I’ve marched in one parade in New Orleans, but had never been on the spectator/tourist side of the fence. The really nice thing about where we stayed for this one, is that we got to see the parade up close and personal, and then could go back to the room, and watch it again from up above. It was REAL nice.

We have the pictures for the Pharoh’s parade on the Saturday after. I’ve got to push them up, and then start getting ready for the next set of Parades! We’re heading back down to Mobile for the culmination of Mardi Gras – Saturday through Fat Tuesday. Mary Vic has been told there are Fire Breathing Dragons on Saturday at the Mystic’s of Time (I think that’s the parade). I hope so, as she has locked down HARD on that idea.

Our kids had a blast. They banded together with some of Jim’s Nephews, as well as Christian, and made their own entertainment, all while actually being quite good. Running laps around a prayer garden seemed to be the greatest attraction, although the baptismal pool held great interest. Sean, being the star, didn’t enjoy the festivities nearly as much. That water seemed quite cold.

Enough talk. Here are the Pictures that I pulled. I didn’t know the etiquette for the ceremony, so I mainly stayed in the back, and just shot with the long lens, but I think I got a few good ones.

When we did the initial sort, I noticed this one. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites. Click through to see the larger version (or click above, it’s the last image in the gallery).

Of course, there were pictures:

These include the shots of Aunt Janie before the Conde Ball. I thought they came out quite well given the five minutes we had to actually take the shots, and the fact that the best backdrop available was a dark window.
I’m going to have to change how I’m posting pictures… It seems that the aspect ratio gets screwed up a little when I upload them directly here. And I’ll probably start posting the pictures to Facebook as well. It seems that they will end up there, regardless on if I post them or not.
Hopefully, I’ll get the Parade pictures and the Baptism photos up tomorrow or Friday.

Jeffie was able to get Friday off from work, I was able to find cheapish hotel tickets, and the Puppy dog had all of his shots up to date. It was the perfect storm coming together.

It’s Friday morning, 7 am. Jeffie’s Uncle Greg was in Mobile, AL prepping, and would be wearing his arm out in 12 hours for Mardi Gras. We intended to see that.

(warning… Don’t read anymore if you don’t have high speed. More pictures than any post prior….)

So… Kids up, get dressed, and kindly be civilized about getting into your car seats! Jack, out of the Kennel, into the van! Throw the last bits of packing around the camera and computer gear already loaded into the van, and we are on the way! Oh yeah, sorry Jack, but your trip is considerably shorter than ours. 7:30am, Jack was introduced to the several young ladies that would be his escort for the weekend at the Franklin Kennels.

It’s about 6.5 hours to Mobile from Franklin. We didn’t make it in that. About Cullman, AL, we realized that the dresses for Mommy and Mary were still in the Kitchen. Outside of Montgomery, we did the Lunch stop as well as a bit of shopping to replace the articles that we weren’t going back for. But we did make it down in plenty of time.

I managed to get reservations at the Holiday Inn on Government street. It’s DIRECTLY on the parade route. The parades start on it’s back property, loop past the front of the hotel about half way through the route, and then runs along the side of the property at the end. It’s hard to find a better stop. Additionally, we were on the tenth floor, almost directly looking down on Government street.

Evidence A:

Our aunt Janie was planning on using room to get changed after the Parade, so that she could attend the Ball. We’ll have to do that one year, but this time was a bit rushed, and kids would need attending to. She brought a bag of Mardi Gras beads and treats from Uncle Greg for the Kids – Just in case. I can’t describe how much we appreciated it. It set the mood of the Kids absolutely perfectly, and really energized them for the Parade to come.

William was so excited he was going to crawl straight through the window. Some more of the Family started to appear, including the second newest arrival – Colin. (The newest arrival – Sean, was the second reason we made this trip. His Baptism was on Saturday – That will probably be the next post.)

Everyone was gearing up. It was a great temp outside, but down on the street, the wind knocked that temp right out of the park, so jackets and bundling were the order for the night.

Christian ready to grab anything coming his way!

Mary Vic… Not sure what’s really going on yet, but having a blast none the less.

Jim and the newest member… bundled and ready to go. Kid was undoubtably the warmest person on the street!

Great Grandma, Mary and Jeff – Great grandma was quite displeased that she didn’t know we were coming… telling everyone she did not like that she was ‘always the last one to know’. We responded simply by stating that it was hard for it to be a surprise when you knew what was going on. I don’t think she appreciated that.

No one knows what’s going on…. But we’re waiting and ready for what ever it might be! It’s out first Mardi Gras, first Parade, everything. I marched in a New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade, but had never been on the other side of the barriers, so it was a great night of firsts for our entire family.

We had a bit of an issue during the parade – Mary did her best to get the treats in the only way she knew how. Holding the bag open for them to put the stuff in. Needless to say, that simply didn’t work. There were tears, there was crying. Then, around the 3rd float, some stuff came back her way, Daddy was able to scoop up two roses for her, and the mood improved significantly.

Shortly afterwards, Mommy and Mary worked as a team to get (Mommy gesturing frantically and catching) the prize of the night! One BIG stuffed Dora the Explorer doll. The Conde who threw that doll made my daughters night and our trip was a fantastic success. See below.

We had a few more issues… One VERY large bag of beads (as in the original shipping bag… probably about 5-10 lbs) was hurled at us… And by us, I mean William and Great Grandma. Thankfully, I was able to snag it right before impact, but man that was scary. Brian took a few beads directly in the face, and Aunt Susan has a black eye from a bag of hershey kisses. I had things bouncing off my head, but I’m guessing some were aiming directly at the camera.  You have to be on your toes, and even that isn’t enough sometimes.

Now, there were a large number of great floats, and this post is long enough as it is. I’ll put up a gallery, or another post just about some of that. But, I would be remiss without this:

Uncle Greg’s Pirate Float! It was the last float of the parade, and frankly, that just made it the highlight of parade in our opinion!

Here’s the man himself. The Stuffed animal in front of him was especially for Christian, and it was delivered in style.

Success!

Unfortunately, the Rose for his wife was NOT delivered quite as well…. But we have proof that it was intended to be!

Collecting the aftermath. Uncle Robert grabbed William and they had a great time (William especially) collecting Doubloons that we had scooped to the area, but couldn’t grab until the barriers were removed. MV and Mommy grabbed half a billion Moon pies.

Mary and her loot! Her getting the Dora was absolutely awesome, even though William has attached onto it very much at this point.

I’ll post more, even if they are just captioned photos… We’ll see how well that goes. I took over 2000 pictures and it’s taking quite a time to work through them. There is the story of the after parade Photo shoot – Aunt Janie had the audacity to tell me that she wasn’t Photogenic. Oh, I have soo much proof otherwise. Plus we have the Baptism, and the parades Saturday Night. I sense a series of posts!