Year 2, Day 362: Bowling, Hunting, Games, and More!

Because of a later evening last night, we slept in until 8:30.  We knew the others wanted to go bowling, so we had to wake up Abishai in order to go get some breakfast.  He was so pitiful and just wanted to go back to bed!  He leaned on us and furniture.  But once we got some food into him, he perked up.  And after a long nap this afternoon, he is acting normal.  However, Keturah's nose started running and Gary feels ill.  I'm glad we are taking vacation a bit slower this  time.  We got to bowling and the place was huge!  But obviously, they have bands come in and play, and large rooms for rent and the liqour could easily flow with how big the bar was.  It was a kid friendly family hour though.  Abishai was definitely not himself during bowling and didn't even care about it.  I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see his usual antics.  But the squealing girls made up for him.  I'm glad they enjoyed themselves!

Then we headed home for lunch, nap for Abishai, and movie and games with the girls.  Shauna took Keturah and Everly to the library and a couple of stores.  Gary and Leah took Abishai to the other house to nap, and had a nap themselves.  Aaron, Jared, and Justin went out boar hunting!  Justin said it was dull, but had a decent time with the guys.  It was cold, and we had to convince him to wear extra clothing.  He survived the torture of wearing gloves, hat, extra coat and extra pants.  The girls and I played the game "Clue" while Everly and Shauna built marble tracks.  We convened again for dinner, a little bit more game time, Lego building time, and then making gingerbread houses time!  Everybody went to bed on time, and I, too, feel really tired despite not doing anything too vigorous.

Time to load them up and move them out!

The first few pics are from Tuesday after our Christmas Part Deux, but since there were so many pictures, I decided to post them on this blog. 

Yeah for a big van to take extra friends to bouncy time at The Gathering!

There's my littlest on the same playground my oldest was on 12 plus years ago.  Oh the memories!  And yes, I shed a few tears.

Zip!  Right up the climbing wall with no issues!

Running under the playground.  Abishai spent most of the 90 minutes on the playground.  But Daddy did get him to go on one bouncy slide before their time was up.

The Gathering owns these bouncy elements and rents out the area for birthday parties and family jumping times.

Everly going through this maze.

Big girl on the old red slide.

Awww, I have many pictures of the 3 oldest sitting on the top of this slide, too.

He navigated the stairs like he's done it all his life.

Hanging out with a new friend.

Over, under, all around.

Nora's turn!

Wow, when he did get so tall!

Abishai was serving up ice cream to Everly, Keturah and our new friend.

The old Indian Creek Christian Church indoor toddler playground in it's new home.  Benaiah says he remembers having one of his friends look out for the parents while he and the rest of his friends would climb on the outside of the playground.  They weren't supposed to be climbing on the outside of course.  But yes, us parents would have noticed and would have maybe ignored it sometimes and sometimes we would stop it.  He must have been a bit older, like when he was in Kindergarten or 1st grade and I was keeping an eye on Keturah and Justin or something.  I'm so glad he has some sweet memories from it!

This bouncy thing has two entrances so the kids can race each other around to the back and up the climbing wall, so they can slide down the front.

Justin and our new friend were the ones helping Abishai up the climbing wall.  Abishai loved it and wanted to go again, and again, and again!

Benaiah wanted to attempt solving of these cubes in a matter of minutes.  He solved about half of them and took a break because it was taking awhile.  He'll get there though.  He has so many of these cubes now that they need their own display case/shelf!

Justin also asked for and received another PS4 controller, and I'm glad he did.  Now 3 people can play the same game at the same time, like Nora and Everly with Justin on Minecraft.  Although Justin and Nora need to take a giant leap backwards away from the TV screen.  BTW, ASEN have a real tree and get one every year!  I didn't know that!  I think when we were here 8 years ago they still had a fake one.  But sweet!

The 4 middles all lined up in a pretty row.

Now onto Thursday, which is described above.

Little man woke up feverish and not wanting to get up.  So sad face.

One of the best presents of all: when your cousins will play with you with your new hot wheel garage.

Always playing card games.  Two sets of nerts going on here.

