Mardi Gras

In Louisiana, we have this strange time of year called Mardi Gras ... people spend an inordinate amount of time building platforms on top of trailers that can hold a dozen people who then spend thousands of dollars on things they throw at people standing on the edge of streets. Like I said, strange.

This year, I took Eden Brooks to the Southdowns parade on Friday night - we went with some friends from Sunday School and had a blast watching all the kids catch beads and stuffed animals.

And the next day we had to have several parades of our own, in the house with the 47 dozen beads EB caught  (my face also caught a few dozen as she was on my shoulders leaving me completely defenseless). Here she is "playing Mardi Gras," pretending to be riding in a float and throwing out beads ...

Our plan was to go to church on Sunday and leave from there to go to Jackson to visit with Ashley's sister and parents and with John Winters. The weather changed our plans. We woke up Sunday morning with the radar looking very iffy. So, we packed the car and left by 9:00. Good thing too ... not 15 minutes after we landed in Jackson the bottom fell out - and by 5:00 that afternoon a tornado ripped through Hattiesburg taking out entire neighborhoods and part of campus.

Here is Lydia at the Mississippi Welcome Center during our drive up
...

And the happy grandparents and cousin...

EB showing off her new school uniform ...

Notice the two little ones doing exactly what EB is doing ... things to come ...

And here is little John Winters trying his hardest to start crawling!

Ashley was kind enough to parade around town with the girls while I caught up on some reading for work. It was nice being away and having a relaxing dinner with everyone. Jackson is a nice get away! Yay 147.