Off to Lafayette

After two days in Thibodaux we traveled west to Lafayette to visit the Latiolais side of the family. Jason's cousin was getting married which meant that more people were in town than usual, and the day after the wedding his aunt and uncle hosted a family barbecue. Jason's cousin Monica was kind enough to demand that we stay with them invite us to stay at their house for our 3 nights in town. Jason and I had our own room and the kids had fun sleeping in their cousin Kassy's room. They also had an amazing backyard that made the kids extremely happy.

We ate a late lunch, the kids ran around, and then we all got ready for the wedding. Poor Addison was worn out before we even got out the door.

From what I could tell from my seat in the back row (so we could be by the exit), the wedding was really pretty. It was in a chapel on the campus of The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which is where Jason's dad went to college. The priest even sang to the bride and groom, which I had never seen before, and the kids got 35-40 minutes in before having to be taken outside, so I was pretty impressed. The reception was a little more crazy since it was late and the kids were hungry, but after they got some food they were happy and ran around like banshees.

Jason's uncle/parrain (Cajun word for godfather) Eddie and Aunt Shana. They're the parents of the flower girl and Parrain is also the father of the groom.

Jason's parents

The kids having fun.

Then the kids got too busy to stop for a picture.

Our sister-in-law, Sarah, with our niece and nephew Dominic and Autumn.

Monica and Terry

Jason's dad, and his sister, Aunt Mona

Jason is Autumn's parrain

Jason's Uncle Ricky and his wife, Aunt Chris, have been taking Cajun dance lessons, so they were showing off for us.

Paw Paw Latiolais likes to sit outside and smoke his pipe, so people were taking turns keeping him company. This is Jason and his brother, Jeremy.

Jordis eventually fell asleep with Jason's mom, but the rest of the kids were still going strong when we left at 1 a.m.

Congratuations Dusty and Clare!

Of berries, bikes, bad weather and brides....in no particular order.

I'm starting with weather first because I'm sick of it. I don't know why it's so hard this year for the weather people to tell us if or when we are having severe storms. They're either popping up out of nowhere, or they tell us they're coming and they don't. My personal favorite is that of last Friday and early this morning, where they say things are weakening or just not coming near us at all, and yet I'm awoken by some thunder and lightning only to discover there's a tornado warning nearby. Poor southern Ohio will have been under a tornado watch for about 20 hours straight by the end of the day if the current watch stays in effect. Luckily the weather was able to cooperate for Memorial Day weekend. It was quite lovely and we had a nice cookout at my mom and step-dad's that Sunday.

At any rate, this rain of late is doing wonders for my plants. The strawberries are a little experiment I was trying with Xander, but then I discovered my neighbor Dena gardens and she offered to start some seeds for me. I'm doing all containers this year until I see if I'm successful, as I don't want to rip up my yard to find I'm not good at growing things. I'm horrible with houseplants so I wasn't expecting much from these. The strawberries are looking great though, and it was fun to watch Xander learn how to plant them, then put them in the sun, and he even helped me water them. I discovered, however, that 12 strawberry plants isn't going to put a dent in my kids' consumption of the fruit. Xander is very proud of the strawberries so I took a picture of them yesterday. The other little plants you see are the ones from Dena that I need to re-pot. They're tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper. One of each, just to see how they do.



Xander also just got his first big boy bike. Jason had told him he could use some birthday money to buy it so they went last week and picked it out. Just so happens that it matches the helmet he got last summer at the Safety Fair. Xander loves his bike and is quite good at it, just got on and took off. He's already riding it around the block and we've been leaving the cars in the driveway so he can ride in the garage on days that it rains.



Nomey has a helmet, too, and insists on wearing it even if she's not riding her tricycle. They even wore helmets to help me wash the car on Sunday.



Other than that we've not been doing much. The kids and I have gone on a few playdates with our MOPS (Mother's of Pre-schoolers) group and I went out for Mexican and dancing with some friends last Saturday night. Something about having two kids and turning 30 has reduced my ability to decide what makes for good "going out" clothes, so I let Jason choose my attire on Saturday. He was quite pleased with the end result and even took my picture. He attempted to go fishing with Xander and his dad last Sunday but that didn't go so well.





Our next big adventure is a garage sale at my mom's next weekend. She already sold some of our baby stuff to a girl at her work, but I have tons of clothes and other things here that I hope to get rid of as well. So please pray for me that it doesn't rain next Saturday, so I will not have spent hours pricing all these things for naught.

Also, Jason's cousin is getting married this weekend, so congratulations Nellie!!! All of you family members making the trip to Punta Cana we hope you have a fabulous time.