Rajin' Cajun!!!

And the traveling never ends...

After returning to Austin & work for 2.5 days after Christmas, we were off again, and this time it was to Louisiana with Dad! This was Ryan's 1st trip to Louisiana, and I think he really enjoyed it! It was a whirlwind of a 3 day trip and we never stopped... we saw lots of family and friends and had such a great time. Here's the run down...

The story begins on December 31st...
Wednesday: Got to Lake Charles around 8pm and hung out at Uncle Jim, Aunt Janice & Jeremy's (cousin) house and Harley- the English Bulldog!

(Yup, that's Harley standing on the coffee table... he got yelled at right after I took this picture... hahaha)

Thursday: Dad showed Ryan all around LC, we ate lunch @ Steamboat Bills (catfish and crawfish), then off to Camp Pearl and Kinder. Camp Pearl is a church camp site that is run by close friends of ours, The Barrett's. They were sweet friends to my grandparents (Mooney's). In their (my dad's parents) memory, my dad, uncles and FA (favorite aunt) donated some of those big rocking chairs (from Cracker Barrell) to the camp site to be used outside of the dining hall. Unfortunately, the chairs weren't out then, so I didn't get to see them, however, I took a picture of the plaque. Then, it was off to Kinder where my dad's parents and other family members are buried. We actually had an interesting time walking around the graves and seeing how far back people were born... many in the late 1800's... my dad's grandpaw, Madison, being one of them... 1897! Awesome. After a day of running around, we had dinner in Sulpur @ Cajun Charlies! Nuthin' like fried alligator and frog legs, right!? haha....
(Dad, what pretty frog leg earring you have!)

Friday: We hoped in the truck and headed for Natchitoches, La- the filming site of Steal Magnolias! My parents completed their undergraduate degrees at NSU (Northwestern State Univ.). Dad took us around campus and showed us the special bench he made for he and mom. As you will see in the pictures, all of the other benches have Fleur de li's... but the Mooney bench has hearts... so sweet. Dad has also established (in 2003) the Elizabeth Posey Mooney Endowed Scholarship in honor of my mom. The scholarship is for students majoring in physical or special education. How precious is it that he honors her in so many ways? A lot of people can learn from him. I sure do. After running around @ NSU, dad took us to eat Meat Pies @ Lasyone's! It was in Paula Dean's magazine.... so you know it's good! Dad said when they had "extra" money in college, they would treat themselves to Lasyone's. After stuffing ourselves with dirty rice, meat pies, red beans & rice, we were off to Alexandria to see my mom's parents, the Posey's! We has a great time visiting and the guys watched Texas Tech get smashed by Ole' Miss. We also made a run over to see Aunt Nell... what a sweet lady, born in 1925! Sweet, sweet. Then, it was back to Lake Charles we went. We snacked at home, stuffing ourselves again, and off to bed.

MEAT PIES @ Lasyone's! Yummmmmm.

Saturday: Before our departure, we stopped to see Aunt Vesta... who's about 84 years old. Sorry for the details.... but she recently has a toe removed and couldn't wait for my dad to see it... we just said, "no, no, it's okay..." haha.. wow. She's a funny gal. We also got to see my dad's good buddy Darrell and his wife Karen. He's a great school buddy from LC that dad has kept in touch with. They share the love of Harley's. Finally.... we returned to Austin... and once again, stuff ourselves with Papasittos, and that's the end of the story...