Amber in Barbados, Carmen's driver's license and birthday party

Amber went on a sisters trip to Barbados to celebrate Crystal's 40th birthday. Brook was in a boot after injuring her Achilles tendon, so they stayed at an all-inclusive resort.

While she was away lounging on the beach, getting massages and pedicures, and eating fancy food, I was left to run the show at home. I made dinners and drove everyone around. I took Miles to soccer practice on Monday, and helped Carmen bake some recipes from the cookbook she got for her birthday.

Carmen had a driver's license appointment on Tuesday, where we found out the paperwork we brought wasn't correct. After scrambling to get that sorted out, we got to the driving test only to find out the Marshmallow's registration had expired last month, so she couldn't take it. They told us we could come back the next day, so I found a place to get the car inspected that night and we went back after school on Wednesday, where she successfully passed the test!

I went to Olivia's orchestra concert on Wednesday night and while Carmen and Damon went to Pride & Prejudice play practice Thursday and Friday I prepared for the birthday party Carmen wanted to have on Saturday.

On Saturday, Miles had a soccer game in the morning, followed immediately by solo and ensemble (he changed clothes in the school bathroom), then I rushed home to put up decorations.

Carmen invited over some friends and I had party games for them to play, and food to eat, including a delicious mango cake from that cookbook.

I was happy to have Amber back, and have advised her to stop taking sister trips during very busy weeks.

Amber's and Carmen's birthday

Amber's and Carmen's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, but also right between our New Orleans trip, and Amber's sister trip to Barbados. Amber had to drive to San Antonio that night, so we made sure to open presents before they left.

Amber got a running watch, Humble sweatshirt, books, pickleball paddles, and a welding mask.

Carmen got a water flosser, shirts, drawing pens, yarn, a cookbook, and weights, and some gift cards to use when she gets her license, among other things.

She also got some weights to finish what Santa started at Christmas.

Carmen's not Amber's squishy baby anymore, but we're still glad we have her.

New Orleans Part 2

I woke up very sick on Tuesday, but the show must go on because we had a reservation. We got up early and walked through the fog to the parking garage.

We drove just outside of town to our swamp boat tour with Cajun Encounters.

The tour guide was good and we saw some alligators, snakes, birds, and even spiders.

He also told us a lot about the swamp ecosystem and how it's currently being mismanaged and disappearing.

We weren't as impressed as the others on tour, since you can find alligators in Houston, too. I was hoping to see a wild pig, but we never did. The highlight of the trip was feeding a pack of raccoons.

After the tour we reparked the car at the garage, then walked back to the French Quarter for lunch at Nola Poboys. We shared a spicy shrimp poboy and it was delicious and perfectly spicy.

After lunch we wandered the French Quarter a bit deciding what to do.

We ended up at "The Historic New Orleans Collection", a city museum where they were temporarily displaying the Saints' Super Bowl trophy, plus several different exhibits about New Orleans history and nature.

Not being partiers, we were kind of running out of things to do at this point, so we walked over to Louis Armstrong park to stroll along its paths.

I was feeling pretty awful by this time and needed a rest, so we went back to the hotel and watched King Creole, and Elvis movie set in New Orleans that we found out about at the museum.

We wanted to do at least one fancy restaurant, so we went to dinner at the Gumbo Shop. I got the blackened catfish with shrimp and crabmeat in cream sauce, and Amber got a combo platter with gumbo, beans and rice, etouffee, and jambalaya. It was delicious.

On our last day I was feeling a little better. We went to Jackson Square, which had been closed because of the Super Bowl.

We visited all the tourist shops and bought big jar of the olive salad that goes on muffuletta sandwiches. We found an office of the Jean Lafitte National Park, but it was just a visitor center with some info about New Orleans culture and nature. The actual park is south of the city.

We checked out of the hotel before noon, walked back to our car and drove back home. But of course we stopped at Gator Chateau.

New Orleans Part 1

For the February break, we decided to leave the kids and go for a short trip to New Orleans. We originally bought plane tickets, but ended up canceling them after we tried to get an Airbnb or hotel and they were all over $1000 for Sunday night. We were confused until we realized it was because we were arriving on Super Bowl Sunday! We decided to drive instead. We left after church and used hotel points to stay in Baton Rouge, where we had mediterranean food for dinner.

Amber had just gotten over being sick, and I started having a sore throat on Monday morning. We drove into New Orleans and left the car in a downtown parking garage then went to see if there was anything left of the Super Bowl.

We saw lots of Eagles fans (the winning team), but not a lot of Chiefs fans. There were a few NFL shops with Chiefs gear 50% off. They were taking down barricades and cleaning up, no fan activities left. But it was cool to see the stadium still decked out with Super Bowl branding.

We walked from there to the Garden District. We did a self-guided walking tour of all the famous old homes and stately live oak and magnolia trees.

We walked back to the car to get my leftover dinner for lunch, then we took our bags and dropped them off at our hotel in the French Quarter.

While we waited for check-in time, we strolled down the French Quarter River Walk.

Moored right along the walk was the luxury yacht of the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who was in town for the big game.

The hotel messaged us that we could check in early, so we walked back, checked in. Our room was right off a little private alleyway that opened into a shared courtyard.

Once we got settled, we went to Cafe du Monde for some of their famous beignets (and some hot chocolate).

We walked around the French Quarter until our early evening jazz concert at Preservation Hall. This has been the epicenter of New Orleans jazz since the early 1960s, and the concert did not disappoint.

Afterwards, we wandered the French Quarter some more, then got muffuletta sandwiches from Verti Mart for dinner. They were delicious (I love the olive salad), but soooo greasy. (This is my "too much grease" face.)

I was for sure sick at this point, so we called it a night and went to bed.

Olivia's job

Olivia recently picked up a part-time job working at an art studio a few times a month.

The paychecks were starting to pile up, so we decided it was time for her to get her own bank account.

Carmen's first date

Carmen is still a couple weeks shy of her 16th birthday, but we couldn't say no when Neil DiVall wanted to ask her to a 50s themed formal dance.

They went with a big group and she said she had a great time.