And I know we've been terrible about posting on this blog for quite a while now. Fortunately, Sharolyn reminded me when we visited them last month. As most of you know, we've moved to Louisiana and so far, we are really loving it. Scott is working at the Schlumberger offices in New Orleans and we live about 40 miles away in Slidell. He has about an hour commute to work, depending on traffic and is really enjoying his work life. The boys and I have settled in. We moved here at the end of May just in time for the beginning of a really hot, humid summer. We spent most of our time at the pool at the gym and making new friends there. Xavier started Taikwondo shortly after we got here and now has his cub green belt. He also started a new preschool this fall and is learning a lot! One of the things he's learning is how to talk with a southern accent, which I'm not too sure about. Toby is our little handful. He loves doing whatever Xavier does and wrestling with his dad. While Xavier's at preschool, Toby and I go to story time at the library or various playdates with our new play group we joined. It was a little difficult for me at first because I forgot how to get out and meet new people. I had such a great support group of mommies in Alaska, that I didn't think about how much I would miss them. I finally found a group of mommies and kiddos that I really like and that has made all the difference.
Since we moved here, we have made a couple road trips and head into New Orleans for family fun a couple times a month. We've been to see Nate and Sharolyn a couple times. They let us crash at their place last month while we were on the way to visit my Grandma Helen in Sioux City, Iowa. Which we were especially thankful for. The boys were appreciative of the dinosaurs for the road trip, but Scott and I may have gotten a little tired of the constant roaring ;) Thanks guys! We also drove to Houston, TX to visit with my old friend Aryn and her boys. It was during Tropical Storm Lee and we decided to just get out of town for the weekend. There was some flash flooding near our house, but no major damage. We are happy we made it through our first hurricane season without any troubles.
We've also discovered a ton of kid-friendly activities in NOLA. We love going to the zoo and the aquarium. It's nice because if you have a family membership to the zoo, you get into the aquarium for free. I think our membership has more than paid for itself at this point because we're there so often. There's a children's museum the boys love to run around and play at. I'm in love with City Park where there are parks with playground equipment, open areas to run and play, a place to rent paddle boats and get out on the lake, a Story Book Village where the kids can run through little houses and play structures based on Mother Goose stories, and even an amusement park area. I think if I would have toured City Park before moving here I would have been more excited about the prospect. During our house hunting trip, our hotel was right on Bourbon and it was a little overwhelming going to sleep and waking up to the sounds and smells of poor choices. I thought, "where are we moving our boys?" But once you're off Bourbon, it really is amazing. A really neat place.
Here's a couple pictures of our family since our move. The first one is of Toby at the pumpkin patch in Iowa. He had a fun time at the petting zoo area and kept picking corn from the corn maze and then taking it over to feed the animals.
This is Scott with the boys at the Insectarium for Crawl-o-ween. We were all suppose to be characters from the show Yo Gabba Gabba, but when Toby backed out, I did too. But Scott still dressed up as DJ Lance Rock because Xavier was Brobree and wanted his daddy to dress up with him. Best dad ever.
Scott has made it to a couple Saints games. He meets clients there as part of his job. I know, rough life. But he's been able to take Xavier to a couple games with him. This is what Xavier does at the games. Eats popcorn and chocolate.
