"It's been awhile"

I'm sure all of you "Stained" fans would agree that although an "exciting" story, it's time to move on to other facets of our mundane lives.

Cammer got her cast off the day before Aaron and I left for our New Orleans trip, making it much easier for my mom to keep her clean while we were gone.  As you can see, she's pretty happy about the event.

The next morning Aaron and I caught one of the three flights leaving Rapid City that day and flew to New Orleans where we then rented a car and drove to Houston to visit Aaron's brother, his wife and new baby. Why not fly to Houston?  We were going to New Orleans for an Air Force work thing and they paid for the ticket to New Orleans.

Being our first time in Houston we did all the touristy things like go to the Alligator park

visit Galvaston (by ferry where we saw dolphins swim) and view the carnage left by Hurricane Ike

and visit the beach on the Gulf of Mexico where Nathan was really excited to take a picture while wearing his mom's old sun glasses

and also where we received a call from my mom watching the kids that our newly out-of-the-shop van was dead at preschool and she couldn't get it started to get the carpool at the elementary school and, of course, it was snowing on them as they tried to jump the car.  That led to an hour long phone tag with neighbors, tow-trucks and good citizens to get the kids picked up, our van back in the shop, and my mom to the airport to pick up Aaron's car we left at the airport.  Just another relaxing vacation!!

After a few days in Houston we then headed back to New Orleans where Aaron had his USAFP Conference and I attended classes with him.  I now know everything there is to know about Vitamin D deficiency vs Vitamin D insuffuceny (and yes there is a difference), and I also know a lot about Regional Pain Syndrome as pertains to children of deployed spouses/parents.

This is our group of friends at the Lafeyette cemetery right before we got ripped off by the cemetery caretaker and or grave robber.  He sat and told us all about the cemetery and then said that the cemetery collected donations from visitors for upkeep, but then said we just needed to give the money to him.  You can decide where the money actually went.

 There were many beautiful areas that we got to see and enjoy.  It was great to be able to see these very old sections of the United States.  One great thing about New Orleans is that you get that "old world" feel in our very young country.

Here's me by the Mississippi River and the Steamboat where we had a creole dinner our last night

Here's Aaron and I on Bourbon Street (before 10 because we weren't there for boob-fest so much as for the experience - although we came to realize that any time on Bourbon St is boob-fest time)

And here's the view of our room on the 40th floor and the Carnival Cruise ship (that we weren't on) passing by

It was a great vacation, minus me getting food poisoning the last day there (no the vomiting was not from the contact buzz from Bourbon Street).  Special thanks to mom for allowing this adventure.