OUR CHRISTMAS BREAK

Andrew got almost a whole month off of school for his Christmas break so we decided we'd make the most of it. I found some really cheap multi-trip flights to North Carolina and then to New Orleans. We were able to spend Christmas with Andrew's family and New Year's with my family. We had such a fun Christmas break! Here's a look at some of the things we did...

We started our vacation in Leland, North Carolina where the weather was much warmer than here in Ohio so we got to take little Eleanor out for a walk around the neighborhood.

When Andrew's sister Jessica and her husband Terance got into town we headed up to the beach in Nag's Head, North Carolina. It was a six hour drive from Leland and Eleanor did surprisingly well in her car seat.

While in Nags Head we went to the aquarium...

I guess only Andrew and I got the memo when the lady taking the picture told us to act scared :)

Swimming with the fishes

Eleanor and me at the beach (it actually got pretty chilly there)

We also visited a VERY Christmas-decorated house

We also went to the Wright Brothers Museum in Kitty Hawk. I thought it was fascinating! The Wright brothers are some of my new heroes.

This is a replica of their plane that took off in 1903

This is the spot where the plane lifted off for the first time

These are the markers for each of the spots that the plane made it to on their first few runs

While in North Carolina we also saw a couple of movies and went to Sonic almost everyday!

We headed to New Orleans on December 29th. Our first night there was probably one of my favorite memories of our whole vacation. My mom and the kids had set up some tables outside and we had a nice little barbecue with some Bourgeois sausage and hamburgers! It was so fun to be with all my family!

Since Andrew, Eleanor, and I were the last to arrive we still had Christmas presents to swap. Emily got me a pretty little picture frame with a picture of Eleanor in it.

I got Freddie a tie and he's always had a thing for cross-stitched sayings so I made him one

I got Ethan and Grace some shirts from the Outer Banks.

Emily and Eleanor

Sophie, Ethan and Grace

The next day we went down to the French Quarter and got some beignets at Cafe Du Monde








All the kids...


Here are Jessica's kids on their last night in town.
We got a king cake! Yum!

Me and Grace and Amy in the background

Andrew and I went to Palace Cafe one day for lunch and then saw Hurricane on the Bayou at the IMAX Theater.

We also went and walked around the Riverwalk

We went to Thibodaux on New Year's day and my
Grandma and Grandpa Bourgeois got to meet little Eleanor.

After church on Sunday we went to Audubon Park
and took some pictures. Here are some of our favorites...









I just love Eleanor's little grumpy face...

Here is our last night in town. Eleanor sure is loved!
Giving Granny Nanny kisses

So, as you can see, we had an awesome vacation! We especially loved being with family! It is pretty lonely coming back home and just having it be the three of us. Eleanor was really getting used to having lots of people around. She is "talking" a lot more and much louder.

When we got back home we were greeted with a STINKY fridge. Somehow it got turned off while we were gone and everything went bad. We've tried everything to clean it! Yesterday Eleanor and I locked ourselves upstairs in her room for the whole afternoon while Andrew scrubbed down the fridge with ammonia. That stuff is potent! The fridge still reeks today so Andrew just went over to the office to ask about getting a new one.

I guess that's what happened after Hurricane Katrina...everyone came home to stinky fridges that had to be thrown out, yuck!

Well I guess it wouldn't be a blog post without some random pictures of Eleanor. Here she is in her new Bumbo chair. She is getting so strong!

And to close, here's a video of our little munchkin. She does this wierd thing where she moves her head back and forth over and over again. It usually means she's about ready for a nap :)