NOLA For The Day

You read that title right...

The Turner's headed over to New Orleans for the day today.

We took Caroline to the Audubon Zoo & The Aquarium of the America's. 

We're only about 2 1/2 hours from New Orleans & it's all interstate..

So I'm thinking this is going to become more regular thing.

Not just for the zoo & aquarium but for all the other great things NOLA has to offer. 

[Like Football, Shopping, Gambling & Bourbon Street When I'm Not So Pregnant]

lol ;) 

We had a great day though. 

We packed our lunch, plenty of snacks and some drinks.

[all about saving a dollar when you can!]

We left Fairhope before 9AM & we were in the zoo before Noon.

Caroline loved it.

She's loved every zoo we've been too but the older she gets the more animated she is about seeing all the different animals. 

She was crazy for the monkeys & the flamingos :) 

It was adorable.

She made the sound of every animal we saw.

People were getting a kick out of her!

She's always the star of the show lol 

After the Zoo we went to the Aquarium across town. 

They had so many different exhibits and different themed rooms. 

Caroline really liked the sea horses & the otters.

OH, & she loved the frogs [weirdooooo, just kidding].

She kept saying "ribbit, ribbit, ribbit" through the whole exhibit. 

It was a productive day, I'm so glad we did it!

It's something I would definitely do again!

Anyone thinking about going to this zoo & aquarium... the only recommendations

 that I have would be to: 

1) Purchase the combo pack (it will save you money) 

2) Purchase your tickets online before you go if possible (it will save you time)

 3) Check New Orleans community calendar for the week your wanting to go (it will save you frustration)

^^we went during Fan Fest & 2 days before the Sugar Bowl.

meaning there were people everywhere!

Still enjoyed it, there were just a ton of people!

Just my 2 cents :) 

"& This Is Christmas!"

[ The title of this blog entry is dedicated to my silly husband who walks around singing this line over & over again ] 
Thanks for getting it stuck in my head, honey!

First of all let me start by saying I hope that you & yours had a very Merry Christmas / Happy Holiday! We sure did here at the Turner House :) 

Christmas Eve we had to adjust our plans because of little lady developed a nasty sounding cough.

So unfortunately we didn't get to go to the Christmas Eve service at church but we didn't want to risk any other little babe waking up with a bad cough on Christmas.

We had a pancake breakfast for dinner [Caroline's favorite]

& we watched The Grinch + A Christmas Story.

We threw in a little bit of Mickey Mouse's Christmas in there too :) 

We opened our Christmas Eve boxes filled with our PJs and other Christmas related goodies.

[Christmas book, Christmas M&M's, Christmas Sippy Cup, Christmas Rubber Ducky, Christmas Stuffed Lion, & regular popcorn]

^All things she could enjoy on Christmas Eve.

She named her lion Roary.

:) 

Before bed, we put cookies and milk out for Santa 

although I'm sure at this point he would have preferred something much stronger lol 

& then we went to bed.

It was really strange. I haven't been this excited for Christmas since I was a little kid waiting for Christmas morning and hoping to hear Santa Claus in the middle of the night. But for some reason, I was up every.single.hour. & each time I woke up, I was wide awake and ready to go! 6:30 is when I called it and decided to wake up Joseph & Caroline.

Poor Caroline. My little girl sleeps in as late as she can usually and here I am waking her up at 6:30. She was out of it and just wanted to be held by daddy...

until we rounded the corner and she saw what Santa had left in her living room. 

Then there was no stopping her. She immediately snapped out of her sleepiness and went from toy to toy checking everything out. 

She was so happy :) 

Best feeling ever seeing her little face full of excitement. 

Caroline must have been very good this year because Santa was so good to her!

After opening all of our presents we had a little bit of down time and then we had to get ready for our trip to Niceville.

We spent the day in Niceville with the Robb side of the family.

Food, Family & Friends. 

A perfect day in my book. 

We watched basketball - opened presents- played outside and had a Prime Rib Christmas Dinner.

So glad that we got to see everyone and spend the day with them. 

Caroline had a blast running around, so much so that she skipped her nap 

oops :) 

After dinner, we made our way to Brewton to spend some time with the Turner bunch. 

We opened presents & played, played, played. 

It was already late so we didn't stay up too much longer.

But we were back at it the next day! 

The weekend was really relaxing. 

We stayed in Brewton until Sunday afternoon seeing family.
We made the rounds to see everyone as we normally do.
Caroline remembers every place and everyone who lives at that place.
smarty pants. 

It was good to come home after all the excitement of the holiday.
I already took all the Christmas decorations down.
I guess I'm kinda 'odd' like that.
I feel so good having my house back to its natural order.
+ all the new things! 

Joseph has the majority of this week off - so I'm looking forward to spending some quality family time. We'll be heading to New Orleans Tuesday for some Aquarium & Zoo fun!
[it's kinda like our family thing]
We.Love.Animals.&.Zoo's.In.General.
haha

And Wednesday Caroline & I will hit the road for a Niceville day trip.
Just because :)
Fingers crossed that the weather won't be too awful [like it's supposed to be!]