mardi gras.

so, obviously, i am REALLY far behind on blogging.  and, since our lives keep getting busier and busier with emme doing more and more stuff these days, even 2-3 weeks off is like an eternity in the blogosphere.  blogosphere?  yep, i just said that.
ok.  i'm going to plow through with a mardi gras post and then follow up with a few other posts about what's been happening lately.
mardi gras this year was february 21, so we headed to lafayette the weekend before for emme's first parade experience.  it was a great trip.  we hadn't seen my parents in seven weeks - which is basically forever in hesterly time.  so we were chomping at the bit to hang out with them, and they were obviously giddy with the anticipation of seeing ek.  there was ridiculous traffic on i-10 getting through lake charles, so it took us over 8 hours to get there.  rough.  we had a random experience with an insane woman in the traffic who laid on her horn for a full five minutes in protest of us getting in to a lane we had to be in anyway - i am not exaggerating.  five minutes is a really long time to listen to a horn.
we made it late afternoon and my mom was waiting for us with judice inn cheeseburgers (heaven in cheeseburger form, seriously).  my dad got home from work and we hit the streets for emme's first parade.  the friday night parade is not one of the major events, but we were all over it.  we got a super nice policeman to let us park a few feet away from our spot on the parade route, and we commenced the wait for the floats.  emme took to the streets immediately.  jj and kk got her a glowing wand from one of the street vendors, and she started marching up and down the street waving it and waving at the other parade goers.  it was hilarious.  it was already at least an hour past her bedtime by the time the floats showed up, but she was a total trooper.  we danced to the marching bands, waved for beads, and were amazed at the spectacle that is mardi gras.
saturday, we were supposed to go to the children's parade in the afternoon, but it ended up raining hard all day.  that was a blessing in disguise, as it gave us a chance to rest and lay low.  we saw gram, lolo and g-dad, aunt elizabeth and uncle pit, and aunt kakie and aunt jessie, and emme got to take some good naps.  justin had been feeling pretty bad the week before, and unfortunately, he was not his usual self during the trip.  he said afterwards that he knew he was sick since he didn't have a single beer for all of mardi gras season.  haha.  saturday evening, justin stayed home to rest and jj, kk, emme, and i headed over to some friends of my parents for some barbecue.  the beyts home was just delightful - janice had decorations everywhere and emme had a blast venturing from room to room investigating all the shiny objects.  after the yummy food and visit, we swung back by our house to pick up jb and hit the bonaparte parade on saturday night. we parked super close once again, and we also arrived only minutes before the parade did, which is really ideal when you've got a sleepy toddler on your hands.  more beads and bands and clapping and fun, and then it was time to head home.  emme made it up past 9:00 two nights in a row - i don't think she had ever been up that late in her entire life, let alone all in one weekend.  she loved every second of it.
sunday was a quick breakfast with jj, kk, and gram.  then we packed up and headed over to mrs. jeanette's house.  she is a traiteur and a wonderful woman who invited us in to our home and treated emme's ears.  we parted ways after that and had a quick trip home.  we stopped in katy for freebirds on the drive back - ekb loves a burrito.