Mardi Gras 2015

It was a fast, but packed, Mardi Gras trip this year.

But before we get going, we did take a quick family pic. Guess how many pictures it took to get all dozen of us to look at the camera??

Then the kids stayed up late for the parade!

(That's pretty much the only shot where they are all in focus and kind of smiling... whew!)

Chris has many fond memories of parades while he was growing up and he loves sharing them with Bradley. Like the tradition of buying overpriced light-up swords from the street vendor:

And, of course, watching the parade from his dad's shoulders:

Bradley was so excited when the parade started:

And when the Maid's and Queen's floats came down, he exclaimed, "Look!! Angels!!"

It didn't take long for Bradley to collect lots of goodies:

Thanks, in no small part, to Chris' techniques (and Bradley's obvious cuteness):

These cousins have amazing fathers/uncles... I'm so thankful for the good influences that they are:

It's safe to say that Bradley loved it!

I couldn't get a good shot of him because he only wanted to look at the parade!

And you might be wondering where Brenham was?

That's him in the Bjorn... sleeping on mama the whole time!

The next morning Bradley woke up and saw his bag of beads in the corner of the hotel room. He exclaimed, "Look!! Treasures!!" and happily played with them for quite some time. He still refers to any Mardi Gras beads as his "treasures". 

The next morning we took Bradley to do something every child should:

Roll down the hill!

The problem was, he didn't know how!

A quick lesson from Chris and Bradley was giggling and rolling and climbing for the next half hour!

(Listening to those giggles will turn around even the worst of days!

After some breakfast, a day parade and a looooooong bath in the large hotel room bathtub (he was doing laps, it was hilarious), I left the boys with a sitter and enjoyed watching Chris in his parade. Then we both enjoyed the ball.

It's always good to get out every once in a while, right??

Would you believe this is Bradley's THIRD Mardi Gras? Let's take a stroll down memory lane:
Year one (he was 6 months old).
Year two (he was 18 months old).

Excited to see Bradley and Brenham continue to enjoy this family tradition!