Our Recent Trip to Louisiana

I have been needing to do a post about our trip for awhile now and just keep putting it off. So, now is the time. About a month ago Riley and I decided that we needed to make a trip home to see our Prestridge family. My family has been going through somewhat of a valley lately and I just really felt the need to be home with them. This was Riley's first time in an airplane. I was pretty nervous about how it would go (2 flights out to Louisiana), but he did great. He loves looking at people so he was very entertained during our flights. He seemed to especially like the flight attendants...go figure!! I didn't take any pictures because I really had my hands full with him, a stroller and a backpack that served as my purse and his diaper bag. Maybe next time I will try.

Anyway, while we were home we had lots of fun adventures (most you will see pictures of below). I decided that I wanted to take each of of niece/nephews for their own "special day" with me and Riley. They each were given choices as to what we could do. Karleigh chose to go to Key's Park and get sno-cones. Clark chose to go to the play area at the mall and get cookies. And, well, for Brody (since he's 3), I decided for him that we would go to a McDonald's with a play area and have breakfast. They each were so good with Riley and just love him so much. I didn't bring a camera to each even, but did take pics of the kids before we left.

(This was the kind of picture I got with a 3 year old and a 9 month old...oh well!)

We also celebrated my dad's 63rd birthday while we were there. It was a alot of fun to be there for the party!!! Mom actually got his age right this year (one year we celebrated his b-day at the beach and she bought the wrong numbers/candles for his birthday cake)!

And towards the end of the week, one of my best friends, Michelle and her little girl, Hadley, drove all the way from Baton Rouge for a visit. It really meant so much to me for them to make the trip. We had fun visiting and playing in the pool.

I also had some good visit time with friends and family....my sister, my brother-in-law Alan, Missy (she has sat behind our family in church for years and also does wonderful pedicures/manicures), my grandmother, my cousin Sonya and her mom Aunt Donna, my cousin Dan and his wife Stacy, my Uncle David and Aunt Mary, my great aunts (Aunt Lolus and Aunt Mildred) and my cousin Laurie. We were there for about 10 days so we were able to get to all of these visits.

The flights home (back to NC) were not quite as uneventful, but we made it. I am going to try not to remember those and just focus on the "good" flights. All in all, we had a wonderful trip and enjoyed all of our family time!!! My mom is just amazing and continues to be such a rock!! Looks like we may be going home again in about a month. Edmond will probably have some training in Pennsylvania for about 2 weeks. I know that I need to be ok with staying by myself, but I'm just not yet.