Gone Fishing!

James took us fishing on Saturday morning!

The boys were so excited!

They laid out their own clothes the night before, down to which belt and hat they were going to wear!

We got up at 5:30 am headed down to Hopedale, La.

It was an interesting drive.

You have to go through Chalmette to get to Hopedale.

Chalmette was an extremely devestated area after Katrina and I hadn't been down there in about 4 years.

There are STILL abandoned houses...

There are STILL spraypainted signs on the fronts of houses.

On some old warehouses and vacant buildings, you can still see the waterline.

It was sad.

But two little boys were so pumped to go fishin'!
Charlie laid the sunscreen on thick!

He kept telling James and me, "I cited to go fishnin"

:)

Sidenote: Charlie had a tooth pulled last Thursday. His mouth was so numb that he bit his lip and it looks horrible. It looks like he's got a wad of chewing gum in his mouth, but it's just his mangled lip. Poor baby!

`
James was excited to get me on a boat!

I haven't been fishing on sooo long!

And I like fishing!
It was about an 1 hour 15 min drive from our house.

I packed us a lunch and we had a great time.

James was the first one to catch a fish.

Black Drum!
Someone [James] was super impressed with my casting skills.

What can I say?
James and I were super busy casting the boys lines and watching them non-stop so that no one went overboard...

It wasn't exactly a stress-free experience.

But it was fun, and we'll do it again.
This one was making me nervous standing at the front of the boat hanging on to NOTHING.
He caught some baby catfish that we threw back.
Unfortunately, Charlie caught nothing.

He kept chucking Doritos and canteloupe into the water...

Me and my boys.

They were EXHAUSTED at the end of the day.

We had a yummy fish dinner that night.

It was seriously so good.

We are making it again tonight!

Barefoot Contessa: Mustard Roasted Fish

Make it!

We used Redfish that we had caught, I'm sure you could use any fish.

We're already planning our next trip :)

Another Before and After!

I wish I would have taken a true "before" pic of our master bathroom.

This is a picture of the vanity which is about to be transformed....

I was in the process of painting the walls at this point.

[the ceiling is yet to be painted!]

I went with "Gray Wisp" from Benjamin Moore on the walls and 2 tones lighter on the ceilings. I painted the same color in my bedroom and love the color.

Very gray/blue/green, depending on the light.

First, I sanded down the vanity and removed all hardware and doors.

Then I primed it with an oil based primer.

Two days later I pained it "Sailcloth" by Benjamin Moore. Two coats.

I bought new chrome hardware.

And added mirrors that I had already had.

[please disregard the ugly light fixture hanging down]

That's about to go bye-bye!
What do you think?

I love how it lightened up everything!
I turned around and this is the bathtub.

I painted that architectural thingy above the window white and went to town on it with some sandpaper.

It is a true antique and was formerly red...
There's lots yet to be done in this bathroom.

We are going to remove the brown tiles around the tub and replace them with white subway tiles.

I want a piece of white marble to go on top of the sinks...

and I'm really not sure what to do on the floors yet!

Right now it's concrete. The previous owners pulled up the wood floor [I think they had water damage] so we've got a clean slate to work with once I decide what I want to go with.

Any suggestions?

Charlie's Birthday Weekend at Global Wildlife

To celebrate Charlie's THIRD birthday this year we decided to go to Global Wildlife.

It's a really cool place that is about 30 minutes north of where we live.

You get to ride on a wagon and purchase food to feed all of the animals.

The boys love going there.
Me and my sweet boy.

Can't believe you are three!
James' mom, Jo Ann, his sister, Tabitha, and his brother's girlfriend's son, Zach, drove down for the weekend!
It was actually a beautiful unseasonably cool August day. The clouds were out so it wasn't hot at all and there was a really strong breeze.

There are so many different kinds of animals here.

Several varieties of deer, camels, giraffes, zebras, kangaroos, etc.

I really don't remember all the species.

Check out their website!
This bad boy was hungry for corn!

He followed us for quite a while till we stopped feeding him...

I bet James has visions of him dancing in his head....
Camels stink.

That's all I have to say about that.

Zach feeding some type of antelope?
My friend, Sara, and her little girl, Evie, came along with us!

So excited to see all the animals!

You are breaking my heart with that face my sweet boy!
He wore his tiger shirt in hopes that he's see a tiger today...

no chance of that happening son!
Poor Miss Evie decided to explore the world of her nasal passages and stick kernels of corn in them!

We attempted to fish them out ourselves but were afraid we'd push them even further up into her nose...

so her and her mommy were escorted off the trail and went to the hospital!

We had to interrupt our tour guide.

"Um, excuse me sir?

Yes, we need to get her off the wagon.

Seems she's shoved kernels of corn up her nose and needs medical attention.

Thanks."

This safari vehicular came up over the hill faster than we could count to 10!

Must happen often....
This guy could put down some corn!

Tabitha was excited to see and feed a real live zebra!

She loves zebras!
Jackson: "That's an awful big mouth you've got there longhorn cow."

Longhorn Cow: "I'll stand here all day if I have to....empty your cup into my mouth, little human."

Grandma and her boys.

Glad they could come with us!