Mardi Gras 07

Well, I survived another Mardi Gras.....barely. Whew, I think I'm getting to old for this. But, I had a great time!

My precious friends Mel and Shannon came in town to celebrate. I miss having them in New Orleans, I really think they should move back.

We paraded ALL day Saturday, all day Sunday after church, Monday evening and all day Tuesday. Craziness. I wish I could find the right words to describe Mardi Gras in New Orleans. 'The world's largest family reunion/tailgate party' just doesn't seem to cover it. Oh well, guess y'all will have to come down and experience it with me sometime!

Enjoy the pics!

This sign scored some pretty good throws: beads from Drew Brees and a beanie baby from Sean Payton!

Here's Mel and Amanda viewing the parade from a couple of ladders we brought for the kiddo's (don't worry the little kids had already gone home!)

The Lee kids joined us for most of the parades. Stephen finally got into the spirit of things on Monday evening. Do you like his sign? (We'll do just about anything for some good throws!)

Here's Stephen and I enjoying lunch on Saturday afternoon. We also celebrated Carter Cox's 1st B-day at the parades

The Hit Me sign is always a crowd-pleaser....but you have to be brave to hold it. Krewe members love to pelt the sign with a large number of beads thrown at very high speeds.
My Mardi Gras experience changes just a little each year. The new addition/experience for this year was a camp-out on the neutral ground (neutral ground = median, for all you who are not schooled on New Orleans lingo) on St. Charles Avenue. You may remember last year's post about Nick, the owner of the restaurant, Rio Mar, whom we stood next to last year. Well, I got in touch with Nick, and we decided to all join up and camp out together. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to St. Charles Monday evening, the neutral ground was almost full of other campers! We ended up separating from Nick's crew. Mel, JB, Jonathan and I were so tired from all vou parading, that we set-up our tent and went straight to bed!
Here's a pic of Mel and I inside the tent.

The Kampout Krewe: Mel, JB, Jonathan and me!
Brushing my teeth in front of half the city was a little different.All in all, I had a great Mardi Gras! Can't wait for each of you to come down and celebrate with us!