Long weekend in Baton Rouge

We spent a lovely long weekend in Louisiana last week. We hadn't been to visit Cory's family since Memorial Day weekend, so I took a few vacation days and we loaded up the car and hit the road. We drove down on a Thursday night so we would have the whole weekend ahead of us.


Friday morning, we woke up at our leisure and enjoyed the morning. We had lunch at home, and then I went out with Cory's mom and sister and Penny for a little shopping! We didn't go overboard, but we did take a picture since it was Penny's first trip to the mall. :-) We also went to Target and I picked up the ingredients to make Smitten Kitchen's icebox cake. Side note: the wafer cookies called for in the recipe have tiny bits of coconut which are only noticeable after the cookies soften. It doesn't bother me, but it does bother some people so I substituted the cookie part of Oreos.


We made it home in time to feed the baby and get everyone together to go out for dinner. We went to La Fonda's for Mexican food (a tradition). When we got home, we put Penny to bed and Cory's mom and I put together the cake, which involved taking apart a lot of Oreos. Some icing may have been consumed during the demolition - I'm not telling how much!


Saturday was another lazy morning. For lunch, we got sandwiches to go from a place called Fat Daddy's, which, it turns out, has an excellent muffaletta. Penny's cousin Steve came back from his dad's house and we spent the afternoon playing. Penny worked on her crawling skills and took a turn in the walker.


Saturday night was Cory's grandmother's birthday party at La Carreta, another Mexican restaurant and family favorite. We brought the icebox cake and it was a big hit! It was really great to see everyone. Penny wore a smocked bubble suit that Katie wore when she was littler.


After dinner Cory's parents brought Penny home so we could have a night out with friends (and I could have a daiquiri). We went to visit our friends Matt and Amanda, and Cory got to spend a little quality time with their crazy dog Rolo. He would bark and bark until Cory picked him up.


Sunday, I slept in and then Christy came over to play with Penny and go have a girls' lunch. We ate at BJ's, home of the Pazookie (a big, warm cookie in a skillet with ice cream scooped on top). It was delicious. We checked out the closing sale at Borders, where I picked up a book on making gelato and sorbet. Looking forward to trying that out! I met up with the family to have dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, and after that, plus dessert at Yogurtland, we called it a night.


Monday was the last full day in Louisiana. Cory and I brought Penny to Izzo's to meet Matt for lunch. On the way back to the house, we stopped at the Whole Foods in Baton Rouge. It's so much bigger than the one in Memphis, and it sells wine! Cory got some snack mix, and I picked up some baking chocolate, some pistachios (for the impending gelato, hopefully) and some wine. We carted it back to the house and didn't get out again that day. We grilled out for dinner - burgers, hot dogs, sausages, the works. We always eat well with family, whether it's mine or Cory's!


Tuesday, we woke up, loaded up the car, and hit the road. Penny was a little cranky at first, but slept most of the time. After a particularly long nap, she was her super happy self again. When we were almost home, we made a stop at Nonie's work to visit and see everyone.


All in all, it was a wonderful trip and we hope to go again really soon!

Memorial Day weekend

Better late than never, right? I kept putting off blogging about our Memorial Day weekend because it was a long one. I took off work Friday and Tuesday, so we spent a long weekend in Louisiana with Cory's family. Thursday afternoon, Cory and Penny swung by my work to pick me up, and we were on our way!


We had packed sandwiches for us, and bottles for Penny, so we only had to stop once for gas on the way. Penny was great as usual, and slept most of the time. We got there a little after 11pm and hung out for a little while before going to bed.


Friday, we got up and put Penny in a cute outfit (a Katie hand-me-down), and went to eat lunch at Izzo's, one of our favorite burrito places and a usual stop for us when we visit. On the way back we got snowballs (like snow cones but the ice is super fine, like snow). Mine was coconut flavored with soft serve vanilla ice cream in the middle. Delicious!


Later that night, we went to La Fonda, where the food was good as usual, and the service was odd and slow (also as usual). A family tradition.


The next day was Cory's cousin's wedding. It was at the nearby church which had recently been renovated - so pretty! My friend Christy was in the wedding and it was great to see her and her mom. Penny wore a dress that I had originally bought for Katie, and that Katie wore to our wedding two years ago.


Later, we had dinner with our friends Adrian and Jessica, and they came over and visited with us and Penny after we ate. Then, we put the baby to bed and got to go out! We met some friends at one of our old college bars for a few drinks. We stayed and visited until almost 2am. It was great. That was definitely a Sunday morning I was glad to hand the baby over to MawMaw and go back to bed! Really, though, we are so lucky that Penny is sleeping through the night. Being an early riser is okay if you've had some continuous sleep. :-)


Sunday was a lazy day for us. I think we had lunch around the house and then Cory's mom, Penny, and I went to Target. I also got in a little work on this:


That night we went to Parrain's for dinner, which was just okay, but reminded me I want to try to recreate their cole slaw. It is just a little sweet, but mustardy and peppery, and it has peanuts in it! That plus their huge onion rings might have been my favorite part of the meal. :-) We also went to visit Cory's grandparents at their house. It was great to see them and visit for a while.

Monday was Memorial Day, so we mostly ate and visited with people. We had lunch at La Carreta (Cory's family loves Mexican food, for sure!), and then went to meet Cory's godmother. Cory had not seen her in a long time, and she had never met me or Penny. Then, Christy came over to see Penny. Once she left, we took Penny to our friend Matt's parents' house so she could meet them. We ended the night with a cookout and some yummy food!

Tuesday was hard. We had to leave early because we had things to do when we got back home. We had breakfast and then packed up the car. I think Cory's mom didn't want to let go of Penny! We had such a great time, it was really hard to leave. We are so glad our little girl is such a great traveler, though!