10th anniversary trip to New Orleans.

I mentioned earlier about David's parents coming to keep the children, so that David and I could go away for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  I still can't believe it's been 10 years already.  Wow!  We've acoomplished much in our 10 years, too.   Anyway, we have been talking for a while about what to do for our big trip.  I just didn't feel comfortable going out of the country or even flying, so after serveral talks and Papa and Gigi graciously offering to keep the children at our house, we went to one of our most favorite places in the whole world.  New Orleans!  We had not been back there together without children since we lived there, and it was really a treat!  Sunday after church, we hit the road.  

This was our first stop in Picayune, and it was most appropriate.  During our seminary days, we ate lots of Popeyes chicken, where two could dine for $5.99.  That is not the case anymore, ha!  We checked into our hotel, rode around for a while trying to decide where to eat, and we ended up at this place.  

Mulate's is one of our favorite eats.  Our first time to eat there was during seminary when David was interviewing with First Baptist Atlanta.  We ate crawfish corn chowder and salad.  It was delicious!  

Monday, we wanted to find a place to watch the UGA game, and our plan was to eat at Voo Doo BBQ on St. Charles, another favorite.  But. . .they were watching the Nebraska/S Carolina game, what!  So we left, and drove around like mad looking for a place.  We ended up at Serranos, which was also a favorite place of ours.  They willingly changed the channel for us, so we were most content to eat chips and cheese dip and watch the dawgs play.  Sadly, it didn't end up as we had hoped.  

Monday night we treated ourselves to a fancy dessert at Mr. B's on Royal Street.  It was so yummy!  I had bread pudding and Cafe Au Lait.  David ate the pecan pie.  

During our stay, we were able to go to the Sugar Bowl thanks to a good friend here in Hattiesburg.  We didn't really care for either team, but we sure are not about to turn down the chance to go to a college football game.  In the Superdome!  Some of our good friends from First Atlanta, Kevin and Casey, are huge Michigan fans, so we took this picture for them!  

Definitely, without a doubt, my favorite, favorite thing about being away with my love for a few days was our daily walks around the quarter.  Every morning, we got up, put on our walking clothes, and walked and walked and walked.   A couple of days, we even went twice!  It was great, the weather was perfect, and the company was oh so sweet.  David never went in the St. Louis Cathedral while we were in New Orleans for seminary, so we went inside and walked around.  Beautiful.  

The quarter does not offer the nicest bathroom facilities, so David helped me sneak into several restaurants, ha!  This was one of them.  I just loved the name!  

Each day when we walked, we had hopes of having beignets at Cafe Du Monde, but the line was always halfway down to Jackson Square, but finally we got it!  

And they did not disappoint.  I don't know if you can go the big easy and not stop here.  

There is no small amount of cheap entertainment in New Orleans either.  We see these street dancers every time we are here, but we've never stopped to watch, so we did.  It was nice to be able to be spontaneous with our time.  That's a rare treat for us!

Our last night in New Orleans, we got an upgrade from the seminary hotel, to the Renaissance Arts Hotel on Tchopatoulis (pronouced chop-a-tool-is), just blocks from the Superdome.  Thank you, Papa and Gigi, for hooking us up!  It was such a trendy place to stay.  We loved being in the middle of all the action on Sugar Bowl night.  

And here's our view during the big game.  We had a great time.  The game itself was not that great until the end.  In fact, we left at the start of the 4th quarter and walked back to our hotel.  We ended up watching the rest of the game in the restaurant at our hotel.  The Michigan band played and marched down the street right in front of our window after the game.  What a fun night!  

And here we are, 10 years ago on January 5, 2002, in Statesboro, Georgia, at Pittman Park United Methodist Church.  Right after we were married, we lived in Marmaduke, Arkansas, for two years.  Then, we lived with my mother for a few months in Elberton, Georgia, before being called to seminary in New Orleans.  After seminary, we were called to Atlanta, Georgia, where we have lived for the past 6 years before this October, when we were called to Hattiesburg, Missisippi.  During that time, we also worked MFUGE twice in Nashville, Tennessee, and once in Mobile, Alabama.  And then, there are our four little blessings, Carter, Summer, Tilly, and Story.  If you had told me 10 years ago that I would have four children in 48 months, I would have told you that you were crazy!  Now, we're the crazy ones, crazy in love!  So thankful for 10 years with David.  Thankful for our life together and the sweet family we are building along the way.  Oh, how I look forward to the next 10 with great anticipation.