Employee Family Picnic

James has been working at his work headquarters office building in Monroe, La. lately and he would be down there for the annual employee & families picnic. We got an invitation to go so Bailey and I drove down there and met up with James last weekend. This was my first visit to the state of Louisiana and first thing that James pointed out to me was this:

Click on the images to enlarge them.

That's right, it's a Drive-Up Daiquiri store and they are everywhere down there. Had a rough day at the office, just stop by on your way home to pick up a strawberry daiquiri and super size it please! Leave it to a bunch of Cajuns to figure out a loop hole to the whole "Open Container" law. My next impression of this state was that I really wished I still wore contacts. Between the humidity and it being monsoon season down there, wearing glasses was near to impossible. I thought my biggest problem would have been my hair fizzing up but with the constant downpours the rain pretty much took care of any fizz problem and gave me the look of taking a shower with my clothes on, sexy right? Lucky for the picnic the rain and humidity held off on Saturday which made it enjoyable for all.


Food, music, live demonstrations, train rides, games and even pony rides. Bailey had a blast at the picnic, I guess it worth the drive down there to see her and her daddy have fun together. The company headquarters sits in the middle of a pecan orchard that backs up to a bayou of all things.

As far as the drive goes, it wasn't bad and I really didn't mind it except for the rain (see monsoon reference above). Although Bailey had managed to throw all her activities for the entire trip on the floor of the car within the first 30 minutes of us getting on the road, she did real well for a toddler being strapped down in a car seat for a 10 hour drive. Between the Barbie laptop toy and the portable DVD player she was a happy traveler. One thing about the drive that did creep me out was the trees. Just like the drive-up daiquiri stores, pine trees are everywhere and they breed like rabbits in the swamp. It's not like I've never seen pine trees before or tall trees but they were very tall and in straight rows just enough space to see through. They frame the road so that you are driving down tunnels of trees, pouring rain, flooding everywhere....I really did expect to see swamp girl standing somewhere.


Now these pictures of course were taken on the way back while James was driving. He was a good sport about the whole creepy tree thing, I think the humidity must have gotten to him.

Newest member to our family

Introducing MoJo-JoJo Fatboy. Hey Doug, we found you another riding buddy! At least he doesn't require as much luggage as my sister does.

My three monkeys at Ihop for breakfast last Sunday. The big monkey said something about how the Chiefs sucked on Sunday once he heard what the score was from Sunday's game. Bad monkey James!

Et tu Kenmore?

It wouldn't be a holiday weekend in my family if someone didn't have a project for the rest of the family to help out with. This year I'm happy to announce it was the Laurie tribe that needed some extra hands for the Labor day holiday weekend.

When James and I bought the house three years ago we inherited a brush pile in the back yard. After 3 years the pile has grown and expanded to other parts of the back yard along with some old carpet that had been torn out of the house. We decided to expand our holiday weekend by taking some time off to do a major purging of the home and yard. With a dumpster coming to us that morning of the 3rd, James and I had high hopes to start bright and early with work until we heard something strange coming from the basement. As we crept downstairs we saw water everywhere coming directly out of the water heater. Five minutes later we managed to shut the water off to the entire house and start sucking the water up with the shop vac. After shopping around and a few phone calls later my dad found a water heater in Harrisonville for the best price.

Out with the broken and in with the one that allows me to turn the water back on to the house. While James and my father got the new heater in my mother and I worked on filling up the dumpster before it started raining.

Once the new water heater was up and running again, I set forth to finish up the laundry. The clothes that I put in earlier were still wet so I ran the dryer once more. An hour later.....still wet clothes. I turned on the dryer for a few minutes only, open the door and realized that the dryer should be getting hot, it wasn't. Ugh....and you too Mr. Kenmore???

Business trip

A few weeks ago James went on a business trip to Monroe, La. for work. A week in Monroe, La. and all the sightseeing he did was pretty much from the hotel to the office. Here are the lovely photos of his hotel room he managed to take while there.





As part of an incentive for Bailey to work on her potty skills while James was away he brought back some new toys for her. She's into Thomas & Friends and Bob the Builder right now and watches them daily on the Netflix account.

Bailey with Thomas, Gordon, Percy and Rosie trains.

James will have a few more trips before the end of the year and if Bailey keeps up with her potty skills, she'll have the whole island of Sodor before too long.

Get your dollar city vacation!

Recent vacation trip to Branson Mo. with the whole family. Got home late so not much writing will happen on this blog.

Light show at night at the Branson Landing.

Learning how to blow the duck whistle for the boat ride.

Kissing ducks.

Ready to blow the duck whistle at other tourists.

Captain Doug Wilks.

Passing another boat on Taneycomo Lake.

Go-karts, where family members earn bragging rights.

Happy Birthday to James and Theresa!