Surprise Annivesary Trip!!

Chris and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on December 4th. A few months back Chris announced to me that he was planning an anniversary trip...and it would be a surprise. Yea right, I thought. He can't keep any secrets. But he proved me wrong.

We left on Saturday December 5th. All I knew was that we had a connecting flight in Charlotte, how long we were going to be gone and what type of clothes I needed to take. Now if you know me at all, you know how big it was for me to not be in control. I am the family/friends travel agent...I make ALL of the travel plans. So we boarded our plane in Raleigh, flew to Charlotte, and it wasn't until we got to the gate for our next flight that I found out we were going to New Orleans!!! Yep, back to NOLA, the city I fell in love with this past September.

WHAT?? You didn't hear about our last trip to the Big Easy? Read all about it by clicking here.

Anyways, it was great to be able to go back and not have to worry about what we were going to do with Madeline (did I mention that we got to go on our anniversary trip WITHOUT Madeline this year??).

We stayed in an awesome Bed & Breakfast just blocks from the French Quarter. It's called the Royal Street Courtyard Bed & Breakfast. If you ever find yourself staying in NOLA, this place is an awesome place to stay.

We walked ALOT, ate incredible food, yummy Muffaletta's, had beignets at Cafe Du Monde, rode the St. Charles Ave street car....here are some pics of our trip.





Audubon Park....

Beads from Mardi Gras parades are stuck in trees all over the city.


Street performers at Jackson Square.


Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France facing Jackson Square. It is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States, established as a parish in 1720.

You never know what you'll see in New Orleans. While we were in the French Quarter I think we saw Santa's of all colors. Apparently there was also some sort of a "dress like Santa and drink on Bourbon Street" thing going on, so we saw lots of drunk Santa's. And then Mr & Mrs. Clause on motorcycles (the Mrs. was even smoking a cigarette!!).



All in all, we had a great time and I can't wait to go to NOLA again....soon!!

I'm here...

OK, so I have been slack about posting, but here are some Halloween pics to hold you over. I will post more later....promise!!

Madeline had a lot of Halloween activities, and she has so many princess costumes that she was able to wear a different one to each event. Here are a couple.

She is dressed as "Ariel" here for the Fall Festival at one of the local churches. Here she is on the hay ride.

She was "Sleeping Beauty" for her school party.

And the grand finale....she was a juice box for trick-or-treating!! Yep, I pulled out my Marth Stewart persona and made her this costume!!

The Big Easy

The Joyce's have returned from their latest journey. This time it was a road trip to New Orleans!! We had a GREAT time visiting more of the Joyce Clan, relaxin' by the pool, eating spectacular food and some surprises in the French Quarter,

We left NC on Thursday afternoon and made to south of Atlanta for the night. We were back on the road by about 7:30am. As we crossed the state line into Alabama, we felt it was only appropriate to listen to some Skynard....Sweet Home Alabama.

We hit some hard rain in Alabama...in fact a SUV hydroplaned and spun across the interstate and ended up in the swampy median right in front of us. I was driving and my heart stopped! But crazy rains lead to this beautiful scene.

We arrived in Covington, LA (just North of NO- across Lake Pontchartrain) on Friday afternoon. We stayed at Resort Joyce, aka Chris' Aunt and Uncle's awesome house. While there we Madeline watched Princess movies in their media room....

and we all had a blas swimming! This was the first time Madeline has been in the pool since swimming lessone back in May. She did awesome.

This is the scenery from their back patio. The weather was awesome when we were there, and there was nothing better than sitting on the patio, listening to the water fall and looking out over the lake.

On Saturday we headed into New Orleans to go to the Audubon Zoo. Now, in order to get to the city, we has to cross Lake Pontchartrain using the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway...which is a 24 mile bridge across the lake. Good thing Chris didn't find this out until it was too late. But he did great, making 2 rount trips over the bridge (good thing he wasn't driving any of the times!).

