Headin' back home

Our last morning in Louisiana was as action-packed and fun as the rest of our trip...

Little Miss making custom mini frittatas with her Tita while Big Sis sleeps in...

Craft time...making badges for an epic series of races from the sofa to guest bedroom...a challenge Big Sis conjured up en route to New Orleans yesterday...

Showing off their badges...

What will more than likely be our last outdoor swim of the season in an incredible apartment complex pool (probably the nicest apartments we've ever been too...but then again we don't have much to compare against, as our first apartment complex also housed a registered sex offender and our most recent one had such poor construction that our chain-smoking neighbor's ciggy smoke constantly wafted through our walls...Matt ended up filling all noticeable cracks [around pipes, etc.] with foam spray insulation)...

Halloween cupcakes...


and a well-received introduction to "The Sound of Music" and "The Muppet Show"!

We left LA around 2pm, expecting to set foot on base around 1am that evening.  However, as previously mentioned, every time we plan to do a trip over two days, it ends up taking one--and vice versa.  The drive back was really dragging, and the girls were not up for another sleepover in the car.  Around 10pm, we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express outside Dallas and rested up, prepared to knock out the final 5.5h tomorrow.

Plus, walking in the front door, tired, and possibly cranky, in the wee hours of the morning on the first day of Matt's last week of academics--Sim-filled, and weather test-including, would not likely get it off to its optimal start!  ;o)  From the sound of it, Matt enjoyed unparalleled study time and chair flying (going through the motions of/visualizing full flight itineraries in your head, while sitting in a chair) over the weekend, trumping even the amount he enjoyed during our excursion to Chuck E. Cheese earlier this month.  He is developing a great group of study partners--definitely pairing with among the most motivated and dedicated in his class--as opposed to the most outing/party-hardy, as I'd feared he would awhile back.  Glad he was able to make the most of his time--and very impressed that he passed up XBox sessions for time with the pets!!

New Orleans, Tiana style

A major bonus to visiting family in Louisiana is that New Orleans is also home to my oldest's favorite Disney character, Princess Tiana.  My sister-in-law and her fiance were wonderful enough to prepare a one-of-a-kind Princess tour of the city!

Here is the awesome preview site they made for the girls, comparing scenes and characters from "The Princess and the Frog" to their real-life inspirations/bases.

Highlights from the day include:

A visit to the bug museum (not exactly Princess and the Frog, but VERY preschool/kindergarten!!).  Both girls entered, 100% against the idea of bug consumption--and both ended up gorging out on candied bugs!

My oldest's fave was the waxworm fondue:

My youngest preferred toasted waxworm fudge:

We even picked up some seasoned worms (chili) and crickets (salt & vinegar) for Daddy to try!

Next on the list was some Cajun dining for lunch!  We enjoyed turtle soup, blackened gator, grilled cheese, & popcorn shrimp.

After checking out some street performers, artists, and the St. Louis Cathedral--where Tiana and Naveen were married, we enjoyed Cafe Du Monde's famous beignets--the very pastry Tiana baked when saving up to buy her own restaurant at the start of the movie!!

Local artistry:

The Cathedral:

Beignets!

The day ended with a mini corn maze, a walk down the Mississippi, and dinner at a gorgeous WWII Museum, where we got to meet my fiance-in-law's folks--and also check out one of the many gorgeous places the happy couple is considering for their future wedding!  :o)

Somehow, this place didn't scare them!!

 

Strolling toward & along the Mississippi:

Louis' Riverboat!

My first po' boy (fried oysters) at the WWII Museum.  It was delish!

Can't wait to visit--with Matt--when his schedule permits!!

Our arrival

Being the only adult on a road trip has its advantages: no one is around to tell you driving all night is crazy/unnecessary and its disadvantages: no one is around to tell you driving all night is crazy/unnecessary.  It seems that every time, without fail, that I decide to split a road trip over two days, I decide en route to knock it out in one...and every time I think I can buckle down and pull 11-13h/d, I end up frantically looking for a hotel between 5-8h in.

For our trip to Baton Rouge, I was hoping to split the drive into 8h on Thursday and 3.5h Friday morning.  Well...as soon as we entered norther Louisiana, rest stops with lodging became markedly sparse (as in 50mi apart).  At our first stop, there was no vacancy at any of our favorities (Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, etc.), and after two extremely smelly--and somewhat scary (as in, we found a [fake] gun under the bed) stays during our DITY move from Knoxville --> Edmond at the start of Matt's ASCP, I refuse to stay at any motel that includes "econo" in its name.

Once I got below 3h of remaining driving time...and once there was a carseat-wetting incident (that I knew I would prefer to drive through, as opposed to wake-up to), I propped the kids up with pillows and blankets and pushed through, arriving at my sister-in-law and her fiance's apartment complex around 5am this morning.  Knowing the sort of morning person monster Matt can be, I did not want to wake up our hosts at such an early hour, so I hung up blankets to cover the Kia's already-darkly-tinted windows, and cuddled/passed out with the girls until 7am when both were up and I really needed to use the bathroom!

