Baton Rouge, Louisiana Day 1

 While Palmer, Lincoln and Dad were cleaning up the flood in Louisiana, McKay, Hunter and I went 30 minutes north to Baton Rouge (the flood clean up was in Gonzales) to do some sight seeing.  I was pretty excited to go and see their old state capitol since it looked like a castle to me.  I'm so glad that we went here because it was so cool!

 These two get along really well.  They are so funny together and I loved getting to spend time with them.

 This capitol was SO kid friendly.  Right when we went in they asked us if we wanted to watch a spooky movie (they assured us it wasn't too spooky).  We went in and saw a totally cool movie about the history of the capitol building with lots of sound effects.  We all loved it.

 One of their governors (Huey Long) was assassinated.  They had so many displays about him.

 Including the gun that was used to kill him.

 Seriously, how cool is this building!  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  

 Hunter and McKay kept putting on singing and dancing shows on this stage.  We would leave to see something else, and they would head right back here.  They gave everyone quite the show.  

 More of their show on the stage.

 Seriously these two are so entertaining.

 They had a whole room for kids.  Hunter really got into the politician thing.

 So did McKay.

 This says "I have a dream that we will be here."  I don't think he knew the rest of that line from the Martin Luther King speech.

 We were excited to go and explore the USS Kid, but because of the flooding, the relief efforts were set up in front of the visitor's center so they decided to close early and we didn't get to go.  It was a little disappointing.

 We ended up heading to the Louisiana Art and Science Museum instead.  I really love that my kids can spend hours in places like this.  They played with these tubes and balls FOREVER.  

 I never realized how hard it is to cross your eyes!  McKay and Hunter were determined to do it because this mask looked like it was crossing it's eyes.

 Heading to see the mummy.

The mummy was actually so creepy!  It's face was unwrapped and creeped us all out a little bit.

 We found a cute little craft corner and the boys made these trees.  It was such a fun day with these cuties!

 After the boys were done working for the day we headed to dinner at the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood company.  We had alligator poppers for our appetizer and Palmer was NOT a fan.

 Hunter was a fan for the most part.

 Josh and I thought they were okay, just a bit mushy.

 After we headed back to our hotel to swim.  The boys just need a hotel pool to be happy.

It was a beautiful sunset that night.  A great ending to our first experience in Louisiana!

Mormon Helping Hands-Louisiana Flood Relief

 We received an email from the church that they needed members of the church to drive down to Louisiana and help with some flood clean up that had ruined a lot of houses and businesses.  Louisiana hadn't gotten as much help as they needed as this disaster was unexpected and also happened during the olympics so it didn't get a lot of tv coverage.  

We jumped at the opportunity to go down there and give our family this experience.  It is about 8.5 hours to Louisiana, but I really do like road trips so it was fun.  We listened to Harry Potter 4 on the way down so it was a lot more fun.

So much waste and devastation.  It made us sad for these people.

 We were so proud of Palmer and Lincoln and how hard they worked.  Hunter and McKay couldn't help because helpers had to be 12 (Lincoln is a few months shy but he still helped). 

 First they helped the American Legion and the next day they helped at a Methodist church.  All of the destruction was so sad.  Every home and business had things ripped out of it and waiting on the curb for FEMA to come and pick up.  80% of the people did not have flood insurance and so much was damaged.  

 On Sunday we had the opportunity to listen to M. Russell Ballard in a jammed packed church and listen to David Archuleta speak.  It was awesome.

 I think these boys really liked ripping out the sheet rock and they had fun with the other youth from our ward.  They hoped to get around 5,000 people and they ended up with 11,000 volunteers.  I am so proud to belong to a church that makes helping people a priority.  

I love that the boys got this great experience!

Biloxi, Mississippi

 As we were heading down to Louisiana, we were able to stop in the city of Biloxi, to stretch our legs and for dinner.  I had no idea that Mississippi was on the beach.  I guess I should know that, but it was a surprise to see it.  

 The boys had fun playing on the beach for a little bit.

 We went to Tony's Brick Oven Pizza thanks to recommendations on Yelp and it was really good.  While we were waiting for our food, they brought the boys out pizza dough to play with.  They loved that, what a good idea!

 The pizza was super yummy and we all agreed this was a fun place to go to!

Rosa Parks Museum-Montgomery Alabama

 The church asked the stakes in the south to send people to help with flood clean up for the people of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  It was a good excuse for us to check out some places that we have wanted to visit on the way down.  We passed through Montgomery, Alabama on the way down, which is a big place for civil rights and I have wanted to go there with my kids.

 I hope my boys remember the cool things we have been able to do while living in Georgia and close to so much history.

 Josh had a job interview for ADP (which he ended up getting) and so we hung out waiting for him to finish.  The museum was on the campus of Troy University.

 The boys got these cute games that they loved.  It was a slide puzzle.

 Rosa Parks fingerprints.  I learned a lot at this museum too!