Student of the Month August 2011

Aydon came home on Friday and could hardly wait to tell me something.  He said, guess what I got at school.  I know Friday's are pickle award days and that's what I guessed.  He said, nope...better.  He was chosen as student of the month!  He was excited & we are proud!

2011 school pictures

I am so happy with the pictures the boys took!!  

I hate my scanner and the line it puts at the top of the pictures though.  

 2nd grade

Kindergarten

Kentucky vs. LSU 2011

I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't a night game (can't beat experiencing a night game in Tiger Stadium) but with the boys it was probably for the best.  We met Aunt Teresa at our tailgate spot around 7am.  FYI...there is a 2 hour time difference so my kids were champs since we woke up super early and went non-stop late every day.

Aunt Teresa meeting Keylan Drew.  

The boys enjoyed playing football with the boy that was tailgating near us and Zach loved playing with their dog (dressed in his LSU gear as well).  

Coach Miles heading into the locker room.

The boys watching the team head into the locker room.

Drew started the day with us and enjoyed the team, cheerleaders & band walking down the hill.  We had lined up a babysitter for him so Preston and I would be able to enjoy the game and not have to wrestle him during the game.  As scared as I was to leave him with a complete stranger she said he did very well and he came back a very happy, calm baby.  

Zach and Dad waiting for the band to come down the hill.

We were hoping the cheerleaders would come mingle and hold our baby Drew this time like they did with Ty last time but it didn't happen.  :(

Our seats were 3 rows from the top.  I text a pic to my family and told them...we are almost at the very top but WE ARE HERE!  I actually enjoyed our seats.  We had a nice breeze that kept us cool, I loved seeing the Mississippi River just past the stadium & enjoyed all the greenery around.  

GEAUX TIGERS!!

Love that!

This was the first time we had actually stopped and sat still the entire trip so jet lag caught up to Zach...he slept half of the game.  

They were good though.  They did all the cheers & yelled with their momma.

We got to see a couple of touchdowns in our endzone!!

People cleared out really early so we got to stretch out and really enjoy the game.

We stuck around to the very end.  Took lots of pictures and enjoyed the boys first football game.

We told the boys we better be coming to watch them play here one day.

And with the four of them I really hope to get that chance.  

Contrary to all the looks in his pictures, Zach did enjoy it. 

We did run into some cheerleaders after the game so we snapped a picture with them.  

With the game being at 11:20 we didn't get to do much tailgating before the game so we tailgated the rest of the day.  The boys had a blast playing underneath & in this huge pecan tree.  

Aunt Teresa went all out for us and brought everything we needed and cooked us some amazing food.  We had some sausage, bacon-wrapped chicken, boudin balls, jambalaya, & stuffed pork chops.  We ate and ate all day long.  She even remembered that we love Dr. Pepper and brought us some along with Capri Suns for the boys.  Thanks soooo much for such a wonderful day!  

Drew loved the cheese balls that she brought.  Couldn't keep him away from them.  

Zeke, Shasta & Aunt Teresa...it was a blast, thanks again!  

We also enjoyed seeing Sierra, Amanda & meeting their two friends.

 Ty & Shasta then...

& now.  Look at those beautiful blue eyes!  

My boys got to experience a little of what I used to do when I was a kid.  Aunt Teresa had picked up some pecans and started cracking them and then she & Zeke taught the boys how to crack & eat the right parts so that's what they were doing here.  Oh how I missed fresh pecans.  

We ended our tailgate right as the sun was going down and we were parked right next to the levee of the Mississippi River so we took the boys over to check it out.  They were able to see a huge barge pass and run up and down the levee like all little boys should.  

Louisiana, still feels like home to me.  Loved it!

Just as we expected...worth every penny for the fun memories!

On our way to watch the TIGERS play!!

Preston & I were debating a trip back to Louisiana and we decided to be totally wild and crazy and fly our entire family out to an LSU football game.  It didn't matter how much it cost, we knew it'd be worth it to have our boys first football game done right...in Tiger Stadium!!

I (stupidly) decided that we would just drive down early Thursday morning, catch a flight and be in Baton Rouge that night.  3 hour drive to Phoenix, 2.5 hour flight to Houston, 3.5 hour (only supposed to be 1 hr) layover and then another hour to Baton Rouge = LONG DAY!  In reality, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  The boys were in heaven getting to play there DS's all day long (they normally only get 30 minutes a day 3 or 4 times a week MAX)!  Drew was tough on the long flight for about 30 minutes before he fell asleep and Zach was in heaven watching Looney Tunes on Sunshine's portable DVD player.  

On our way to the airport we stopped for some lunch at Chick-fil-A and the cow was in the play area waiting for some kids to come to read & a story & do a craft.  My boys were the only kids there so they had a blast.  Zach invited the cow to come with us on the plane but we only got as far as our vehicle before cow's "mommy" said he couldn't go.  :)  Cow's mommy took a picture for us though.  Oops!  Cow blocked Aydon's face.

The pleasant time...when Drew fell asleep. 

Zach cracked me up when I turned to take a picture of him he had just put his arms up like that.  

Uncle John had just bought the boys a new game each the day before we left so they were loving all the time to play their new game.  

At our 3.5 hour layover in Houston.  Drew had gotten hurt so that's why he was crying but it also makes a great airport picture.  :)

We all wore our LSU gear and so I don't know if it was that or the fact that we were crazy enough to fly a family of 6 but everyone was staring at us everywhere we went!  Many people commented on both the LSU gear & the 4 boys.  We were eating dinner at the airport during our extended layover and after a guy next to us left Preston asked if I noticed how he stared at us the ENTIRE time he was sitting there.  I told Preston, have you noticed EVERYONE staring at us anywhere we go?!  

I will give you one guess where we went the next day.

The Baton Rouge zoo of course.  They had the Tiger Realm with different exhibits of tigers.  

Zach & Ty enjoyed the elephants.  

We were all excited to see the gators.

This one was interesting with the different coloring.  I would've liked to ask someone about that but no one passed by as we were looking.

You can't tell in this picture but there were probably 100 turtles gathered.  The people before us had just fed them so they were all up trying to eat.

When we walked in we could hear a familiar animal sound but we couldn't place it right away.  We got to the black leopard and he was making noises but that wasn't the sounds we were recognizing.  Turns out they had elk and the males were bugling.  We found it quite funny that they had elk.  

Some pretty Zebras.  Aydon was excited to see yet another baby zebra.  

There were seriously less then 20 cars in the parking lot so no one was around for us to ask to take a picture of us so we did a self timer on a fence and I was so happy with how it turned out.  

Last time we were in Baton Rouge we passed the Temple so we planned to stop and take a closer look this time.  

We wanted to stop by campus again and check out Mike the Tiger without the huge crowds that would be there the next day.  He was napping and never moved this time.

2011

2007.  4 years...man, that's Zach & Drew now.  

They just unveiled this new Shaq statue and I wanted to check it out.  I LOVE the Tiger that shines through the PMAC!

We then hit up the LSU Shop!  

We absolutely love all the gorgeous houses/mansions on Highland Drive.  We drove up and down this road just enjoying the trees & homes 3 times while we were there.  

We all agreed that while we were there we had to have some gator after watching Swamp People.  We ate at Mike Anderson's Seafood and loved the fried gator! Yummy.  

We had to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some milk for Drew and we hit the JACKPOT on LSU gear.  It was an evening of fun shopping.  And I want to make it clear that my husband was the one that walked out with like 2 times more than anyone else.  I love him!!!  :)