Mardi Gras Time!

So, it may not be his first Mardi Gras, but somehow we skipped Mardi Gras last year and this year was Trace's first Mardi Gras Parade! He had a parade at school on Thursday, where he discovered beads! He loves them and they have been all over my house ever since. :) Here are a few pics from the parade Thursday:

Then on Saturday it was off to the Kids Parade in Lafayette. Trace was in a trance the whole time watching the floats and bands march by. He was a little afraid of the fire truck as it got closer; but otherwise, he loved it! He would put on every bead handed to him and I would have to sneak a few off of him when he wasn't looking, so they wouldn't weigh him down. He also got two stuffed monkeys, a football and a pink rubber duckie, which he held on to the entire day...and chewed on, which I thought was disgusting. But hey, it's Mardi Gras! :)

After the parade, we went over to my uncle's house for a mini family reunion and lots of food! :) Trace loved meeting his new cousin, Gavin, who is almost 6 months old. So sweet!

Oh, and one last random pic...Trace got a basketball goal from his Uncle Eli for Christmas. We put it up last weekend and he's been hoopin' it up ever since...lookout Shaq, here comes Trace!

A Camping We Will Go

A couple of weeks ago, we brought Trace on his first camping trip. We joined a few friends of ours to hang out for the weekend in Flint Creek, Mississippi. It was a cool campground with a couple of huge lakes, geese, ducks, walking/bike trails and no fish.

Yep, the dry streak continued for The Ring fishing group. This marks three camping trips now where we haven't really caught any fish. This time, all of us except Kenny didn't even get a bite. And Kenny's fish was a whopper, as you'll see in a second.

Despite the lack of fish, the trip was great. Trace got to play with his friends Jack, Addy and Joe the whole time. They especially enjoyed feeding bread to the geese and the nature walk.

Highlights of the trip included sitting around the campfire and making smores, a fierce battle of Trivial Pursuit '90s edition (Congratulations to the Rush family for taking down the Ringos), everyone breaking their diets and devouring a king-sized king cake in one day and just being able to spend the weekend with some great people.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Kenny's monster fish:

The kids were impressed:

Going on the Nature Walk:

Checking out the geese & ducks:

Jack and Jon hanging around the campfire:

Jack and Trace chillin' on the steps that they enjoyed climbing so much: