The Hensley Family
Noah has arrived!! He was born on 7/19/10!!
Trey's Graduation Weekend
Trey graduation from college last weekend! It's crazy to think my little brother is all grown up and in the real world now! He graduated with a degree in Elementary Education with a 4.0 (Summa Cum Laude)! We are so incredibly proud of him and were so happy to be there to help him celebrate such an amazing accomplishment!
I also got to pull off an amazing surprise on my mom and Trey too! My Aunt Shell texted me one night and told me she wanted to come for Trey's graduation and she wanted to surprise everyone so we drove from Fargo to the Omaha airport, picked her up then went to my parents house. When we were getting out of the car my parents came out to meet us and noticed there were 3 people. Then my mom saw who it was and just stood there, mouth agape, for what seemed like 30 seconds. She was shocked....it was pretty awesome! It was wonderful to be able to be together for such an amazing occasion.
Noah met Shell for the first time and they were quite the pair! They played outside a lot (and if you haven't noticed Noah has a thing for going pants-less). Noah played in his first puddle and it was quite the sight! They had fun stomping, splashing and jumping. Noah even stuck his face in the puddle...he's a goofy boy.
Last of New Orleans
Swamp Tour
Championship Game: KU vs. UK
Easter Weekend 2
Easter Weekend
We spent Easter weekend in Nebraska at my parent's house. We went on an Easter Egg Hunt where we got to go inside a fire truck and an ambulance, meet Herbie Husker and the Easter Bunny and play lots of carnival games. Noah also tried his first popsicle and dyed Easter eggs for the first time. We went to church on Easter with Noah's Godparents Kathe and Jerry and that night we had a huge Easter feast.
We have finally gotten back to normal around here after all of our travels. Last Saturday was gorgeous so we took advantage of the nice weather and spent some time at the park. Noah just loves being outside and running around.
He also tried his first marshmallow peep recently. He wasn't sure at first but once he got past the outside he really dug into it.
And a new development...this boy loves to wear shoes but pants, not so much.
New Orleans {Part II}
We spent a lot of time walking around the French Quarter checking out the architecture, resturants and little shops. We also took the ferry across the river because we were told we could get great views of the city from it. We did but it was in the middle of the afternoon so the sun was way too bright and I wasn't able to get any great pictures. We did get quite the entertainment while on the ferry from a rapper and singer. The rapper guy did an original song which was not the best but the lady sang Adele was was pretty amazing. Not what you expect when you walk onto a ferry but it was fun.
We also took a tour of a rum factory which was really interesting. We learned all about how rum is made and got to sample all of their product (Old New Orleans Rum). The machine in the picture is an old perfume machine from Paris. It is a smaller, local distillery but they have been getting a lot of attention lately and have started distributing in many states.
New Orleans {Part I}
Originally my plan was to break up New Orleans into one or two posts but it turns out I have a bit of an obsession with my camera (who knew?) and I took way too many pictures. Soooo, I'm pretty much going to do a post for each activity we did while visiting. This first post is going to feature Bourbon Street, St. Louis Cemetery and The Southern Food and Beverage Museum.
Bourbon Street was quite the dirty, smelly, skin-crawling experience. It literally smelled like trash, booze and I don't know what else. All I know is that it was bad. It's kind of ridiculous how packed it was at all times of the day. We weren't sure if it was so busy because of all the people in town for the games or if it was just always that crazy. I'm guessing the later. It was pouring one one of the nights so we ducked into a dueling piano bar which was really fun. There were also lots of fun street performers including silver statue lady, several magicians and my personal favorite the rain band. They were playing so awesome jazz while dancing in the pouring rain. It was a really cool thing to see.
It seems like the theme of our vacation was "get somewhere right after they close or minutes before." And it was definitely true for the St. Loius Cemetery...we got there about 5 minutes after they locked up. What kind of cemetery closes at 3 during the week and at noon on the weekends? Guess we should have done a little more research. We did manage to see a bit through the wrought-iron gate and Joel's stretch armstrong arms and height came in handy. Most of these pictures were taken with him holding the camera above the stone gate and blindly snapping.
We also visited the Southern Food and Beverage Museum which was pretty interesting. It gave the history of lots on the area and how the food mainstays of the region came to be. The history of the cocktail was also shared. They had some old, unique kitchen items, salvaged items from Katrina, jackets made from red beans and rice and other collections. There was also a really cool hand-written cookbook that I of course loved...and it was opened to a dessert recipe. I think they may have known I was coming. As much as I love food, I was ready to go after about 45 minutes but Joel likes to be Mr. Thorough at museums and make sure not a sign goes unread :-)
Stay tuned for more on our trip!
