A Momma Break

This past weekend, I had a wonderful opportunity to enjoy some of my favorite ladies as well being refreshed and become better equipped as a mom. I went the first annual .MOM conference put on by Lifeway. It was in Birmingham and I went with some of my dear friends that I don't get to hang out with nearly enough. It was an amazing time with excellent speakers and powerful worship.

However, I have to take a minute to describe to you the highlight of the whole event for me! THE DUGGARS WERE THERE! Okay, before you roll your eyes, I need to expound. I have periodically watch the TV series 17, 18, or 19 Kids and Counting and enjoyed it. I'm not at all a "super-fan." Though, I've watched Josh and Anna get married and actually seen Anna birth both of her babies (on TV of course). I have never considered myself very impressed with "celebrities" or one to be star struck but I was. I was so excited to see them and for some reason they didn't seem to have the same reaction to seeing me. I mean, I felt like we were friends. I should be walking up to Anna saying "Hey girl, how are the kids?" I was with her when she birthed them, remember? I did walk up and talk to one of them but to be honest I felt too much like a creeper to have my picture taken with them. I mean, you don't do that with friends, right? Good friends don't have to take their pictures with each other especially when all those other people are!

New Orleans

Some of you may or may not know that Jared is working on his Doctorate at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and actually almost done with it. He had a class in New Orleans during the middle of September and so we decided to make a little family adventure out of it. I had never been to New Orleans so it was a fun, new experience for me as well.

Most of our time there was spent just the kids and I since Jared was in class but it was great to get to see him when he was out of class. We went first to Jared's "school".

The kids explored and got to enjoy seeing Daddy's "school church" as Kati Ann called it.

After checking out the seminary, the kids and I hit the zoo. It was such a good zoo and we had so much fun. I know you've seen these animals in pictures before but I took these pictures with my phone! That's how close we got! We had so much fun.

No connection to University of Alabama but the elephants have always been Kati Ann's favorite

My favorite were these gorgeous tigers. It was like they were posing for us!

The lazy jaguar!

Yes, you are seeing correctly. She's touching the snake!

Unique to the swamps of Louisiana is the white alligator. Kati Ann & I both thought they were really cool.

The petting zoo was a favorite for both of our kids.

Kie finally had all the fun he could handle!