Honey Bun

This is my grandmother's cat, Honey Bun, who lives in Baton Rouge.

I had more fun saying that name.

I believe in putting thought into naming a pet.

I've named a dog after a Greek goddess.

And one of my favorite stuffed animals, a penguin, I named Captain Ork.

Any good names you've come up with for pets or stuffed critters?

Grab a camera and join Camera Critters!

The Green Shirt & A Louisiana Tiger

On our Baton Rouge trip, I took the boys to the LSU campus to see Mike the Tiger.

GiGi, my GPS unit, didn't fail me.

We found it.

And met Mike.

He's only two years old and still growing.

He has a really nice setup on the LSU campus.

In just about every single photo from this trip, Remy is wearing the same shirt.
The same green shirt.
I don't know why this child doesn't like to change clothes.

Here the boys are dressed up nice for the funeral...and yes, Remy has the same green shirt on under his button-down.

Unbelievable.

I finally had to institute
Operation Hold-Him-Down-And-Change-His-Clothes.

Don't even get me started on the year he wore his clothes backwards.
Every single damn day.


What about you?
Do your child have weird clothing habits?
Have you ever met an impressive college mascot like Mike the Tiger?

U.S.S. Kidd; The Destroyers meet The Destroyer

While in Baton Rouge, I decided to take the boys to visit a historic site
that I visited as a child.

In other words, I took my destroyers to see The WWII Destroyer,
The U.S.S. Kidd.

The USS Kidd is a WWII destroyer ship that was launched in 1943
and saw plenty of action in WWII and the Korean War.

It also saw plenty of action while we were on it.
Trust me.
You'll see.

It was never modernized, and is the only destroyer to maintain her WWII appearance.
She has been restored though and in 1997 her torpedo tubes were re-loaded.

I need my tubes unloaded.
Wait, that doesn't sound right.
Tied?

The Kidd's special mooring in the Mississippi River
is designed to cope with the annual change
in river depth, which can be up to forty feet;
so for half the year she floats in the river,
the other half of the year she is dry-docked out of the water.

"Dry-docked" sounds so unpleasant.

Of everything we saw on board this ship, my boys enjoyed all the guns the most.

Of course.

Because boys love guns.
My boys love guns.
It can't be helped.
Even when moms try.

Listen, if the ship was broken after we left...it wasn't our fault.

We didn't do it.

The boys thought it was fun to go deep down into the bowels of the ship,
several levels down...with steep staircases...

and tiny corridors.
They dared me to follow.
So of course I did everything they did.
I have to stand up for women-kind everywhere.
You'll be relieved to know I did my part.

We all agreed we'd want the top bunk...in case they all collapsed.
We're optimistic folks, aren't we?

And we agreed we want to be officers,
because they had quarters up on the higher levels...with less neighbors.

Again, more guns.
They're like magnets for boys.

And apparently, the bigger the better.

I could totally be captain.
I have a great sense of direction...most of the time.
They have GPS on these things, right?
Right?

As long as these hooligans are my crew, what could possibly go wrong?!

Hey, I have a control panel just like this in my home!!

I knew I had a target on my back.
Hey, Target.
I need to go to Tar-Jay this week.

Here was the biggest gun of all.
The boys got to go inside of it.
It took 17 men to operate this one.

And here's where I we got loopy.
I think because when you're on a ship you get seasick from all the motion,
and we hadn't had enough fruit while at sea so we got scurvy.

And that's when Remy turned on Donny...and shot him!!

We left feeling very patriotic.

Have you ever been to Baton Rouge?
Have you ever been on a U. S. naval ship?
Or any kind of BIG ship?
A cruise?
A catamaran?
A canoe?
A raft?

East of the Mississippi

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all scheduled posts,
because I had to go out of town.

My grandmother's husband died, so we got in the car and drove to Baton Rouge.
He was old and in declining health, so it was a blessing that he's in a better place now.
But, my grandmother, it's been tough on her,
and she needed family support.

My husband had to stay behind in Texas.
I took the boys with me and caravanned with my mom and stepfather.

It's a long drive from Dallas to Baton Rouge.
8 1/2 hours long.

I have lots of photos and posts-worth of stories to share, but for now...

Here are the boys posing east of The Mississippi River...in Baton Rouge.

The Mississippi River, the second largest river in the United States.
It's 2,340 miles long.

What's the biggest river in the U.S.?

And here's us driving over the same bridge from the above picture, on our way back to Texas.

The Missouri River is the longest river in the U.S., 200 miles longer than the Mississippi.

I think this is one of the biggest bridges I've ever been on.
My boys were suitably impressed.

You also have to cross miles and miles of swampy area on bridges in Louisiana.
It's the Atchafalaya Basin.
Say that three times fast.
It's the largest swamp in the United States.

My boys imagined gators swimming below us.
Ready to eat us at any moment.

They're dramatic like that.

At least they weren't alien gators.

8 1/2 hours is a loooooong time to be in the car.
with two bickering boys.

They're so lucky I didn't leave them on the railroad tracks like I was tempted...

We played lots of car games.
Cow Counting.
I Spy.
I'm going to Louisiana and I'm going to bring with me...
20 questions.

And then there was plenty of reading, coloring, movies in the DVD player and handheld video games.

What car games did you used to play on road trips?
What do your kids play now?