NOLA, Nana, Papa, and Thanksgiving, Oh My!

The weekend before Thanksgiving I had a conference in New Orleans so Nana came to watch Grace so Mark could join me and see our West Lafayette crew.  We had a great time with some nice dinners out and Mark got to enjoy hanging out with George and Jake during the day while I conferenced and had coffee/breakfast/lunch rendezvous with old friends.

 

At Emeril's NOLA

Olivier's--I cried through half this dinner I was laughing so hard!

  Beignets at Cafe du Monde--YUM!

What I'm missing a photo of and what I personally thought was highlight of the trip was our sighting of Matthew McConaughey at lunch before we flew out.  I was admiring and giggling at these two cute kids sitting at the table next to us for quite some time before I realized who their father was.  My heart just races thinking about it :-)  He's gorgeous.  His partner is beautiful.  His kids are the cutest little things.  Since the whole family was there I didn't ask for a picture--just admired from afar.  Mark was surprised I recognized him--he had his shirt on!  Hehehehe!

While we ate our way through New Orleans, Grace was keeping her Nana busy.  They made several trips to the park, played lots of Candyland, and went out to dinner with a big surprise dessert!

Mark and I got home late Sunday night/early Monday morning and then Papa arrived early Tuesday morning.  We had a great time showing Nana and Papa around Fort Collins and celebrating Thanksgiving with them.

Hiking to see the prairie dogs

 

Brewery tour at New Belgium

Their famous twisty slide

 

Hiking Horsetooth

Thanksgiving was a little bittersweet.  We all missed our Iowa traditions but it was really nice to have family here in FoCo to help us celebrate.  It was gorgeous weather--we were able to have the windows open and did a long walk to the splash park in the morning.

 

Grace was a big girl and drank her apple juice out of a crystal goblet!

Grace the performer

And on the other side of the camera!

Friday we had a fun day, shopping and lunch in old town (complete with story time with Santa!), and then Estes Park for the holiday lights parade that night.

 

The parade was great fun but once we got up to Estes a crazy storm hit and all of a sudden we found ourselves in blizzard like conditions.  Luckily it stopped before the parade began and we were able to make it home safely!

We took Nana and Papa to the airport in Denver on Saturday morning.  We were sad to see them go but are sure they will be back to visit again soon!