Samantha was so excited to travel. "Goin on a journey" she said. Her excitement increased when we arrived at the airport to board the plane. She has flown before but it's been almost a year so I'm not sure if she remembered. She was not nervous and went with the flow. We patted the outside of the airplane as we boarded (for good luck). Daddy, Mommy, and Samantha sat together in three cramped seats on the plane. We gave Samantha the window seat so she could watch take-off and landing. Once again, no fear, just fun. She even liked the little bit of turbulance we encountered as we arrived in Texas, our layover. She laughed and said the plane was "bumping!" Forcing a toddler to sit still in a seat for any length of time is unbelievably difficult. I had spent the last week coming up with ideas and purchasing special treats and activities to keep her busy. Nevertheless, any activity lasts only about 5-10 minutes with the attention span of a two year old. It was actually exhausting for me to keep her entertained. And of course she wouldn't nap! I couldn't help but remember the good 'ol days of flying without a kid, when you could relax with a good book and shut out the world. Not anymore...
Here's my cutie-pa-tootie watching the airplanes during our layover in Texas.
Finally, we arrived in New Orleans. Nana and PawPaw were waiting at the gate. Nana made a cute "Welcome Sammie" poster with butterflies and balloons. How sweet. The evening ended with a nice dinner out, just the five of us. It was nice to spend time with Joe's parents. I was really looking forward to bedtime though, at least for the kiddo.
The next day rained. We were stuck inside. That evening we went over to Uncle Scoot and Aunt Debbies house for dinner. Sam had a blast with her cousins.
Joe and I took the kids to the RiverWalk. We told Samantha we were going on an adventure. She was so excited to be hanging out with her cousins and going on a "bichure". We watched the boats on the river, did a little shopping, and had lunch. It was so much fun hanging out with all the kids.
More time spent at Uncle Scoot and Aunt Debbie's house. Samantha could not get enough of her cousins. She loved the "tramp-ooo-leeen" and playing with the girls' cellphones (thanks ladies and sorry). Haha.
Crawfish Boil. Joe had to have a crawfish boil, so Uncle Scoot and PawPaw made it happen. Luckily the whole family enjoys it! Except me, and Samantha wasn't in the mood to eat the entire time we were out there! It sure is cool looking though, and fun!
Samantha did, however eat up Nana's cake!
I can't say enough how much fun Samantha had with her cousins: Brittany, Zack, Maddie, Emily, & Baleigh. (Aunt Debbie tried her best to get in there too!)
Saturday was our Easter since we would be flying home on Sunday. We began the morning with an Easter egg hunt for Samantha in Nana's garden. It was so pretty! Samantha did a great job finding all the eggs amongst the pretty flowers and plants. We probably looked pretty silly, the three of us adults, Nana, Joe and I following around the princess like puppies! Miss Samantha took her time looking through the garden and finding all the eggs.
For the afternoon we decided on a picnic at the park. It was a gorgeous day, a little windy, but still warm and sunny. The park was set on the banks of the river. It had picnic tables, grass, and a playset for the kids. We first took a nice walk and then returned to our picnic to Joe & Scoot grilling up some yummy carne asada. The boys had shopped and prepared the food the previous day and it was awesome! The kids hid Samantha's eggs and she had fun hunting them again. Samantha had so much fun playing with her cousins!
I'll be honest, the trip home on Sunday was pretty much hell. We had a really early flight. When booking the flight, I didn't consider the time change and how a 6:45am flight in New Orleans, is 4:45am our time! Ugh! We had one TIRED child as well as two TIRED parents. Needless to say, we were all a little grumpy and we couldn't get home fast enough. The good thing about an early flight is when we got home it was nap time!
All in all, it was a good trip. The family enjoyed spending time with one another and I was over joyed to see how well Samantha took to her cousins. Let me just brag a moment...you won't meet five sweeter kids in the world! They loved on Sammie and played with her and I hope (and think) they enjoyed it! We love our family and wish we could see them more often.
Since we have been home...
Samantha talks about "I fly on da airplane to Nana and PawPaw's house". She says she wants to go back. She also talks about "pway wif her cousins"..."has a monkey phone"..."jump on da tramp-ooo-leeen"..."has a pink ball and it broked." (Zack & Joe, I told you!) She also talks a lot about bridges now. We had to drive on a bridge over the Mississippi whenever we went from Nana & Paw Paw's house to Scoot and Debbies. Now she points at over-passes and says, "dats a wittle bridge," "Nana & PawPaw have a BIG bridge...in Louisy-eesy-ana!"
Goodness, could she get any cuter?? :)
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