to put their feet on the floor….

Anyway back to Saturday:

We went to the Marietta Square with a plan in mind…

Pizza and Ice cream!

(The picture taken above was the 3rd camera phone picture they were asked to say cheese for during one sitting- sorry kids!)

Cookies and Cream seemed to be a hit for this crew!

Then we promised Lou and Alex that we would take them to the coolest boys store in the world:

(Actually Lou begged us to take him, it’s in Kennesaw so anytime we are remotely close to Kennesaw the begging begins…)

   Hobby Town- they loved it!

(Huge train track above)

Ana and I decided we needed to re-capture our feminine side after the boy store and that meant we had to go home and make confetti cupcakes with sprinkles!

Ana did EVERYTHING herself, including telling me we should replace the water with milk because that’s what mommy does :)

The boys took a five minute break all together from playing with Lou’s helicopter to smell our yummy cupcakes and to each eat one!

Even though it was not a boyish activity, TJ decided he wanted to help his mom and Ana….

Actually that little lover boy has been a lot more “into” food lately……..

He is obviously taking after his sister and it worries me to have two “Millys” in the house, we may go broke!

Ana takes after me when it comes to feeling sorry for that fat little mill’s…. “yes Ana she can lick it”

Great job on the cupcakes Ana, they are beautiful!!

YUMMMMMMMM :)

Then it was onto NAILS…..

(can you tell i NEED a littel girl?)

…and popsicles and fire flies (the bug not drink, I promise)…..

Which are actually EVERYWHERE (fire flies that is) in Atlanta and yet never seen in Statesboro!!

As you can see the next morning Milly still had her eye on the prize… cupcakes!     

I can’t blame her though, she had a mild case of depression the whole weekend from having to share her mom and her moms bed!

No worries she is all better now after re- claiming her spot in the bed and getting her usual “extra” amounts of attention :)

Sunday, Alex T. was quite the gentleman allowing us girls to go crazy in Claire’s

Imagine that Ana’s favorite store was my favorite store too “back in the day”… or so I thought….

Nope, wrong, apparently it still is now!! WOW, I had no idea what I was missing these last 5 or so years, besides flashbacks of junior high, Claires still has ADORABLE accessories which I still love!!! I ended up being the only one to blow 30$ in a teeny bopper store!

Imagine that!?!?

(BTW Ana loves Lady Gaga so we impersonated her above)

Lou tells me all the time I am a teeny bopper at heart and warned me I may have flash backs when I take her there :)

So I told him it’s his fault that I am 25 and still a teeny bopper- bc people tend to stay stuck in the stage of life that was their “favorite” or that s/t great happened to them in and that was mine- After all, thats when I met Lou and I was SUCH the pre-teen- teeny bopper :)

After Claires we met the boys and Rachel at the pool before Tara had to take the kids home and guess who I mean by boys….

Andy, Lou and ANDREW!!!!

I swear that boy just keeps getting taller and taller!

Ohh how we missed Andrew!

And the misschief those boys get into when they are together…

Good boy Alex, you sit and watch the crazies and do not EVER try this at home :)

There’s Andrew trying to get into the tube for their next mission…

Making a wave pool- who needs white water when you have these boys and a few floats to make waves! Literally with in about 5 minutes of the boys jumping up and down with the floats it was going like crazy!

It was one of the greatest “presents” in the world to have the kids brought to me in Atlanta!

However, I now know why my dad hated taking us to theme parks…. waiting in line for over an hour for each ride which last about 30 seconds!! Not to mention other “things” at the theme park I could do with out but Ana and Alex will discover the rest on their own when they are parents/babysitting at a theme park one day :)

All in all, we had a great time with you guys and can’t wait for you to visit us again :)

We love you!!

Nawlins’

I’m home safe and sound! I was smothered with kisses and cuddles Thursday night and when I got home and  it could not have been a sweeter home coming!

As for New Orleans, mom and I had decided to see just how much we could pack into a 3 day trip and had a blast doing so!

Also, let me just say, the last time I was in new Orleans I was way to young to fully understand what goes on there!

