Snow in Temple, New Orleans trip, backyard campout

We thought we had left snowy winters behind us in Utah, but one morning in February we woke up to this:

Luckily for me, it was Scott's day off work, so the pressure to do something fun with the snow was deferred to the Canadian parent.  We got out our box of snow gear from the attic that we thought we'd never need here, and outfitted the girls as best we could.

Scott had to scrape up almost every bit of snow from our lawn to make this Texas snowman.  The girls had a blast assisting.

The snowman had a mini penguin for a buddy.

Sorry, Kate, no jumping on the trampoline today.

Our snowman went anorexic on us in a most creepy way as it melted horizontally but somehow not vertically.

Switching gears a little... The funny thing about the following scene is that I knew something bad had to be going on, but was just too lazy to go check it out.  It was too quiet for too long, but I kept intentionally prolonging my ignorance.  I paid for it though.  I love the expression on Kate's face - somehow contrite and self-satisfied at the same time.  Janie was just ticked off that she hadn't made it to the eyebrow pencil before I arrived.

I have to hand it to her; she really went for it.  No subtle beige tones for this gal.

In other news, Scott assisted on a GI research project and was able to present his poster at a medical conference in New Orleans.  So we decided to make a weekend trip of it and leave the kids with my family.  (Thanks, Mom!)  It was the first time either of us had been to the Big Easy.

The poster presentation went well and luckily Scott's obligations ended there.

Breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  Scott's breakfast came with a huge side of french fries.  Is that a Cajun thing or just a sign that America's regard for healthy eating is now nonexistent?

During the day we took the trolley to the Garden District where we saw Tulane and Loyola Universities, as well as a ton of old mansions and character houses.  This one had a "princess tower" so we took a picture for Kate.

The cemeteries in NO are aboveground, I think because the ground is too swampy, and it was really weird/cool to go exploring in one.

Sad that children's movies are a major reference point for me right now, but there is a scene in the Princess and the Frog that takes place in this cemetery.

Now that I'm writing captions I'm not sure why we took these next two pictures, or even more curiously, why I uploaded them onto this post.  Oh well; here we are inside a giant lobster?

In front of the St. Louis cathedral.

Mardi Gras masks from a gift shop.

One of many balconies decked out for Mardi Gras.  We left a couple of days before it started.

Bourbon Street was... an experience.  It was cool to see it but there was definitely a lot of crazy stuff going on there at midnight on a Friday night.  We did duck into a jazz club for awhile that was AWESOME.  I tried to upload a video but it wouldn't work so you'll just have to take my word for it.  The lead singer of the jazz band was maybe the craziest performer I've ever seen live.  It was really fun.

Another highlight of the trip (not pictured) was our visit to the National WWII Museum.  As a rule I kind of hate museums, but we went to a 4D movie about the war that was incredibly entertaining, informative and moving.  The "fourth dimension" was stuff like fake snow falling on us, laser beams shooting through the theater as if we were being shot at, seats vibrating from blasts, etc.

Back at home - So the other day after bathtime the girls wandered into the living room to watch their dad play a video game.  It started like this...

...and ended like this. :)

A couple of nights ago we decided to have a campout in our backyard.  For Kate (and me), the best part of camping is s'mores, so we roasted marshmallows on our grill.

I happened to catch on camera Scott's frustration at the difficulty of roasting marshmallows without hot coals from a real campfire.  It seemed like they either wouldn't cook at all or caught on fire for no apparent reason.

Jane and I retreated into the house at bedtime, but Scott and Kate slept all night in the tent.  Kate was giddy about her "first time camping ever" so we declared it a success.