what to do with 2 days vacation for Dad & Mom??

Day #1 (Monday)....send the boys to school, have breakfast together at La Madeleine (Yum-O, my pick), go Christmas (Santa) shopping for the boys (made huge strides here), have lunch date at Walk-Ons, compeititive round of bowling at the local lanes, rush home for quick mid-afternoon nap, get the boys early from school for outside family play time, family dinner (all four of us sitting down together eating four different meals), baths and bedtime by 8pm for all members of the family = excellent day!!





Here's a hint for our next day of vacation and where we ventured to...







Day #2 (Tuesday)....family day trip to New Orleans to the Aquarium of the Americas (1st time trip for Daddy Buck, Buck-a-roo, and Frank-o) complete with lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and French Quarter art purchase for PrincessMom = another excellent day!!



The aquarium is a photographer's dream; so much opportunity for jaw-dropping snapshots. No, I am not claiming to be a photographer, I'm just saying... Check out the scenery and critters that I did capture:














(try to ignore my reflection in the glass and focus on the gigantuous anaconda in the tank)




(let's play a game...find the seahorse in the picture *hint-he's camoflauged)




Then there were these critters that I also enjoyed photographing:







The shark tank was the unanimous crowd favorite amongst the boys of the family (all three of them):









the boys also enjoyed searching for the otter in his tank--he was very fast and quite the showoff:




we might could have skipped the aquarium all together and just rolled down the hill outside the aquarium as we did before we entered the aquarium and again after we left the aquarium:




if we had done that though, I wouldn't have gotten this picture (my absolute, hands-down favorite of them all):




then it was off to lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, where the mango margaritas are splendid and you can pretend to be a pirate's parrakeet through your entire meal:







we had a terrific time:

it was back to reality, i.e. work, today!!