Down on the Bayou

I think I finally figured out what presents to buy for Doug's birthday. He hasn't been wild about the clothes I've bought him for either Christmas or for his birthday. This year, I emailed his sister, Natalie, who lives in Louisiana and asked if he could come stay with her in between Fall and Spring semesters and the dates worked well. So, I gave Doug a nose hair trimmer, Seinfeld season I, and a trip to see his sister for a whole week. He was so excited. I knew I had done well. Natalie was kind enough to pay for my trip and I joined Doug for a few days. It was a blast.

Natalie's husband Dave was deloyed to Iraq about one month before we arrived. Their youngest, Spencer, attached to Doug right away. He would call for "Dougie" (which sounded exactly like doggie) after every nap and liked to have him in his sight at all times.

These are Natalie's kids--Amanda (8), Maren (5), and Spencer (2). They are really fun kids with lots of imagination.

We found an aligator farm closeby that included a feeding show. It was about a 90 minute drive and we passed through Natchitoches (Nack-a-dish believe it or not) where they filmed Steel Magnolias. This is a photo before the live feeding show--the best part was that the staff doing the feeding was a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and not really trying hard to be entertaining at all. It was hillarious.

Doug and I riding the aligator. I have about a 20 inch waist.

Maren looked adorable in this photo--so I had to include it.

Spencer REALLY loved the canoeing and would have taken a spin in the kyack alone if we let him.

Us and the kids in a canoe at Toledo Bend. It's a huge reservoir where the military has a dock area. They rent boats and canoes very cheap to those in the military. I gained a great appreciation for our military and their families while we stayed on base. When we went to Natalie's ward, there were a few women who were single mothers while their husbands have been deployed, some of them for over 18 months! I didn't appreciate that as much as I do now.

Spencer wanted to sit in the kyack with Dougie.

This was one of the coolest things I saw--we couldn't see the end of this long line of military vehicles.

I don't know if Dave would appreciate a photo of his only son with his head in an aligator's mouth while he is miles and miles away, but we thought it was hillarious.

These things didn't look very scary--just lazy.

Although signs like this reminded us that they were dangerous.