More Random Mardi Gras Pictures

Waiting for a parade. Cam really enjoyed the parades this year. Last year they were too loud for him, but this year he really understand what was going on and even held his arms up in the air to catch beads! It was pretty chilly and the wind was blowing pretty hard right where we were standing.

While we were walking around the quarter waiting our table for lunch, we found this little self guided cars you could rent. Camden just had to climb in and check it out.

Putting on the helmet.

I think it was a little too heavy for him!

It's all fun and games til somebody gets arrested!*

Grabbing a Daiquiri after lunch. This is some of our Krewe:

Brad, Cam, Tony(Brad's cousin), Mark, Tracy/Theresa (Brad & I thought her name was Tracy til the last day we were there!), Anthony

Tony lives in Kansas but was working in the Keys. He drove 1000 miles to New Orleans!

Mark is from Arizona, but had just finished a year long deployment in Afghanistan and had decommissioned in Gulfport the day before. Tony picked him up on the way to N.O. Anthony is Tony's old roommate and flew in from Kansas! Theresa is also from Kansas, but had flown down to the Keys and then drove up with Tony!

Back in the hotel room, Cam was fascinated with the bathtub. He loves hotel tubs because they are low enough for him to climb into.

He found the shaving cream.

He also loves to play with razors so I have to hide them.

*Nobody got arrested. Brad was just posing for a picture. Of course if somebody did get arrested, I probably wouldn't tell you about it on here!

Tropical Isle - The 1st Night

Here we are ready to head out to the French Quarter or first night in New Orleans. We were lucky enough to find a reliable babysitter who came to our hotel to watch Camden.

I met up with one of my best friends from college, Jenifer, who still lives in New Orleans! We enjoyed drinks at the hotel bar before heading over to our hangout, The Tropical Isle. This is actually the The Tropical Isle/Funky Pirate, not the original one where we used to go. Enjoying some world famous Hand Grendades!

Brad learned how to do the ever popular Condom Head Trick. Thanks Danielle & Charles, for teaching him that!

Then, as usual, somebody paid the band to play Brad's favorite song, "The Southern Cross." Of course, Brad had to get up on stage and help out with the singing. He actually sounded better (and knew more words!) than the band!

More cheesy smiles from Jenifer & I. This crazy girl actually went to Miami for the SuperBowl!

And now to make your ears bleed for your viewing pleasure, Brad singing on stage with the band. Yes, the guy playing the tambourine (and the guy playing the piano out of the picture) is reading the words to the song off a sheet taped to the wall next to him. Oh, and you will have to turn your head sideways to view this crappy high quality video.

New Orleans or Bust!

When we drove to New Orleans, Camden was really good in the car. He only watched DVDs for a couple of hours on the way down! He refused to take a nap, though, until we were 5 miles from the hotel. That little stinker.

When we arrived it was pouring down rain! We stayed at Loew's on Poydras. The bright lights in this picture are Harrah's casino across the street. It was raining so hard they ended up letting us unload our baggage in the parking garage.

Here is the view from our hotel room. I think we were on the 12th floor. We were facing uptown. You can see the bridge to the West Bank on the left.

A better view of the bridge, and you can see River Walk as well.

After settling in our room, our first mission was to get a Daiquiri! See how wet Camden's jeans are? We tried to cover him up with a poncho, but it was hard to keep it in place.

So many flavors to choose from!

The employees here thought Camden was the cutest thing ever. They kept trying to get him to give them high fives, but Camden refused. Every time one of them would hold their hand out for a high five, Cam would shake his head 'No' and push their hand away! It was so funny.

"I guess I'll just have water. But I'm going to try to sneak sips of Mommy & Daddy's daiquiris when they aren't looking!"*

"Oh, what's this? Test tubes? Fun!"*

"This is how you do it, right?"*

*This was a family friendly daiquiri shop/restaurant. No alcohol beverages were consumed by small persons under the age of 221. However, many straws and test tubes were harmed played with in the making of this film during our time there.

Oh When the Saints!

We caught a walking parade and a kick-ass performance by the Naval Academy Marching Band on Bourbon Street. Camden really loved the music! He also loved sitting on Daddy's shoulders!

Pillow Fight!

As you probably figured out by now, we went to New Orleans this past weekend for Mardi Gras! We stayed at the Loew's on Poydras. It is a very kid friendly hotel. You would have thought that Camden never saw a pillow before, which, now that I think about it, might be true. He doesn't sleep with one and he rarely hangs out in our bed. So he thought these pillows were hilarious!

Jogging

"I want to go jogging! Please take me jogging!"

"I'm ready! Just strap me in!"

"What? Daddy's coming, too? And it's REALLY cold outside?"

"And I have to wear sweatpants under my longalls & gloves & a hat, too?"

"Nevermind! I don't want to go anymore! I'll just stay here!"

Animal Walk

The circus is coming to town! Yesterday, I just happened to hear on the radio that the animal walk was happening downtown, and that it had been moved from 11am to 3:30pm. This was about 2:45, and I wasn't sure if we could make it since Cam was still napping and we hadn't eaten lunch. But we hustled up and went on down there. As we were getting out of the car, the lady next to me got a phone call telling her it had started! We both grabbed our kids and ran over to the corner to see this:

That's right, the animal walk consisted of 6 elephants and nothing else! Good thing we ran, or we totally would have missed it. Camden pointed and laughed when he saw the elephants, and then it was over. People all around us were pissed! One man said "I waited 2 hours for that?!" I had never been to an animal walk before, but apparently I wasn't the only one expecting to see more animals. Oh, well.

Since we were already out and about and it was fairly nice outside, I decided to take Cam to a nearby playground I'd been wanting to check out. It's across the street from my hair salon (So Vain - Love U Mallory!) and our favorite bar (Furniture Factory), so it had caught my attention recently.

The park is brand new and really pretty. Lots of room to run around, and they did a really nice job of fencing it off from street traffic. Camden wasn't really big enough for most of the equipment, but we had fun anyway.

He tried to climb up this tunnel, but he could only get halfway up. It was too steep for him!

He did like looking thru the peepholes! Then Daddy came and met us!

We braved the big slide with Daddy's help. Cam loved it!

Cam is working on his future as a gymnast or a strong man. What a silly boy!

All in all it was a fun outing. I mean, it's not everyday you get to see elephants walking down the street!