feeling behind..

 My younger sister and her family were recently stationed in New Orleans and since the drive is less then 8 hours we decided to take a little road trip. 

It was also a good reason to go and celebrate my niece, Shi's birthday.  

my little book worm taking a snooze. 

I have not been one to paint my finger nails, almost 99% of the time they are just natural but recently 

I had an urge to paint them.

So I chose navy.

I painted them the night before we left, the color is called Midnight. 

About half way there, we started to see bridge after bridge after bridge. I have never been over that many in my life and once we got to New Orleans, they were steep! 

I told b my stomach was doing flops because I felt like I was on a roller coaster!

With me being gluten free, it honestly makes eating on the road a little difficult 

but luckily we found a Chipotle that wasn't far from the highway. 

I was a happy camper! 

 We got in late that night and when we woke up, we were greeted by two happy little girls! 

We took my oldest niece, Shi to school and then took the younger ones to the park. 

Oliver and Willow are only a couple months apart and I just adore how they play together. 

There is a special bond between them that I really hope they will always have. 

 She's super spunky and man can she make us laugh!

Later that day, we went to a horse farm with all the kiddos so that they could ride the horses. 

The lady who offers lessons and rides dressed up this beautiful horse for Shi's birthday. 

The farm wasn't the prettiest but the lady informed us that she was moving to a better facility 

in the next couple months. Uh...good thing. 

We were greeted by all sorts of animals. 

Cows, dogs, bison and this little black kitty cat. 

This is my most favorite picture of these three to date. 

All ready to ride. :)

I can't take their cuteness...really I just beam looking at these two together. They were patiently waiting for Shi to be done with her turn so that one of them could go next. 

Oliver decided to let Willow go before him. Such a gentleman. Once he got on the horse, he was smiling from ear to ear! I think we need to get him some riding lessons, but maybe the horse needs to be more like a pony. he-he!

Proud momma right here! Oliver rode the horse so well and man did he age in front of my eyes! Even though he looked so small on that horse, he looked so grown up to me. I almost got tears watching him ride!

Before we left, we got to walk around and meet some of the other horses. This baby Clydesdale was only a couple months old. I wanted to take her home. She was incredibly sweet and let all the little one's pet her. Seeing all the horses and interacting with them really made me miss riding. 

It's been a long time but maybe someday, I will ride again. 

The next day was Shi's birthday party. My sister and I decorated her dining room the night before so that the kids could be surprised when they woke up. I made a couple paper garlands out of colors that matched the birthday party dishes. My sister got some fun cupcake straws and made a homemade (gluten free) cake 

with cream cheese icing and big fat dark chocolate chips. 

Me and the birthday girl. Love this special girl!

As you can tell, she's into princesses. 

So naturally we had to get her a magic wand. 

 I think she was pretty happy about it. :)

Oliver with his buddy, Uncle Chad.

With all good trips, they have to come to an end. We drove back home on Sunday. 

It was a great trip and we wish we could have stayed longer. Hopefully we will see them again in December, if not, we will go back in January for Willow's birthday. 

On Sunday night though, I became ill...like crazy quick. I remember telling b that my lungs felt like they were filling up with water. I was coughing, wheezing and my voice became hoarse. Late Sunday night, I woke up in a panic, I was having such a hard time breathing. b gave me some medicine that helped calm me down and luckily I feel back to sleep. 

Monday morning, I woke up feeling horrible. 

 b got me into the doctor that afternoon and the nurse told me that I had bronchitis. 

isn't that crazy! 

All my plans for Monday had to be put on hold, cleaning the house, doing laundry, working on drawings for my new client and of course blogging.

Today, I feel a little better. At least I can talk now. 

I took O to the park and got some groceries. 

He is the snack helper this week so we had to pick up snacks for his class. Now that he's down for his nap, I really feel like I could use one myself...but there are too many things to do..so off I go.

Hope your having a great week!!