Seeing as how we live in an area that has festivals constantly,
I thought it would be a good idea to finally get out and enjoy one
Especially since it was all NPR talked about for two solid days.
So with the weekend officially started Jeremy and I set out for New Orleans
for the Blues and BBQ festival.
NPR didn't have to say BBQ to me twice to get me to leave town,
I'm all in when it comes to smoked meats.
Smoked pork is probably the only thing in between me and vegetarianism.
The only thing.
The festival was held at Lafayette Square,
the same place where we ran in the Jazz Marathon a year ago.
It is a wonderful park area if you are ever in NOLA,
along with City Park,
I highly recomend wandering the gardens there.
The best part of the festival
aside from the food...
it was totally free of charge.
Plus we managed to find $8 parking
and who doesn't love $8 parking.
First up Pulled Pork Cakes
and Pulled Pork over Grits from Squeal BBQ.
Divine.
I could have eaten several plates of the cakes.
How do you like the face Jeremy is making?
One day I will catch him in an agreeable mood
and he will willingly take a picture.
Next up was Cochon de Lait for the best Cochon Nachos of my life.
I'm telling you smoked pork
or whole hog anything makes me very happy.
To top off the awesome BBQ,
and we only hit up two of several stands,
they had live music.
Did I mention this festival was free?
Best date night ever.
After several hours of eating,
listening to music,
and browzing the craft fair at Lafayette Park;
we headed back towards the French Quarter to meet up with Kirsten
from Newlyweds Next Door and her hubby since they were vacationing in town.
Y'all Kirsten is the absolute sweetest person.
I felt like a total goob, being that this was my first "blogger" meet up.
Honestly she is as sweet and pretty in person as she is on her blog,
makes me so sad she stopped blogging. :(
I totally get it though,
sometimes I feel like I started this as a wedding blog
and am not totally sure what I am doing with it now.
My mind often wanders to the "What is my niche?" question.
........................
Saturday night we hung out at the church for a "youth night" with the gang.
We so need a name for our youth night gatherings other than "youth night"!
It slightly reminds me of the "young at heart" gatherings the elderly did back home.
Elderly we are not,
so a cheesy name we need to choose apparently.
We started out the night with Raising Cane's,
because that is what teenagers love...fast food.
I just can't see taking this goofy group to someplace that didn't house a ketchup pump.
The hands down highlight of the night was playing a game called Underground Church.
It is like Mafia,
but you can move around.
Plus the parts you are dealt are church related.
You're supposed to pretend you are in an "underground" church and hiding from the guards.
The goal is to keep the guards away from the missionaries.
You have angels who can free people from jail,
and a spy to give the guards hints.
But no one knows who anyone really is
except that we all know who the guards are.
Just a little long on the instructions part.
As you can see the guys listened well.
They also didn't quite follow the rules.
I was sleepy and just banking on getting the missionary part
with hopes of sleeping in the baptistry for 30 minutes.
Lucky for me I got the card I wanted
and ran off to hide in the church jacuzzi with one of the girls
who also got the lucky "you can hide the whole time" card.
Jeremy found us right off the bat
so we picked a much more elusive spot where no one would find us.
Literally, I'd still be sitting there if I hadn't come down.
God really has sent us a great group of kids.
The more we get to know each other the more fun we have.
There is a lot in store though that we haven't done
and will hopefully be happening in the future.
I just can't wait to see these kids in action
and getting to do more mission based projects outside the youth room walls.
..........................
Sunday we lounged around.
I cooked two recipes for an upcoming Thanksgiving themed post.
I can't share them now,
but let me assure you they are Jeremy approved good.
Ellie basically spent the day pestering Sara and Gerard.
Maddie is completely obsessed with Gerard,
so Ellie set up shop with Sara.
As you can see she was under-petted
and left on the floor like some common street dog.
This all brings me to tonight,
scheduling blog posts
soaking up every minute before bedtime
watching Jeremy learn how to administer yet another test
cuddling with the furbabies
and cooking cauliflower rice.
What was your favorite part of the weekend?
