The big highlight of yesterday was the feast we had at my brother's house. He dry aged a ginormous piece of beef and it was good! and no one died! Also, he and his wife have a gorgeous baby girl who I could just eat with a spoon. And finally, it has happened. I think the children outnumbered the adults at dinner. Scary!
Here's a group shot from today. There are two kids missing in the photo, one stayed home because she wasn't feeling well and the other was being a freakazoid about getting up on the ladder. Also, there's a little girl hidden behind a big cousin in this photo. But my point is, lots of kids.
The boy in front, Gunner, is my 13 year old nephew. You can't tell from the picture, but Carlie is sitting on top of a ladder and I am standing behind her, then we've got two kids in a bench seat perched on top of a ladder with my sister standing behind them. We are in the front yard of a gorgeous home on St. Charles Avenue. Gunner is perched halfway on the front of the ladders and half on the fence of the house, spidermonkey style. He's quite agile, isn't he?
This is Lana, and her momma and brother. Is she not the cutest thing? And yes, she is a baby with beads around her neck. And yes, she's still alive, so shut up. It's Mardi Gras. It's what you do. And next time I babysit I'll put her to bed on her stomach surrounded by lots of cozy stuffed animals and a big fluffy pillow. So there. You can't see it under the hat, but she has RED RED RED hair. Not much of it, but what's she's got is RED.
We went to two day parades, then the gang split up. My sister and I took Carlie, nephew Jackson (age 2) and nephew Gunner (age 13) to Endymion, a big deal night parade. But we had time to kill. So we took the kids to a bar and they had a burger while we had beers. God bless America, that's how it should always be. No photos from the bar, though. Damnit.After the bar, we did a little tailgating and watched a wedding.
We watched Endymion from the spectator bleachers at Gallier Hall, where Mayor Ray Nagin was MC'ing the parade. He appeared and sounded like he might have been a little drunk. Just saying.
Get ready... here comes the Grand Marshall of Endymion...
It's him. Take my word for it.
Followed by a "special guest"...
Viewing the parade from the bleachers was a little too tame for the street hustling kids, so they hit the street and clung to the fencing. Front row, baby, all the way.
I've got more pictures that I wish I could put up, but we are using two cameras and one of them is in the car. That's the one with photos of the gorgeous house that we were at today. So fine. And the photographic evidence of Carlie's bead hustling abilities (i.e. 175 pounds of freaking beads and stuffed animals).If the weather is not crap tomorrow, we're going to three day parades and one night parade, which is Bacchus, which is a biggie, with grand marshall Val Kilmer. We're spending Monday at the race track. Because now that we've taught the kids how to go to bars, we need to teach them how to bet and gamble. Tuesday we head home.
