Our Trip to New Orleans, Part 1

We had quite the whirlwind trip to New Orleans this past week and we're still recovering but we had an amazing time. The purpose of the trip was to attend Jeff's cousin Scott and his fiance Whitney's wedding. It was a fun-filled four days in the Big Easy. It was so wonderful to see his family and meet some of his cousin's kids whom we hadn't met before. Allison and Daniel seemed to enjoy it all, especially their time with Nana and playing with Uncle Brad, Papou, and all of Jeff's Aunts. He really amazed us all with his social skills. For someone that always tells us he doesn't like people, he sure didn't show it! Of course I took a couple hundred pictures which is way too many to post on here, so I will just show a few of the highlights.

On the flight there, we had a layover in Tampa. Our flight was delayed about a half an hour, but luckily the airport had a kid play area which the kids rather enjoyed:
After two short flights, we arrived in New Orleans and headed straight to Jeff Aunt's house. I forgot to bring in my camera into their house so I only have a few pictures that I took on my cell phone. As you can see, Daniel didn't take long to warm up to cousin Megan and Uncle Brad:

The next day we spent the morning with Nana at City Park. I was very excited because we finally were able to go to Storyland. We've been trying to go every time we visit New Orleans but it's always been closed. The kids really enjoyed the park and Storyland.

That night we went to Scott and Whitney's rehearsal party at the Southern Yacht Club. The kids joined us for the cocktail hour and then we gave them away to the babysitters who were watching them downstairs so we could enjoy the rest of the rehearsal party. I was a little nervous because it was the first time Daniel was being watched by someone that wasn't a family member (i know, I need to let go!!). From what I could tell, he did great - no crying at least. It helped that Allison was with him and they did tons of crafts and ate dinner. Here we are at thw start of the party.I was hoping to get a nice family shot but for some reason, that just never happens! Instead, I got this:

and this...
and this...

Guess that's what happens when the photographer is only 3 or 5. Later in the night I finally got a good picture of Jeff and I:
The party winded down and we went downstairs to get the kids. They couldn't wait to show us all their goodies:
The kids held up well considering it was close to 11 by the time we left the party. That sums up the first two days of our trip. More to come soon...