Writing this post, I’m so sad that Girls Week is over! My sisters are pretty much the greatest, and we all love to explore new places, so this was the perfect trip for us. To kick off our visit to New Orleans we hit a couple of our favorite stops Cafe du Monde (for the beignets) and Jackson Square (for the sights and street performers).
How cute is my sis with her kids?!post Cafe du Monde happinessI was so thrilled Nick got to join us for the day. He’s so busy working hard during the summer, that he doesn’t have a ton of time to do fun things, so this was a real treat!
We also tried a new restaurant St. Roche Market. It was so good and unique. It was a big market with 12 different restaurants inside, kind of like a food court idea, but waaaaaay cooler, tastier, and overall more exciting than a food court. I ordered the Morning Bowl from Juice NOLA and Nick got the crawfish poutine from Fete au Fete . And Jay got a cupcake for dinner from Bittersweet Confections because he threw a massive screaming tantrum and we caved…not our finest parenting moment. But hey, the cupcake was delicious! Seriously every single thing we ordered was amazing, I’m definitely making a point to stop there at least a couple more times before we move back to UT in a month.
this is what my sisters and niece ordered
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around the French Quarter, laughing and playing games and enjoying the beautiful sights. New Orleans really is such a unique and cultural place, with so much history!
watching some street performers! There were some really talented people.
Such a sweet Dad always, he really takes his job as a Dad seriously.
my sweet sisters!
Whats a sister trip post without showing what we’re really like. 😉
We did the same swamp tour we did with Nick and his co-workers, with my sisters. The experience was super different though because we had a different tour guide and were with a different crowd of people (older people rather than 18-22 year olds).
Hanging out before we got on the swamp boat.the whole gang except for Nicky
This tour was amazing! The guide shared so much information about the trees, birds, landscape, etc. But we also saw a lot of alligators this time too. We actually saw one eating a fish whole, two feet from our boat. It was so awesome and a little unnerving.
Charlie was totally trying to hang off of the edge of the boat the whole time. It was so funny!
It was seriously so wonderful having them visit. My sisters are such special and beautiful people. Also, I’m starting to think we need to pick cool places to move every summer to convince friends and family to come visit!
Now wish us luck packing all of the things we still want to do in Louisiana into the last month we’re here!
Last week my sisters came into town for a girls weekend. It was such an amazing and refreshing weekend. My sisters, Nicky and Kenz, are the most kind, loving, loyal and fun people I know. It is always a party when they are around, so the last week has pretty much been the best!
We hit up our favorite donut place in Baton Rouge and the pool before we headed out to Pensacola for the weekend. I will miss District Donuts so embarasssingly much when we move back to Utah in the fall, haha. They have the best and most creative donuts, *amazing* kolaches–the best I’ve ever had, and our personal favorite, the most delicious Steak, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Taco.
Happy family because we’re filling our bellies with the yummiest food.Jay and Kennedy relaxing poolside. Jay is obsessed with his older cousins, and they are so good to him! Also, Kennedy hurt her foot, hence the ice on it.
Pensacola is a four hour drive from Baton Rouge, and the drive is gorgeous. Louisiana is one of the states covered with the most water which makes for beautiful drives over tons of lakes and swamps. We drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and then finally made it into Florida.
Pensacola is a small city on the coast, we stayed in a darling little house with blue siding and white shutters. The first day we spent there we visited Pensacola Beach, which is insanely beautiful! The sand is white as white can be and so so soft. I’ve been to a lot of beaches, but this sand was definitely the best out of any of them. It was super hot the day we visited and the humidity didn’t help either. But we bought a little pop up tent that helped because it gave us a little bit of shade.
My sister, Nicky, with her sweet, perfect baby London. and how cute is London’s swimsuit?? its the most darling little watermelon bikini!Nicky and baby London getting some shade in the tent. Seriously, if you take a baby to a beach you need one of these. It was a lifesaver!
My sisters two kids loved playing where the waves crashed, and Jay loved playing in the sand building “sand castles” which he would promptly destroy before they were even finished. 😉 After a couple hours he built up the courage to come into the water with us and ending up loving it so much. Definitely would’ve made his Californian, beach loving Daddy proud. 🙂
Shoutout to Nick’s awesome parents who bought us all these sand toys!
After a few hours at the beach we were roasting! So the boys and I headed home to relax before we headed to the Oar House for dinner that night.
My sweetest Charlie Bear! I can’t believe how grown up he’s becoming.Walks along the boardwalk at the Oar House before dinner. The views were beautiful.It’s not a sister trip unless you get a sister pic! Don’t mind my crazy hair, having two babies back to back has done a number on my hair with the two rounds of crazy baby hair regrowth.The cutest little cousins!
The Oar House was so neat! It was right on water, so the views were incredible. And it had a family friendly party atmosphere with tons of yard games that you could play while you waited for your food.
ping-pong while we waited for our food
The next day we got brunch at the Native Cafe. The food was delicious, but the service was really really bad. I would still recommend it, just don’t expect super kind and patient (especially with kids) waiters and waitresses. The cafe is run by Natives to the area, which is kind of cool.
After brunch we headed to the Pensacola lighthouse on the airforce base an hour or so away. The lighthouse was gorgeous.
Hot and sweaty in front of the lighthouse, it was a humid day!!
My little sister Kenz and my sister Nicky’s two kids Jaden and Kennedy got to climb to the top of the lighthouse. Nicky and I and Jay and Charlie had to stay back because they wouldn’t let babies and toddlers up there. We wandered through the museum after and it was neat learning the history of lighthouses.
Kenz is pretty much the coolest Aunt ever, she is so great with all the grandkids even though they are all such different ages.
That evening we drove to Orange beach an hour away in Alabama. This was such a hidden gem! for us at least. We did not have high expectations but the city was so cool. There was lots to do and the area was drop dead gorgeous. We hit the pool in the afternoon and had some fun with my niece and nephews awesome Target floaties.
the popsicle one Jaden is on is my favorite:)
Then my sisters went to the beach after I had to drive the boys home and they said it was beautiful and relaxed. I’m hoping to go back to visit sometime, because I feel like we only cracked the surface with all of the fun things to do there.
Kenz with London. Always making the babies laugh.
And can we just talk about how gorgeous my sisters are?!
The next couple days we spent in New Orleans and in Lafayette going on a Gator Tour. A post on the rest of the trip will be coming soon!
