Jacobs Birthday.

Today my 4 1/2 pound sweet baby turned 15!!!!!  Since we started homeschooling we have always taken the day off from school on birthdays.  Jacob decided he wanted to go to his gym class anyway.   He also decided he wanted to have chick fil a for breakfast.  Then after gym and swim we went to lunch at Red State Barbecue with a few friends.  That is how he wanted to spend his day, with his friends.  We had also arranged to see Kyle but he ended up getting sick so we went to Lexington to visit a couple comic book shops to look for Magic cards.  On the way hope we stopped and got Milkshakes.  We waited for David to get home then we opened presents.  He wanted to do that before we had dinner :) 


For dinner he wanted his left over ribs from lunch and some homemade mac and cheese.  David stopped and picked up some food from Tony's for the rest of us.  And he got Jake some of his favorite...fried wontons.   I made the cake he wanted, Oreo, but everyone was to full to eat it! 


He was really excited about his Magic cards and his bike.  He couldn't help himself and had to open the bike.  He came to me in tears because he thought it was broken.  It was just a piece of plastic that had to be removed before you put it together anyway.  We ended up being up till 1am working on that bike!! 

Coach Terry.... the kids love him!!!  The parents kind of love him too :)

Vicksburg National Historical Site

We spent most of the day in Vicksburg.  This park reminded me of Gettysburg in the way you see it.  There were lots of very cool monuments from the different states that fought in this battle of the Civil War.  Kentucky has two.  One for the Confederate solders and one for the Union.  Well the second one has Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis so its questionable in my opinion that the Union Soldiers have their own monument. 

We have all now visited all of the continental United States.  Only Hawaii and Alaska left for us to see.  They boys may have to do those on their own! 

We decided this evening to switch up our drive home.  I rerouted us so we can go to a gun store that David has been wanted to see.  And it just happens that the route takes us right by Land Between the Lakes.  We have never been there even though its in Kentucky!  It will add an extra hour of driving but we are excited about it.  Speaking of driving, David has had a very hard time getting over the cold he gave me before we left, he may have bronchitis :(   So....I have done all the driving so far.  Luckily the longest drives have been just over 6 hours. 

Minnesota Monument

Illinois Monument

The Cairo, a battle ship that was sunk on the Yazoo river during the Civil War.  It was recovered 100 years after it was sunk!

A lot of the ship was intact.

This is a model of what the ship looked like before it was sunk.

Missouri Monument

The Kentucky monument.  Compared to the others it was a little sad. 

West Monroe and Monroe Louisiana

We left Lafayette this morning heading towards Monroe.  On the way we stopped by the Cajun Pawn Stars in Alexandria.  David has been looking for a certain gun but hasn't been able to find it.  Well, they had one but it wasn't for sale.  We saw Big Daddy, and Johnnie came up to talk to us because the boys and I were petting one of the really huge dogs roaming the store.   He wanted to be sure that we saw the 2 month old puppy behind one of the counters :)  I was a little disappointed that they didn't have the goat there from one of the shows ;)  I am not sure if their show was cancelled but I haven't seen it on in a long time.

We also stopped by Duck Commander in West Monroe.  I do need to say that I don't believe the some of the same things as Phil but I do love the show and their commitment to each other.  Unfortunately Uncle Si was no where to be seen, he is my favorite :) 

Later I found out that my friend Michele who lives in Monroe is sick.  We were suppose to go to the Mardi Gras parade with her.  We went to Raising Cains to have dinner because it was on the parade route.  The boys got lots of beads, so did I! 

Coolest police car ever!!!

This wasn't even all the beads...this is about half way through the parade!  One of the guys on a float threw me a whole bag full of beads.  Going to share them with our homeschool friends back at home :)

These were the beads I caught....and I wasn't even trying!  I was getting hit in the face with them!

  

Lafayette Louisiana

Today was spent in Lafayette.  We went to one of the Jean Lafitte NHP sites, the Acadian Cultural Center.  Jacob and Michael worked on the junior ranger program.  After that we went to the Blue Dog Café.  It was owned by George Rodrigue, the artist who painted the Blue Dog.  We studied Mr. Rodrigue as part of our art class this year.  Sadly he passed away in December of lung cancer.  The restaurant walls are covered with his art.  The food was good.  I REALLY liked the dirty rice and the crusty bread! 

We checked into our hotel and I took a nap!  I very rarely take naps, but today I did.  And I had a really weird dream.  Nancy Reagan was catching puffer fish with a bucket!  I think that is one of the strangest dreams I have ever had!

 

Michael colored his dog green with red eyes, then Jacob colored his the opposite.

This place had paper on the tables and I was just sure they were meant to draw on!  I think that is what Mr. Rodrigue intended.  I drew this skull then David added the rest to make it a whole dog skeleton.

Jacob's food....that brown lump on the side was the dirty dog rice!!!! YUMMMM

Avery Island and Acadiana Guns

We drove to New Iberia today.  It is the birth place of George Rodrigue, the artist pest known for the Blue Dog.   He passed away in December.  We will be visiting one of his restaurants tomorrow and maybe one of his galleries if we have time.  Close to New Iberia is Avery Island, the home to the Tabasco Plant.  We toured the factory and got to try lots of "tabasco" flavored products including soda and ice cream!!  The soda kind of burned going down but the ice cream was pretty good :)  They gave u all little sample bottles of different kinds of Tabasco Sauce.  The boys spent the evening tasting all their little bottles.

David has been watching Glenn Flemings web shows for a little while now.  They mentioned in one of them a gun that David had but they didn't have access to.  Well David emailed them and arranged for them to see it a do a little web show about it.  Something happened on their end and they couldn't get the camera guy there for the show but they still wanted to see the gun.  They were very nice.  Glenn was on the show Sons of Guns but has now branched out with his own shop.  He took us back to the workshop and let me take a picture of him with the boys.  Very nice guys that are working there.

I loved this huge moss coved oak in front of the Tabasco plant!

The tiny bottles of Tabasco they gave us on the tour.

Acadiana Guns- Glenn Fleming. 

By the way...this gun that they are standing in front of was the gun that Glen took on his interview at Red Stick.