Day 2,446

The Five Best Friends

Our first actual off day in over 20-something straight games and the ONLY off day of the month of May. Uhm, this was just a wee bit past due and we sure were ready for it! Lots of hanging, jumping, swimming, learning, cooking, and loving. Lord, this family is just THE BEST!!!

Day 2,445

The NOLA Fam

Here NOLA is again, making a believer out of this mama!

We’re in a cute Airbnb in a safe part of town (the birds on the power line came included for free!). 

It’s a home and that makes us feel more at home too. 



We’re soaking as much Dada time up as we can and loving being together again, even if that means sleeping on blow up mattresses, using black plastic table cloths as curtains, and driving twenty minutes to the city pool. 

Day 2,441

The Way We Travel These Days

Our 17 day escapade without Daddy is OVER! One mom, three babes, two strollers, four suitcases, three car seats, three backpacks, two diaper bags, one snack bag, and no timeline on our return. Being tired never felt so good because...DADA!!!!!!!!!!!! After all these years (6.5!) and I still get those same butterflies when I see him. Happy early Mother’s Day to meeeeeeeee!!! 

(Also, for anyone out there searching for the perfect and durable travel/everything stroller, the Baby Jogger City Select Lux is my greatest baby investment and lifesaver ever!!!! I call it my packing mule because....yeah look at it. That’s my stroller carrying three car seats, ANOTHER STROLLER on top, a diaper bag, three backpacks, and a snack bag.)



The smallest gifts are sometimes the biggest. Running on less than 8 hours of sleep over the last two days, this mama was exhausted, and her babes knew it. An hour and a half flight and an hour and a half nap for this mom and her three kids. Bliss. 

Day 2,422

The Gator 

Pontoonin’ the swamp with my favorites. 

Ella-mater Alligator was right at home. 

We saw big huge gators. Turtles. Snakes. 

Held a baby gator too!

I think this makes us swamp people. 



Daddy says, “I like it out here, but I prefer land. Thanks.” I tend to agree. Ella Mae too. 

Day 2,421

The Finest Coffee Around

Puccino’s: another NOLA gem. I’ve obsessed over their granita ever since I discovered it in 2015 and every time we get the lovely news that we’re heading back to my favorite place on earth, I look at Adam and confess, “Well, at least there’s Puccino’s!” And look, I even made believers out of my kids. Not that it was hard by any means. Their frozen “hot chocolate” is by every admission the tastiest chocolate shake around. Cocoa coffee at its finest, my friends. 



Another day. Another baseball game from the grassy hill. Our new favorite spot and our old favorite treat. Look at you go, NOLA! Livin the life!

Day 2,420

The Fourth 2018 Start

If you look closely, you’ll notice Bearett front and center, watching his Daddy pitch. Something that he’s started doing on his own and which makes my heart swell. 

It went better last night. He pitched five innings which means we got to see Dad hit twice. Finally!

We’re waiting patiently for this all to come together and enjoying the ride while we can. 

But let’s be real:

We’re tired of “poopy” luck and ready for dominance. Bring it on. 

(Amelia HAD to use the restroom. She insisted on going by herself and when I asked her to unlock the door to see what was taking her so long, this is what she had been doing!! Covering the toilet just like I always do for her! Ah! Proud mom moment!)

We celebrated a breakthrough of sorts - it’s complicated - and are again excited for the next time he gets to take the hill (Thursday). 

Day 2,419

The

Another day. A lot more smiles. What. Is. Happening??

Our hearts are content in Christ being sufficient. That’s what’s happening. Plus, we’re finding fun! And plenty of it. We swam for two hours (for free!) yesterday. Bearett dove into an Olympic sized pool from the platform and swam the entire length. 



Amelia swam half. 

Not too shabby, kidlets! 

Ella Mae just mostly floated. 

Also worth noting yesterday...Amelia FINALLY overcame her fear of mascots. FINALLY. After much coercing and extensive explaining, she’s now fully come to terms with the fact that Boudreaux the Nurtia Rat is actually just Mr. Bob - a real human that she knows. She’s been terrified with these “monsters” since she was a baby but I think we might just officially be past this most painful hurdle. 

And thank goodness for that!

Because “Bear”-dreaux is actually quite sweet!



“Ella Mae”-dreaux even sweeter!! 

Day 2,418

The City’s Trying to Win Me Over. It’s Working. 

StoryLand

Botanical Gardens







Swan Pond. Gigantic Kid Park. 

Beignets. 





Center Field at The Shrine. 



Good on ya, NOLA. Turns out you have a few tricks up your sleeves after all. Dare I say I’ve actually quite enjoyed you these past couple weeks?! What?!

Adam pitches tomorrow (Friday)  

Day 2,407

The Audubon Zoo

All sorts of crazy good fun at the zoo yesterday! The kiddies loved every second, and truly, so did the Mama. I never thought I’d be admitting to liking something other than beignets in this City, but here i am. 

Day 2,112

The

 

Yesterday, Dad and Mom had an early wakeup call. They had to pack the rest of the hotel room up before Dad left to the field at 9 AM. He took all the groceries and kitchen items we've accumulated since being here and brought everything to the clubhouse to store for the next time we come back. Naturally, I slept through this whole ordeal. 

 

My sister wasn't so lucky. She woke up to the bad news that Dada was leaving and she didn't like that. She was gonna miss him too much. 

 

But then a great thing happened! Our flight got delayed, which made it so that Daddy and we were at the airport at the same time together after his game!! So we got TONS of extra snuggles and he even got to help Mom with some of our bags. He's the best. 

 

The plane ride was good. I slept almost the whole way and so did Sister. She slept really hard - probably because she cried her eyes out when we had to board the plane without Daddy. She kept yelling for him to come, but he wasn't allowed to. It made Mommy cry too. We don't like leaving our Dada. He's going to some place called Des Moines, I guess. We're going back home. He wanted us to get some rest and not live in a hotel anymore. I'm so glad he's my Dad. 

 

We landed in Fort Lauderdale and my big Sister helped Mom get all our bags. She knew exactly which ones were ours without Mama having to tell her. She's really smart. That's what everyone says at least. We had a man with a cart help us to our private shuttle ride. It was almost as cheap as Uber and we got a suburban to ourselves. We appreciated the extra space since we had three huge suitcases, three carry-ons, and the stroller. 

 

Our driver drove us to our condo in Miami. Sister got to watch a show for being such a good girl and I got to watch Mom help unload all our stuff from Nola. 

 

Mom took us upstairs to our condo, where she was happy to find that the food we left in our fridge wasn't liquified!

 

Definitely not edible, but at least easy to clean up. 

 

She cleaned up a lot too. She packed our whole entire apartment up so that we could take it back home to our house. This way we can hopefully be reimbursed for the time we're not living here. I've missed this place a lot and it stinks to leave, but affording three properties right now just isn't practical or inexpensive. So until Dad gets called back up, we won't have this place and we probably won't be staying much in NOLA anymore either. Dad said he'd rather us meet him on the road than have to keep staying in a town we don't like with people we don't know, with food that's not healthy,  and a car we have to rent. So, back home we go. And though Dad's really excited for us to relax in our home, Mom misses him so much already. I can tell. And so do we. Can't wait to see you in a week-ish, Dada! Pitch good in Des Moines. We're praying for you. And we love you for ever ever. 

_______

Dad pitches on Tuesday in Des Moines.