Owen Goes on Vacation

Not many four month old kiddos can say they have had dinner on Bourbon St. We hope he isn't bragging about it at the nursery in church. :) Owen had his first (and like I told him probably only) vacation with only mom, dad and him.
Sam had a buddy getting married down in Lafayette, Louisiana so we decided to head down there for the big day and then make a little mini vacay out of it and go see New Orleans. The thought of having two kids at this evening full catholic mass wedding was just not logical, so we made the tough decision to leave Olivia at home with Mamu and Papu. (More to come on this adventure in a later blog). This was a very hard decision for me. Olivia stayed with them when Owen was born and one other random overnighter, but otherwise has stuck close to home. Looking back it was the right decision and worked out just fine, but I missed her like crazy and I don't want to go on anymore vacations without her for a while. Sooo.. we dropped her off Wednesday night at bedtime and I cried all the way home because as I left she was crying "go home" "go home". (Per my mom this lasted like 30 seconds and then was distracted by going on a yard walk with my dad, but still.. the last thing you see and hear...) Thursday morning we were up bright and early to go catch our plane. I was nervous to fly with Owen. Olivia flew when she was about 8 months old and I'm pretty sure the girl that sat next to us on our first flight has that on her top 5 worst flights ever list. Owen did GREAT! Seriously, best baby ever award for him.
We flew to Memphis and then on to Lafayette and he slept on both flights. Nursing him on the plane was a bit of a challenge because he can't stand when I put a cover over his head when he is nursing, but I sat next to the window and oh well.. people will get over it, the baby has to eat. When we got to Lafayette and got in our hotel we went to get some lunch (PoBoy sandwiches), buy a wedding present and then take a much needed nap. Owen is along for the ride whatever we do.
Our one and really only major challenge with him is he HATES the carseat. Seriously I thought babies were suppose to sleep in the car. Not him, he screams. So whenever we are out to eat or in a store I carry him in my sling or we hold him. I got a new sling before this trip and let me tell you. I LOVE IT! Sweet Pea Ring Sling in case anyone is interested. I liked my moby, but this is so much easier and better. Owen likes it better too. He doesn't even mind that it is purple. :)
That night was the rehearsal dinner. This was a long event and eventually Owen and I just had to leave it because it was getting too late. Sam stayed and went out with his buddy. Owen and I had some relaxing hotel time, I read my book and late to bed for both Owen and I. Hanging out in the hotel room after the rehearsal dinner

Friday was wedding day, but like I mentioned earlier the wedding wasn't until 7:00. So we had all day of nothingness. It was so nice! We had a relaxing breakfast, read our books, workout, took naps, went out to lunch and checked out an "oldtime" village. It has been a LONG time since I could just lay around all day, read a book of choice and relax. That does not happen in our house anymore for some obvious reasons. I think Owen was jet lagged because he took three long naps that day. The wedding was nice. Beautiful little campus church, LONG catholic mass (Owen and I watched from another room) and nice reception. We danced with Owen in his sling while he slept. Even through the loud music. In my "Sunday Best" for the wedding... finding cute little boy clothes for the wedding was hard!

Saturday we headed to New Orleans. I have never been there. Sam went there to watch a Saints game when he was stationed in Louisiana getting ready to deploy to Iraq. I didn't know what to expect with Katrina and an oil spill in the news. Honestly I was pleasantly surprised that A. the only sign of Katrina I saw was miles of dead trees trunks as we were driving in and no obvious damage from an oil spill.
B. No one talked about either one except for a few "FUBP" shirts for sale.
We got right to the sight seeing and went to ACME Oyster house for lunch (Janelle vs. Food) and the WWII museum. I walked all over New Orleans with Owen in his sling and he loved it. I hated all the smoking though. Everyone was smoking everywhere, even in restaurants. YUCK. For dinner we ate on a second story balcony restaurant overlooking Bourbon St. Food.. ok. View.. interesting. I ordered BBQ ed shrimp. It was THE WHOLE SHRIMP.. eyeballs and all. I was pretty grossed out by it and I tried to get over it, but I just couldn't. Owen liked the lemon we let him suck on. Riding in the trolley, watching the scene, on our way to the WWII museum

Sunday I was really home sick and wished our flight didn't leave so late. Not to mention we were going to miss the Colts game while we were flying. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do about it so we opted for the late check out and went out in search of beignets. We walked forever and it was super super hot. I had to take Owen out of the sling it was so hot. When we got there (Cafe du Mode) there was a long line in the sun. My thought was this is ridiculous, but we had walked so far to get there. The line moved fast and let me tell you.. it was SO worth it! Those were the best pastry I have ever had. DELICIOUS! I wouldn't go to New Orleans without going there. Owen wasn't too thrilled when we got there (he was hot), but we gave him some water and then when we were done there was a park across the street and we walked over there and I fed him. All better now! Giving Owen some water at Cafe du Mode... we were all TOO hot!

We did some shopping and bought Olivia a "chomp chomp" (alligator). This is her new favorite toy to chase the cats around the house with now. We checked out of our hotel, but still had some time to kill so we ate a nice lunch and headed to the airport to watch some football. Unfortunately the New Orleans airport stinks and there was nowhere to watch the game. Owen had also developed a bit of a cold and the first airplane ride was a little rough. He wanted to nurse, but he couldn't breathe and the pressure from taking off was hurting his ears, but then he fell asleep and literally didn't wake up until we were back in Indiana (including sleeping through the Atlanta airport. I was too afraid to move him so I held him for about 4 straight hours. (Too good of an arm workout).
That night I went to sleep about 1:30, Olivia woke up around 2:15 and was up until about 3:30. Owen woke up at 4:00 and my alarm went off at 5:30 to go to work on Monday.
Overall, a nice little vacation, but glad to be home.
Napping at the airport before we head home. Not feeling too hot. My little man has a cold. :(