Hosanna!

“Hosanna” is how Charlotte lovingly refers to Louisiana. My parents took me and my kids along with my sister-in-law and her girls to a family reunion there this summer.

The kids got to run around like crazy with all of their distant cousins and have a blast.  They also rode horses:

Trailors:

and tractors:

Lyndon got to see where his middle name came from:

Anyone trying to come up with a name for their baby boy? Give Americus Vespucius a try (after the explorer).

Above is a picture of most of the remaining children.  Below is the back of the gravestone where their ten kids’ names are etched.

My parents rented a little cabin to stay at while we were there.  The kids got to their ride bikes (which Lyndon still pronounces “bäks” like he has a southern drawl).

 

They got to “sleep” with their cousins and eat breakfast on the porch.

We went and checked out the Alligator farm too:

They say if you measure an alligator from their eyes to their nostrils in inches, that is about how many feet long they are.  We decided this alligator was about a 10-footer.

 

Doesn’t this picture below look like it belongs on a calendar? This is before I accidently dropped the bag of feed into the goats’ pen. All the kids of course found it hilarious that the goats ate the bag as well.  Oops.

She stayed pretty happy most of the time (we won’t talk about the ride home).

The pictures below explain why all the alligators stick around the farm:

Here is a picture of the homestead my Grandmother grew up in.  9 kids.  2 bedrooms.  Before A/C in Louisiana.

Isn’t it so pretty and green?

Charlotte now loves playing Red Rover, which she calls “send over” and will argue with you if you tell her otherwise.  Makes more sense to me anyway.

 

They had rented a fun inflatable water slide the kids spent two days on.

I was starting to wish we lived out in the boonies:

  Doesn’t she look cute on a tractor?

We played lots of games they had organized for the kids.

On the last day of the reunion they always have a crazy breakfast.  It’s always a surprise.  This year it was brownies and ice cream with all sorts of toppings. There were also biscuits.  Lyndon informed me later his stomach hurt. 

I filled up on my fresh fried fish (caught the day before), hushpuppies, biscuits, sweet potatoes, chicken ‘n dumplings, fresh ham, Natchitoches Pie, Crawfish Po’ Boys, Smoked Turkey, and so much more, but I can’t remember three months after the fact.

All in all we had a lot of fun!