Yeah!  We can all fit in ONE van with a few seats to spare!  It definitely feels awesome not to have to worry about if the other vehicle was following us or not.

It was a pretty drizzly and cool day, but we got to see some sights on the way to bowling on Thursday morning, like this bridge.

Downtown New Orleans.  We got to see the superdome as well.

Abishai: Daddy, it's a tunnel! Or a garage!  Me: Yes, Abishai, we don't usually see these kinds of stacked highways where we live.  But they do look like tunnels.

Rock 'n Bowl definitely had an old time New Orleans feel to it.  It's hard to explain the culture here.  Everything feels old because a lot of it IS old.  New Orleans is a port city founded when the first settlers came over from Europe in the 1600's.  But it is also a poorer city than some.  And with the devastation that Hurricane Katrina and other huricanes have done in the past, it's hard to keep up.  But it's not just that.  New Orleans is known for their party atmosphere and the logos and company characters just seem so odd to me.  I can't put my finger on it.  The bowling alley was clean and had major updates and yet still felt old.  Plus it had a huge bar.  And it was super cold, like they had just turned the heat on 5 minutes before we got there.

I couldn't capture the scores when we finished, but I know Benaiah had at least one strike and he didn't use bumpers.  I needed the bumpers because I scored horribly. 

Shauna did well, too.

Keturah and the girls had some great squeal fest when they cheered each other on.  It was obnoxious to Benaiah, who had a headache.  Sorry, Benaiah, but it's only going to get louder and screechier as the girls get older.  Benaiah had a headache from being sick and didn't have the patience for the girls' squeals.

Everyly was cold and wore her hat the entire time.  Plus, she likes to wear it as part of her outfit for the day.  She's almost my height, too!  Long and lean like her parents.

The crew!  The bowling alley was really open and had a barn or warehouse feel to it.  But also dark, like a bar.

Abishai didn't feel great, so he rolled the ball down the lane a few times and then we all took turns taking his turn.

Grandpa showing us how it's done.  His dad was in a bowling league and his mom watched.  And a bet he watched, too, and played a few games growing up.  He scored decently as well.

Checking their scores every two seconds because they were on these nice iPad type screens.

Rolling, rolling, rolling.  At one point, Abishai kicked the ball down the lane.

Abishai did lay down for a minute on this comfy bench.

Checking scores again.  There is a banquest room behind those sliding doors.  We went straight to the bowling alley and then back home because of hungry and/or sick people.  New Orleans itself is about 20-30 minutes from Chalmette, which is in St. Bernard Parish.  New Orleans is it's own parish.  I don't understand their parish structure, but I do know Chalmette is basically a subberb and built on the Mississippi River Delta and therefore can flood easily.  So there's a lot of traveling over bridges to get to anywhere in New Orleans, just like in Indy.

Shauna and Everly put together her marble track.  It's pretty neat, but there's no way to stop or collect the marbles at the end.  I guess you buy those pieces separately.  I love the flexible tubes on this toy though.

Again, I think this is the cutest thing!

Cheese!

More nerts, or another game that Aaron and Shauna learned from some friends.  Cassava?

Abishai saw Everly's bike for her American Girl doll and tried to ride it.  He put binoculars in the basket and because he had his police shirt on, he said he was a police man coming to get me.  How cute!

I wish Benaiah hadn't ruined this picture or I had taken it again without him.  Grrr.  The kids made some simple gingerbread houses from graham crackers and store bought whipped icing, with candies from Shauna's pantry.  Everyone did well, except Nora's broke which sent her into tears.  It took a bit to get her to come back, but we did.

Abishai just ate his graham cracker, icing, and sprinkles.  Yum!  And since Shauna had bought gluten free grahams for Everly, I did the same thing and dipped a cracker into the can of whipped icing and ate it.  Yum!

Justin was super creative!

Nice job, Keturah!

Shauna and I started the gingerbread train she bought.  We'll be decorating it tomorrow or the next day.

Aww, I love the candy cane hearts on Keturah and Everly's creations.

Nora's gingerbread house I think?