Madeline and Chris take pictures in front of the 'Mingos everytime we go to a zoo. It started with her first trip to the Fresno Zoo when she was a year old.

On Sunday, we ventured into New Orleans. Luckily we had a great tour guide in Cousin Andrew. Here are some scenes you would expect to see while in NO.

Cafe Du Monde.

Cafe Au Lait.....

and Beignets.

A Mardi Gras Princess. Madeline did not go into the city with us...swimming and Princess movies were much cooler than anything Mommy and Daddy wanted to do.

Scenes from Bourbon Street.

Now, there is ALWAYS something happening in New Orleans. I have seen COPS enough and heard enough stories from people that I have no desire to attend Mardi Gras. But not to disappoint, we did get to experience Mardi Gras....called Southern Decadence- aka gay Mardi Gras.

So, here is my disclaimer.....you may want to take your little one's out of the room.....

Luckily we were in the quarter during the day, so things were pretty mild. We did get to see part of the parade and yes, they threw beads from the balcony (yes, you had to show something to get them...).

It was really a hoot. Costumes, parades, beads....and some new friends. I think the pictures speak for themselves.......

Until next time NOLA......

Madeline=beautician

Madeline finally did it....she gave herself a haircut. Luckily it was only the bangs so I was able to salvage most of them.....

Holy Ikea......

Chris celebrated his birthday this month with a birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant, Ted's Montana Grill. Although Madeline was terrified of the mac & cheese, we had a great time.



Chris decided that for his birthday, he wanted to drive to Charlotte to check out Ikea. We knew they had cool furniture, and he found a chair online that he wanted to look at. So we loaded up the 'Calibré' and set out to experience the icon that is......
All I can say is WOW. We had no idea the treat we were in for. We walked in to discover that they offer 1 hour of free child care. Madeline was up for it and spent the time climbing the rock wall and drawing. This left us in a sprint to experience all we could in an hour. If you have never been to Ikea, think about checking it out. They have EVERYTHING and the best thing (besides how cool the stuff is), is that it is cheap (as in inexpensive.....).

Out friend, who introduced us to Ikea told us to have some meatballs for him. We thought he was just making a joke since Ikea is a Swedish company. But no, he was referring to the meatballs you can get in the cafe. Again...WOW is all I can say. Meatballs in cream sauce, mashed potatoes and Lingonberry sauce- yum-o!!!


And this for dessert...an almond cake!!!

So after 2 1/2 hours (and that is a sprint through the store) and full bellies, Chris decided on the ever popular POÄNG chair and footstool.

Compliments my new red couch, don's ya think????

Roller Skating

We took Madeline roller skating at Jellybeans for the first time. She was a natural and was skating on her own within about 10 minutes. Chris and I had a great time, too. Brought back lots of memories on hanging out at the roller rink when I was a teenager. Maybe Chris and I can go on a date and skate during 'couples skate.'

Here is Madeline and Mommy making silly faces.




Starting to skate on her own....
She's going now. Once she figured out the balance part of it, she did a great job!
She loved skating and we are going to make Saturday morning skating a regular Joyce family activity.

Adventures of Madeline

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so just wanted to post a few pictures of our summer adventures.

We went to see fireworks for the 4th of July in Rolesville. We had a great time with the Myers' clan and Miss Cé Cé.

Here is Madeline making spooky faces in the flashlight


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Madeline recently began taking a dance class at one of the local gymnasiums. She is learning tap, ballet and basic gymnastics. Here are some pictures of her classes (sorry for the blur...taking from behind the glass windows...no parents allowed!!!).





We have put the final touches on Madeline's princess room. While visiting Grammy this past weekend, we we able to put up the castle mural. She was so surprised when she came home.

We tell her that her room is her castle. She informed us that her room is at the top of the tallest tower and Mommy and Daddy's room is the tower on the far right. Ginger, being the Royal Cat gets the full run of the place.