New Orleans and Baton Rouge

One of the perks of my job is that I get to visit places that I normally wouldn’t have a reason to go to. I went to visit 8 of my partners in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. New Orleans was really cool, and I especially liked the French Quarter. They also have great food. On my first day, I visited a partner in the morning and she showed me the view from her 23^rd story office. It was really neat to see such cool buildings. I had an hour to kill before my next appointment so I walked to the French Quarter. It was raining so I bought an umbrella at Walgreens. There are a lot of little shops and it was fun to take see the pretty architecture. That’s always one of my favorite things about traveling – the architecture. Maybe I should have been an architect J My next partner took me to lunch and I had gumbo for the first time as well as swordfish. Delish! I then had to take a drive to see another partner about 45 minutes away. That night I had a great shrimp dish. The only thing I don’t like about these trips is when I go by myself. “Table for one” isn’t my favorite phrase. After dinner I had to try Café du Monde’s famous beignets. They did not disappoint! I’m not sure if any regular old donut is going to measure up after having those.

The next day I drove out to Baton Rouge where I met with 4 partners. Between a couple of the visits I had a few hours so I went to walk around LSU’s campus. What a beautiful campus! The trees are massive. My first stop, of course, was to see Mike the Tiger. He has a great habitat right next to the stadium and all of the students walk by to pay him a visit. Everyone has a lot of team spirit there. I saw backpacks, rings, watches and shirts. The partner I visited that night had only missed one LSU home football game in the last 19 years. The only reason he missed the one game was because his brother-in-law got married. Now that’s a football fan!

After LSU I walked around downtown to see the state capitol. I wish I would have had time to tour one of the plantations! That night my partner took me to a restaurant where the specialty is the “Hallelujah Crab.” It was soft shell crab stuffed with shrimp and deep fried. It’s not every day that you have a meal like that! On my way back to New Orleans I stopped by at an outlet mall and spent the gift card Jocelyn gave me. I got some new shoes and jeans. I also saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen! I snapped a quick picture while I was driving so I couldn’t quite capture it all, but it was unreal.

The next morning I drove to my last partner visit. Their office is right next to a NASA facility. I had no idea NASA was in Louisiana. They said that there are also a lot of movies being made there next door because they have to pay less taxes if they make movies there. Jurassic Park is currently being made which is cool! After my visit I went down to the French Quarter to get some eggs benedict at Oceana. Instead of on an English muffin, it was on fried eggplant. They sure know how to make people fat! And happy J

I walked around a bit then headed to the airport. It was a cool trip and I’d like to go back someday with Tyler.

Lindsay's Graduation

     Lindsay graduated from BYU so we attended her graduation! Good job, Lin! She actually wore my graduation cap and gown. Going back to BYU always makes me nostalgic. I can’t believe I graduated 5 YEARS AGO. Seriously…where does the time go? I don’t feel like I’m getting old so I guess that’s good. As Frank Sinatra says, “you make me feel so young”… I guess it helps that I married Tyler! We went to brunch with the family afterward at Mimi’s Café and it was delicious. I always forget about that place but they really do have an amazing brunch. Their bran muffins are top notch. I actually had to go straight there to a team lunch for work at Goodwood so I consider that a good Friday. 

     Congraduation, Lindsay! Now onto marriage! Her and Jay just got engaged and they are getting married on August 12^th. I can’t wait! 

Golfing, Taylor’s Wedding, Grandma’s Garden, Dinner with Amanda!

     Welp, the title of this post pretty much sums it up. We went golfing with Lindsay and Jay and Jocelyn and Leigh. The weather was nice. We played as couples, so the boys would drive and the girl’s would putt. There are also some pictures from when we went golfing the week before. I don’t really golf…it takes  a lot of patience and that’s something that I just don’t have. I think it’s fun to be outside in the nice weather and talk and just relax though so I’m on board! Tyler and I were actually a pretty good team! That night we went to Taylor Lansford’s wedding reception with my mom and Steve, and Jocelyn and Leigh. We came back to our house to play games afterward.

     Amanda came into town on whim and we went to dinner! We went to Wild Zucchini Grill, my new favorite place, and it was so delicious. She brought Xander with her who was just the absolute sweetest baby. It's so fun to see her as a mom.

Tyler's 31st Birthday

Tyler’s 31^st birthday was great! We always love celebrating birthdays at our house. It’s like an extra holiday. The night before, we went to the temple with his family then had dinner at Tepanyaki which is always incredible. They sang their version of "happy birthday" which somehow included "shake your booty, shake, shake your booty" and Tyler got on his chair and started shaking it! Oh man, he is a funny dancer and we were all rolling! We stopped by at the grocery store on the way home to buy a brownie mix and Tyler had me laughing my head off. He grabbed one of those little pin wheel things that you blow on and it spins. He was walking around the store blowing it casually saying that he could because it was his birthday. He then proceeded to say that he wanted cereal, reached his hand into the stand and pulled about 8 boxes of Trix into the cart. I was laughing so hard!

The morning of his birthday, I woke up and made him his favorite breakfast. His favorite breakfast may not be what you are guessing. It’s Cream of Wheat! And not just Cream of Wheat, but 3 buttered pieces of toast to go along with it and dip in it. I had also ordered him a new watch and had him open it before he started eating. He was so surprised and excited. I feel like I haven’t surprised him with a present in a while so I’m glad that he didn’t know what I was getting him. Well…he mostly didn’t know what I was getting him. I had asked Drew to help me pick out a watch and he said he would talk to Ty about it to see if he could get an idea of what he wanted. I was unsure about it because I didn’t want him to give it away but he said Ty wouldn’t suspect anything. He ended up talking to him and he didn’t suspect anything! I also got a suggestion from our friend Mitch and ended up buying it from the site he suggested. The thing that kind of gave it away was Heather asking about his watch the night before when we went to the temple with the Parcell’s. The funny thing is I hadn’t even told Heather that I was giving Tyler a watch! He assumed since Heather was asking about it that maybe I had talked with her to go in on it with her. Either way, he was really happy with it and it was fun for me to surprise him!

His mom took him to lunch and shopping in the afternoon and then we met with his family and my family at Milagro’s for a yummy dinner that night. It’s always fun to spend time with family. My mom gave him a gift card to get new baseball pants (he’s on two teams this year) and of course some balloons J Happy 31^st birthday, Tyler! I sure love you.