IT DOES NOT STOP!!

All day and all night those bars and restaurants are open and poppin’!

As for my first solo plane ride was awful, the last 30 minutes of it I contemplated where the most proper place is to throw up on a plane if you are supposed to be buckled in ready for a landing!!?!?

It was such a rocky ride due to the thunderstorms but as promised all my fears subsided when I found mom waiting at the baggage claim!!

I was so relieved to be on ground and could not wait to do everything your “supposed to do/eat” while in New Orleans, which is a LOT… trust me, we had a mental list!

But first we had to check out our room which was in a great location, right between the River Walk and all the shops, bars and restaurants of downtown!

We got so excited each night as we walked home because we got to come home to these comfy beds!

….and our view wasn’t so bad either… it was on the 21st floor!!! ;) There was also an entire mall in out hotel! How perfect for our girls trip, as you can imagine we stayed VERY busy!  

Our hotel was beautiful but we refused to “waste” any time in there!

We had sight seeing to do and I had the whole first day free of meetings to explore!

oh yes and eating, a lot of eating!

Gumbo at the “Gumbo Pot” along with shrimp po boys was our first “Nawlins” meal!

Then we walked to the open air market and needed a “snack” also known as pralines :)

We tried, hazelnut, macadamia nut, peanut butter, rum and original…. the rum and original praline won!

then it was back to sightseeing….. this was pretty much the routine of our whole 3 days there, sight see, eat, shop, snack, eat!

  We shopped our feet off that first day and mom spent most of the time while I was in my meetings “recovering” from it!! Apparently we did not have on our proper walking shoes and I’m sure passing my purse back and forth between us which weighed about 20 pounds didn’t help!

However, it had only been a day and there was still many things left on the list of “what you do/eat in new Orleans” that needed to be done…..

So “Bourbon street to dine on a balcony”: here we come!

….check :)

The next day was my first day of meetings and trainings, which went much better than expected!

“Fate” happened to be there as I sat right next to a woman who is completely into scrapbooking (which was my first love before blogging and possibly would still be now if only I had enough room in my house)! Turns out she used to blog to and promises to continue again so we swamped info and hope to keep in touch!

((HEY KEYSHA!!)

So anyway, she referred mom and I to eat lunch at the buffet inside the Harris Casino which was right across the street…..

Let’s just say I owe her one!

It was amazing and that plate of dessert was about my fifth time going up there!!!

They had everything you could ever ask for including another item on our list of things to do/eat: Bread Pudding!

That night we were [still] so miserable full from lunch we decided to hop around and have appetizers, drink and beignets for dinner!

We decided we would be healthy and have…..mojitos :)

Followed by this:

mmmm mmmm mmmm

….. which added another check to our list!

  At this point in the night we had already gotten stuck at Jimmy Buffett's due to the rain but managed to make it to Cafe Du Monde for Beignets… thinking we were safe…. but then it POURED!!!

So I convinced mom to take her first taxi ride in years :)  

The next day was our last, I had another day of meetings but only until 2 so as soon as it was over mom and I were off (literally running) to get the last thing on our list checked off: A “Hurricane” which was especially important since it was needed in order for me to get on the plane!  

ok, so Hurricane smothered cheesecake was not on our list but hey, why not?

It’s not like we said “no” to ANYTHING on the entire trip so why start now!?!?!

Mom and Alex and I often mentioned how of all the places we have traveled New Orleans definitely has the most “traditions” of things that you HAVE TO DO.

Bahamas: eat conch

St. Maarten: Drink Guavaberry Rum

Jamaica: jerk chicken

etc……

Anyway, finally it was time to say good bye, to New Orleans and mama!! I had the best time and couldn’t have picked a better person to go with!! We definitely accomplished a quite extensive list of things to eat do while we were there!

Thank you too New Orleans for being so good to me while I was away from my side kick and babies!!

Ohhh how I missed those kisses!!

As promised, Ana and Alex are here now thanks to Tara and we are off to Six Flags to enjoy a day of toilet bowl water rides!! :)  

That blog should be pretty interesting!