Baton Rouge Bucket List - Easter Egg Hunt at the Governor's Mansion

     We had hoped to get to go back for the Louisiana Governor's Annual Easter Egg Hunt for 2016. We first went in 2015 but I don't know that we were invited before then. Apparently having a kid DOES change everything. With a new governor in place and CRAZY budget cuts, I really didn't expect an Easter Egg Hunt, but low-and-behold, on the actual day of the Hunt, we got a text message saying that it was on and we were expected to be there. There was some kind of mix-up at Dr. Frank's office. Since Session had already begun, Dr. Frank was in town, but poor Nana missed out. Matt did too, until near the very end.  This post is mostly pictures because well, what do you say about an Easter Egg Hunt?

    Thomas took a few minutes to warm up but he did eventually - to both the Easter bunny and the train. He wanted to ride the train every time it came back from its loop of the parking lot.

Whitney was a bit concerned about Dr. Frank's ability to get OUT of the train...

No lie, best picture we could get of T and F.

It seems that Daddy can even make the Easter bunny less scary.

Thomas's Easter hunt shirt for church! It was adorable. Also, he can still fit in those shorts. It's kind of  ridiculous.

Baton Rouge Bucket List - A weekend in Nola

We've been in Tally for MONTHS now but I am way behind on posting on our last days in Baton Rouge. I'm trying to catch up, I promise I will! Eventually...  Timing-wise, we're in March of 2016. Easter weekend, actually.

Many of the items on our Baton Rouge Bucket List included things that we could only do in New Orleans: go to the Audubon Zoo, eat at a John Besh restaurant, beignets.  Shortly after our 5K which was the day before my last half marathon, Matt caught the running bug and I was able to talk him into signing up for the Crescent City Classic. The CCC is a historic Nola 10K. It's always the Saturday before Easter. Since Matt ended up having Good Friday off work, we decided to go and make a weekend of it.

We left for Nola early Friday morning and started our day at the only place worth starting a day: Cafe du Monde. Thomas had never been there before. He LOVES donuts so we knew that he'd love it. There were HUGE lines to sit outside but an open table inside so we just mosied our way inside and sat down right away (Insider secret: the lines outside aren't for the tables inside the building.).

Not going to lie, Thomas LOVED it. Like, loved it. So much so that when he dropped his beignet, he cried. I don't mean just fake cried. I mean, meltdown. He absolutely LOST. IT.

There was still a WHOLE plate in front of the kid but he cried and cried and CRIED. It was both adorable and embarrassing. Luckily, the tables around us saw the whole thing so no one called CPS on us.

It didn't take but two more beignets to get him to cheer up. As you can see, he learned about sugar very quickly.

After getting all  sugared-up, we went out to the zoo. It was crazy packed but the weather was very nice so we enjoyed it. We had the Bob jogger with us so we just mowed the other patrons down.

Thomas loved the carousel but would only ride on it with Matt. I don't get it, but whatev. I'm a better picture taker.

 After the zoo, we went back to the hotel. We stayed at the same hotel that the Crescent City Classic was headquartered so that made it easy. We just navigated the myriad of elevators (y'all, it was SO confusing) and got our race goodies. Then, we checked out the restaurants in the hotel. THERE WAS A JOHN BESH RESTURANT IN THE HOTEL! Perfect. So many things to mark off our bucket list and we didn't even have to leave the hotel! After Thomas went to bed, Matt went downstairs and ordered way too many things. He brought them back to the room and we have a picnic feast of John Besh's best. We went straight to bed with tummyaches.

Early the next morning, we got dressed and headed to the back of the line. Like, behind 20,000 other people. Strollers had to start WAY back. It frustrated Matt to no end. He's not a plodder and he seriously hates getting stuck behind people. We were stuck behind everyone. Including a Viking ship. Matt decided to bob and weave and run over people. I ran behind and apologized as I went...

You know, runners have to stretch!

Thomas had a very relaxing time.

 We did it! In the rain! Matt actually traversed 6.2 miles and didn't die! Thomas only ate 54.3 packs of fruit snacks! We marked everything off of our Nola bucket list. Just in time to move...