Utah and New Orleans Trip (Dec 26-Jan 6)

The day after Christmas, we drove to Utah, and celebrated Christmas with Nana and Papa.

Wearing the outfits Nana got them.

Ivy's favorite place to hang out.

Jenny and Renee came over.

Great Grandma and Grandpa R came over too.

We went bowling for Axel's birthday.

Axel's friend Drake (in the back) was able to come bowling with us.

Axel opening presents.

This cute kid is 11!

Working out with Papa.

We spent a couple hours with my brother Dallin's family. My aunt Julie, uncle Joel, and aunt Staci were also able to visit.

Cool LEGO Axel got for his birthday and put together in 1 day.

Ivy and Scout were friends on this trip.

Playing an indoor badminton game.

Axel with a circuit set.

Jeff and I left the kids with Nana and Papa, and flew to New Orleans! Nana sent me this picture the next morning, of the kids snuggling.

First dinner, at a restaurant on Canal Street.

Benny's Beignets, which ended up being our favorite beignet place. We got them 3 times, haha.

Bourbon Street was closed to cars because of all the extra visitors for the Sugar Bowl. These mounted officers were at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon. (Also Bourbon St is a toilet, yuck)

Walking back to our room, ran across these beautiful flowers being put in the truck. They were so beautiful! 

New Year's Eve was on a Sunday, and we went to Sacrament Meeting at this tiny chapel.

Then we walked around the St. Charles neighborhood to look at the mansions.

Private school in the neighborhood.

Streetcar tracks. The streetcar was quite pleasant to ride.

Loyola University, New Orleans

Audubon Park

Peep Jeff crouched down, taking an artsy video of the fountain.

Delicious lunch near Audubon Park.

Gorgeous old oak trees.

Jeff on the bandstand.

Two-storied gazebo.

"Tree of Life," possibly the largest oak tree in New Orleans.

A wedding was getting set up while we were there.

The tree was rather far from the streetcar line, and my feet were killing me (should have worn my tennis shoes to church), so we decided to walk to a bus stop. It was near a children's hospital (this was the wall there), but then we ended up missing the bus and there was nowhere to sit, so we kept walking down the bus line until we found a gas station/Wendy's combo and got some fries and drinks there. It was the weirdest Wendy's, haha (the only had one frosty machine, and it was set up for peppermint frosties). But eventually we caught the right bus and headed back to our room for a nap. Decided to skip the Sugar Bowl parade, since my feet hurt so bad.

That night we had booked a dinner Jazz cruise. We were a bit early so we walked around the wharf area.

St Luis Cathedral. Never did go back to see inside, whoops.

Cannons.

Ready to board!

We ended up being seated right by the jazz band (somehow I didn't time the picture right so you could see them, haha), and had a blast!

It was sooooo cold, and the boat didn't have many indoor areas except for the dining room. Luckily we are hardy, and had a great time hanging out together and watching the fireworks (EVERYBODY sets off fireworks in New Orleans, including right outside our building on the roof of the parking garage until 2am).

The next day we had a brunch reservation for Ruby Slipper, that turned into lunch because we got seated at 12:01pm. In the meantime we hung out in the bookstore nextdoor. Of course they had a bookstore cat.

With the sheetmusic I bought.

We had a tour of St Louis Cemetery #1. Unfortunately because more famous people are buried here, you can only get in via guided tour so we couldn't meander like we usually would. But we learned all kinds of stuff about the people buried there, and how the above-ground tombs work (kinda gross, haha).

The ridiculously huge white pyramid on the left side is a tomb built by Nicholas Cage. We'll see if he actually gets buried there, since according to our guide, he built it for tax purposes.

Some of the tombs are maintained by family instead of by the cemetery, so they get weeds and stuff growing out of the "organic material" and through the cracks in the bricks.

We were able to go to the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome! We waited to buy tickets until an hour before, and got them for dirt cheap ($65 each, plus fees). We had a great time! Most of the fans were for the University of Texas, and we were cheering for the University of Washington, but all the fans around us were really nice.

Texas brought a Texas Longhorn Bull.

The next morning we got breakfast at Cafe Beignet before our Swamp and Plantation tour.

At the swamp.

Boar family with couple-day-old piglets. Plus raccoons in the tree. The swamp tour workers put food out, so the animals usually come out. It felt a bit like Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, haha.

There were a couple of young alligators out. The big ones are all hibernating for the winter.

We got to hold a baby alligator! This one was 1 year old. It actually felt really soft.

Then we went to Oak Alley Plantation.

Most famous for the 28 oak trees lining the entrance. They are at least 200 years old, since they were transplanted fully grown.

View of the oak trees from the upper balcony. Pictures were not allowed inside the house, but it was actually pretty small and almost none of the furnishings were original to the house. So the outside was more exciting anyways.

Yummy seafood dinner. All the Texas fans had gone home, so the streets were totally empty that night!

On our last day, we took an Uber out to a different neighborhood near the NOLA Art Museum. We walked along the canal and looked at the mansions.

St Louis Cemetery #3 is open to the public, so we were able to walk around on our own.

George Washington and I in the Art Museum.

Water feature in the sculpture garden.

Then we flew back to Utah! It finally snowed the next day (more of a dusting) so the kids were able to play a bit in the snow.

Ivy standing on a chair in the playroom under the stairs.

Dungeons and Dragons with the cousins.

Then we left early in the morning the next day, in a bit of a snow storm!