Spring Break

 Last week was Spring Break for the kids so we took the opportunity to drive up to Virginia.  We visited my parents who are working on my grandparents' house so we can move in in a few months.  It is looking good!  We also were able to visit with some friends and see the kids' new school.  We took a tour with the principal and it was fantastic!  I am so excited for them - what a great opportunity to go to such a great school!! 
After a few days in VA, we drove down to Great Wolf Lodge - with a stop at IKEA.  We stayed for 2 days and then headed back home.  It was the first time that we have ever gotten back from a vacation and had a weekend to decompress before going back to school/work.  It was really nice!!  We had a lot of fun on our trip but it really made me realize how soon our move really is!  I feel like we have so much to do between now and then!!!


Hanging out in the hotel:

 Visiting IKEA

 Breakfast in the room at Great Wolf Lodge:

 The waterpark!

 Aoife eating ribs for lunch!

 Declan was tired on the way home!!

A Warm Day - finally!!

 Finally a warm day!  It's been such a cold spring here that this little bit of sun is sooooo welcome!!  Emmy enjoyed riding her bike and Declan just loved being able to run around!  He is all boy and would be outside all day everyday if he could be!!

random March pictures

Declan likes hats!?!

 All of a sudden Declan likes hats!!  He also loves cups!

New Orleans - Day 3

 We woke up at 6 am to a band playing outside our window!  I got up and looked out and was really surprised to see this:

 There wasn't any point in trying to go back to sleep so we got up and went to breakfast at Stanley again - you can NEVER have too much Hollandaise sauce!!  We tried to go get beignets but the line was crazy long at Cafe du Monde so we'll have to try the next time we go!  After breakfast we walked over to St. Louis Cathedral and walked around a bit.  It is the oldest cathedral in America!  Pretty cool but not at pretty as St. Patrick's that we had seen the day before.

We walked back to our hotel to get ready to go on our bayou tour and we were very surprised to see that the band playing had turned into a full fledged filming session.  NCIS New Orleans was filming a scene right outside out balcony!  We watched them film for a while and got to see Mark Harmon and Scott Bakula up close!  It was pretty cool - not something that I thought we would see, for sure!!

After that we grabbed a little lunch - by this point I can barely think about more food!! - and we headed out for our bayou tour.  It was fun - and we even saw a couple of alligators which isn't common for this time of year!

After we got back, we got changed and headed out to dinner at Luke - another of John Besh's restaurants.  I had shrimp and jalapeno grits - delicious!!!  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the bar that we got engaged in back in 2000 and had a celebratory shot.  We didn't even get carded on the way into the bar - we are so totally old. 

We had such a great time and we are so thankful for Siobhan!  I had no worries about the kids and it was nice to know they were in such great hands!! 

St. Louis Cathedral:

 Filming outside our room:

 Bayou tour:

 ALLIGATOR!

 crab:

 Dinner at Luke:

 Shot in the bar!

New Orleans - Day 2

 After enduring a 4 am garbage collection outside our window, we got up and walked to Stanley's for breakfast. It was AMAZING!!  I had fried oysters with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce - I could pretty much eat that at every meal for the rest of my life and be very very happy (and very very fat!!).  After breakfast, we walked to the WWII Museum.  It ended up being a bit of a walk but it was a nice day and we got to see a bit of the city.  We even got to see St. Patrick's church, which was beautiful!

The WWII Museum was interesting and we spent quite a while there.  After we walked back we were still full from breakfast but we stopped to get some raw oysters to hold us over until our dinner reservations at Commander's Palace.

We took a cab over to Commander's Palace and it was a good thing because it was pretty far from the French Quarter!  It is right in the middle of a residential neighborhood and it has the feeling of a restaurant that has been part of the fabric of that community for a long time. The food was excellent and the service was perfection but the waitstaff seemed so terrified of making a mistake that they had no warmth or familiarity.  The food was the same way - perfect of course but lacking that certain something.  If you are in town, it wouldn't be my top recommendation.  It's very pricey but an experience for sure!

On the way to breakfast:

 At Stanley's for breakfast:

 St. Patrick's

 WWII Museum:

 Look!  It's Brendan's jacket!

 Who?  ME??

 Oysters, my favorite!

 On our way to dinner!

 Dinner at Commander's Palace:

 My handsome date!