We ended up getting a full extra day out of our vacation and, thankfully, our hosts were happy to see us, even at 7am.  We started off the day with [2 cups of] coffee, a swim in their complex's super-nice outdoor pool, lunch at my sister-in-law's office, a trip to the park, a huge couch nap during Princess and the Frog and Ratatouille, and a one-of-a-kind Halloween bayou adventure at night.  Can't wait to see what the weekend holds!  :o)

Really neat dizzy-posts at a neighborhood park:

Making mummy hot dogs with her Tita:

Posing with "Mama Odie's snake" at the bayou:

The self-nicknamed "butterfly princess" all painted up:

Hoot owl at the bayou:

Hands-on "scat" station:

Baby Louis!!

Road trippin'

After some absolutely terrific parent-teacher conferences at Cimarron, the girls and I piled into the Kia (popped up the third row to give the kids a little more personal space).  We bid farewell to Tunia (who had already left a "surprise" on our bathmat, in response to seeing two suitcases materialize in the living room), Matt, and [not so much] Kumi (he is a great hedgehog, but not the most involved family pet, lol).

I am very used to road tripping (and traveling in general) solo, just me and the kids d/t Matt's military commitments.  I have taken the girls and Tunia to/from Japan on my own, and we have traveled to visit multiple family members during each of Matt's 3 deployments and 2 officer training (field training and IFS) assignments.  Generally speaking, our farewells are a bit teary-eyed d/t uncertainty (markedly more so during deployments than officer training--the only uncertainty in the latter was whether or not Matt would pass [field training d/t a last minute calf injury and IFS d/t extreme motion sickness]).

However, I was not expecting to see Matt tear up as he walked us out to the car.  He commented (on his inability to join us d/t not being able to take leave during training): "It's like I'm back...but I'm not."  Sad though those words were, I also know it was mostly the stress talking--as Matt is still given a good deal of time off during training, and had his sister-in-law and her fiance been free the weekend earlier, he would have been able to accompany us thanks to a three-day pass for Columbus Day.  It is common for anyone who has family within driving distance to take full advantage of those passes (we have other ones coming up for Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years).  So there are plenty of opportunities ahead in the future--permitted we are willing to take a chance driving in Oklahoma's snowy winters.  Fortunately, we are looking forward to back-to-back visits from family sandwiched around Thanksgiving.

Back to Matt's stress: he starts Phase 2: The Flightline on Friday the 21st, and has his "dollar ride" to look forward to the following Monday!  Which means he is tackling the hardest (claim based on failure rate, averaging 2 students/class) academic unit, weather, until then.  Can't wait to see him up in the air, and the girls are super excited too!  :o)

Dog sitting

Two almost-episodes of this arose during the past week.

The first:

I noticed, on the Student Spouse FB group, that one of the wives was looking for a puppy-sitter (just for an overnight).  Tunia is notoriously ill-behaved with older dogs, but tends to do well with puppies (I think because they tend to submit to her push dominance more readily).  I LOVE dogs, as do the girls, so I thought it would be fun to borrow one for an overnight.  We arranged for the potential playmates to meet (at our house/on Petunia's territory...not a well thought-out location) and Petunia was a neurotic barking mess before they even rang the door bell.  The 7-month-old pup, a border collie, with probably about 5 pounds on Petunia, did not submit.

It was actually a very embarrassing situation for me, as this was also my first meeting with this particular spouse--and she had to be wondering what I was thinking in thinking, even for a second, that crazy old Petunia might get along with another dog!  In Petunia's defense, I think due to the unprecedented high volume of both pets and young children in this particular base housing locale (I think largely d/t the relatively young age of all pilot students--everyone either has young children and/or pets), she has been unusually on edge since moving here.

The second:

I am road-tripping with the girls to Louisiana tomorrow, after attending their parent-teacher conferences and taking care of a few last-minute errands.  My sister-in-law and her boyfriend live there, and they are both very present in the girls' lives, although we have yet to visit them on their own turf.  The girls (especially my oldest) are also insanely huge Princess and the Frog fans, so it is going to be great to visit some scenes straight out of the movie, as well!!  The trip is 12h each way, and I am hoping to leave tomorrow afternoon, arrive Friday afternoon, and split the return trip over Sunday/Monday.

My initial instinct was that I would need to arrange for someone to come to the house to walk the dog at least 3 times/day.  Matt quickly agreed.  It's not that his schedule is so crazy that he doesn't have time to walk her (although that may soon be the case, when he enters Phase 2--the flightline, in about 2 weeks), he just severely lacks interest...particularly as we do not have a yard enclosure to just release her into.  Although we were SURE we'd be putting up a [chain link, the only kind permitted in our side of town] fence when we moved in, the free lawncare for unfenced yards was way too good to pass up and the combination of great paths and general safety makes it incredibly easy and fun to walk Petunia as much as she needs it.

Two nights ago, I was double-checking with Matt about hiring some neighborhood kids to help out with the dog, and much to my surprised, he impressed me by saying he would be happy to take care of her (and our low/no-maintenance hedgehog, Kumi).  I'm not sure if he is just really appreciative of her company in what will be an otherwise-quiet house, or if the idea of kids coming in to walk his pet while he is passed out in the recliner or playing Xbox would simply be too embarrassing, but either way, I am thrilled he is up for the challenge!  And, despite his statements to the contrary, I know he has a huge soft spot for our little dog.  :o)