Our 4th of July Fun!

We had a super fun 4th of July weekend! Edd's brother, Dan, and his family came to our house for a visit! The arrived late Thursday night. They were hoping for the 5 hour drive from Kingwood. Unfortunately, they got stuck in traffic around Baton Rouge, maybe because of the rain??? The true reason for the traffic is a mystery. After 8 hrs of driving, they all arrived...safe, & sound asleep...at least the kids were! :)
Friday morning, we headed out early for our grand adventure on the swamp! We rode a flat bottom boat into the Honey Island Swamp, and saw quite a few alligators up close!!! It was really exciting to see alligators that close! After the swamp, we went down the river to see more alligators. It was really neat hear about the history of the area, like pirates!!! And neat to see all the fishing camps along the river...looks like fun!

After our swamp adventure, we had some yummy po-boys for lunch and the big kids each got a bottle of rootbeer, which was almost as exciting as the alligators! When we finished lunch, we scrapped our park plans...it was just too hot to play outside. So we went back to the house and watched a movie and napped. Later on, Edd and Dan took the kids to the pool while Melissa and I went to Wal-Mart for our weekend groceries.

Saturday morning, the 4th of July, we ventured across Lake Pontchartrain and went to the Audubon Aquarium. While we were waiting for Edd & Dan to get the tickets, we watched the Mississippi River. The paddle boat down a ways from us started playing patriotic songs on it's organ! We watched a ship come around the bend. It didn't look like it was going to clear the big bridge, but it did!!! Then we went into the aquarium.

It was really neat to see all the different creatures they had at the aquarium. The penguins were one of the favorite spots. I liked the sea dragons...they are like sea horses, but they looked like they were covered in twigs! Thomas, of course, loved the frog area. He wanted to take on of the frogs on display home with us!!!! He begged and begged. I finally got him to move on!

The kids loved touching the sting-rays and the baby shark too! I think most of them tried, even Aimee...well, she only would touch the shark. Aimee preferred hanging out with Henry!!! She loved holding him all weekend long and helping Melissa take care of him!
Another highlight was the tank that had the big sharks! It also had a huge sea turtle that would swim past every now and then!

The next stop was LUNCH!!! After walking around trying to find a place to eat, we ended up at Cafe DuMonde!!! The kids were so excited to get beignets, especially George! :)

Once we had our fill of beignets, we were off again to do some sight seeing! Back to Jackson Square and the cathedral! I think we were all glad to go inside the cathedral because it had AC!!!

Aimee loved this big Oak tree! She had remembered it from when we came down for Spring Break!

As we walked along the streets of the French Quarter, Andrew ended up walking with Ben and George. Every now and then Andrew would pretend to walk into a light post. The boys would laugh at him every time! It was really cute!

Of course our French Quarter experience wouldn't be complete with out watching the street performers. The kids were lucky enough to experience it hands on!!!

We had such a fun weekend! :)

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