...Big Fun in The Big Easy...

Turns out that we can still be spontaneous!

Even with our new (and awesome and adorable) little sidekick!

When our beloved basketball team beat Gonzaga 2 weeks ago, sending them farther then they had been in 30 years, we immediately wanted to go along.

We jumped online and started plotting our vacation. After a couple of hours of late-night deliberations and lots of phone calls back and forth with my parents (who are even bigger fans than us)... we decided we better sleep on it.

Morning came and the prices had sky-rocketed and the availability has diminished. More and more, we thought we probably better not go. We could cheer and show support from here.

However, as we came home from church later that afternoon we couldn't stop thinking about it and wanting to go.

::Back to the drawing board::

After several more hours of deliberating and then stumbling across newly added direct flights, we just went for it.

We booked our tickets at about 9:30pm Sunday night and we were on a flight to New Orleans by Tuesday afternoon. After initially deciding not to come along, by mid-day Monday, my parents had also caved in and booked their tickets, deciding they didn't want to miss it afterall!

Big Easy... here we come!!

It is definitely a little harder and a lot more stressful to travel with a littlemiss. She needs a.lot.of.stuff and thrives on routines... but somehow we pulled it all together and were on our way!

I got so much great advice from friends about traveling with a baby and she actually did suprisingly well on the flight...

(considering she's a baby and all)

She laid on my lap through most of the flight and played with random things

(like a fresh from the package binky that she thinks are chew toys).

She spent a good 45 minutes with just an M&M wrapper.

She got a little fussy when she got tired, but we made it to New Orleans with no real disasters!

First stop was definitely the French Quarter... always great music playing and good people watching. Our favorite game is "What's their story?" and there just might not be a better setting to play it in than right where we were sitting!

Pretty soon it was snack time and that's reason enough to take a trip to the Big Easy.

Cafe Du Monde and the famous beignets.

I had strict orders from both of my sisters to eat a few beignets for them and I happily obliged!

Chris wasn't too happy that we had to take pictures before diving in...

It was so nice not having much of an agenda (other than some basketball games) The weather was amazing, 80 degrees and beautiful. Leah and I LOVED having daddy-time around the clock... something we're not used to and we took full advantage. We spent several mornings lounging out by the pool... something I have a feeling Leah is already hooked on. She's a natural bathing beauty and totally loved splashing in the pool. Seeing her in the pool with her daddy was one of those things that I've daydreamed family vacations would consist of. It made me melty.

In addition to the beignets, New Orleans has some of the best food ever! We came to love Mother's on a previous visit and once again... it did not disappoint.

It doesn't hurt to have an inside connection to the man himself and getting to by-pass the

nomatterwhattimeofdayitis-linetogetinside.

Free breakfast and the most amazing biscuits ever ain't bad either. Thanks dp (and jerry, of course)!

Our first visit to Mother's was game-day and as we were leaving, we ran into Channel 5's Jeremiah Jensen waiting in the above mentioned line to get in. Turns out, he doesn't have quite the inside connections like we do and he wanted his picture taken with us and the cutest little BYU fan he's ever seen. (hehe)

Next stop... New Orleans Arena and all of the pre-game festivities!!

Leah was a bit like the belle of the ball. Her sign made everyone laugh and want pictures taken with her and of her. We didn't get any firm commitments from the Jimmer (about whether he would in fact wait for her)... but she did get some hang time with TJ Fredette, which is pretty much the next best thing.

Mr Peanut was also there wantin' some of the Johnsons'

... and it was hard to believe that at this time last year, she was just a mysterious littlepeanut to me. Oh how I love that little peanut so much more than I ever thought possible!!

LJ decided to take a little pre-game nap while we waited to head in for the Big Dance!

Once we got in, she was up and ready to go, taking it all in! I'm not sure she knew quite what to think. We've taken her to lots of sporting events before... but not quite to this scale.

Once it got closer to game-time and all the noise.... out came the noise cancelling headphones. We weren't sure how she would do with them, but I think it muffled the noise just enough to be a bit like white noise and she was as calm as can be...

just watching all the people...

:: GAME ON::

We had incredible seats and had so much fun!

When Leah got tired of watching the game, I turned her around and she went right to sleep. I can't believe how sweet she is and how good she was!

Although it was not the outcome that we wanted, we had a blast. It was a great game and an incredible season for our boys in blue. None of us had any regrets about going!

***

The next day we got up, enjoyed a yummy breakfast and took off out along the Mississippi into the Bayou and out to Platation Country. It was unbelievably beautiful and we loved strolling through the Antebellum mansion at Oak Alley.

I took full advantage and enjoyed my Southern Mint Julep out under one of the enormous oak trees. It was delcious and magical!

Leah wanted her own Mint Julep pretty bad...

I can't possibly describe how much I loved having so much quality time with all of my favorite people.... my parents, my precious baby girl and most especially my babydaddy.

It was perfect!

***

Saturday came and we had incredible tickets to another great basketball game and nothing better to do. Although our team wasn't playing, we still had another great afternoon watching another incredible game!!

Leah didn't seem to care who was playing, I think she just loved being there!

We are doing our best to raise a good little sports fan!

***

Leah was so unbelievably good as we carted her across the country. Most of her naps were in the carseat, stroller or bjorn, her meals were not nearly as lesuirely as she's becomed accustomed to and her bed was not nearly as pretty as the one she has at home.... but she was happy most of the time and we couldn't be luckier than to have her as our newest travel buddy.

It was an amazing trip!

So fun, so spontaneous and so low-key. What a relief for CJ and I to realize that we can in fact travel with a baby and do the things we've always loved.

It's definitely different than it was before and it's also harder than it was before...

but there is absolutely no question that it is also so much better than it ever was before!