Wow!  I haven't seen these two play Chinese checkers together in years!  And Benaiah beat Jared, too.  It was Jared's idea to bring the game with us. 

Justin's finished product, including a walkway.  I love that dimple!

The kids and their gingerbread houses!  Wait a minute!  That's not Nora!  That's Uncle Jared!

Aww, there's Nora!  And I love how the girls are making the heart.  The two in the middle tend to hang out together and the two on the ends tend to hang out together.  In fact, Justin is sleeping in Nora's room on the bottom bunk.  And Keturah is sleeping on Evelry's new gymnastics mat in her room.

Playing pew pews together before bed.  Abishai said he was helping by turning up or turning down the volume.  The remote doesn't work, so he wasn't really doing anything.

Benaiah is sometimes like that uncle that teaches you all the cool stuff, like how to play video games.  He let Abishai press some buttons for him during the mission they were on.  And they chatted abut what they were doing to each other, like Benaiah would say, "Yes, we picked up a box.  No, we can't go that way."  It was adorable.

Little hands, big hands, and Benaiah's brand new expensive headphones on a toddler.  Fun times!

Nightime tickle fight before bed!  Benaiah will make a great hands on Daddy some day!

Abishai let me take a picture of him on his big boy bed tonight.  He looks so tiny in such a big bed.  Imagine Socks being here taking up the rest of the bed and being able to stretch out, too!  Handmade bunk beds from lumbar without any fancy posts or finishes.  Rough cut and ready to receive volunteers as soon as the waters receded and they could get in here to start cleaning up.

There's a cafe attached to The Gathering that rents space from them.  And it's so adorable!  Reasonably priced, too.  They even have a drive through!  And tea, and goodies to eat, t-shirts to sell.  I got a basic coffee with some flavor shots and almond milk.

Very chic!

And back at home, the Greenfield Reporter printed our picture in their newspaper!  Yeah!  A friend of mine bought a copy of the paper for me, so I'll get it when I get back.

It was only in the 20's today, so I'm wearing all my warm gear and taking a selfie with a palm tree.  Crazy!

Oh shoot!  I forget what he was laughing about, but I think it was something he mistakenly said or said backwards because he's so tired.  He's been battling the flu all week.

And finally, Thursday ended with Gary, Jared, these two goofs, and I going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  I'll need to keep my eye out for Justin because he keeps doing that creepy face.  The movie itself was decent with a lot of twists and turns, making it hard to keep it all straight.  I kept looking for different easter eggs I knew about, or how they were going to properly send of Leia because the actress Carrie Fisher died after she shot all her scenes for this film.  There was just enough comic relief to break up some of the tension.  And just like Episode 5 bridged the gap between Episode 4 and Episode 6, so did this film bridge the gaps between Episode 7 and Episode 9.  It will be interesting to see how they resolve many of the story arcs.  I love how they waited to get all the characters together until the final battle.  And there were some Buddhism moments of enlightenment and the Force of course, but also redemption, and light vs. darkness as normal for these films.  I'll let the real critics pick the movie apart and I'll just enjoy it for what it is.

We made it!  Interestingly old theater as well.  No 3D, no reclining seats, and it was in a strip mall, where there were shops on the front and the screens where behind them along the back.  Quite interesting set up.

Way out of chronological order, but this is the front of the Rock N Bowl. Very quaint and kind of deceiving as to what the inside looks like.  New Orleans architecture is quite unique and I can't pinpoint out to describe it.

Score keeping.

My cube! Not 'Miah's!  Ha ha! I got it!

I got to play Clue with the girls today!  Yeah!  I LOVE this game!!!  I did win, but Nora knows how to strategize and win the game, too.

Very sick boy.  Sleeping more than normal.  Grandpa also had several naps over the last few days to try to kick the bug as he got it, too.

These three boys went boar hunting.  Boars run rampant in the swamps of Louisiana.  So they hunt them to try and keep the population down.  Justin said it was dull.  But that's all part of the hunt!  He also didn't like the multiple layers he was told to wear.  But he survived and now he can say he's been boar hunting!