Mardi Gras!

This weekend there was a big Mardi Gras celebration in Jefferson, TX. Jefferson is an adorable, quaint little town here in East Texas. It's one of those places where you can walk the town for hours shopping at all the little shops and boutiques. I know because we have.

But this weekend we went for the Mardi Gras parade and for the yummy food. We ate at this great restaurant where all the sandwiches are made on cornbread. Yummo! We'd eaten there before and just had to go back. You know I love some food and eating at this place alone makes a trip to Jefferson all worth it to me. The boys said they thought grabbing beads at the parade was the best part of the day...I said eating at Kitt's was the best part of the day. Then again, eating is usually the best part of any of my days. :)

So, here's Phyllis, me, and KB after the parade. The weather was rainy at first, but turned out to just be chilly and nice after all.

Here are the boys with all their beads. People love to throw some beads at the kiddos. Who ever knew there were so many assortments of beads??

Some of my favorite floats. Look at those cute bug legs on the VW bug. Fun!

KB and her family went home and Phyllis and the boys and I stayed to walk around and we made it over to the carnival portion of the festivities. We went to ride this giant slide and ended up buying tickets and riding some good ole carnival rides.

While there, I convinced Jake to ride this spinning contraption of a ride with me. He agreed, maybe a little bit hesitantly, but he got on with me. We got on and the ride took us up a little ways and stopped for other people to get on and our car thing stopped going around but it continued to spin in place. I looked at Jake and he looked all pale and I asked him if he felt sick and he said that he wasn't sick, just scared. That is about when I knew this was a very bad idea. Then it started up again and we were off. That sucker was spinning so fast as it went around and Jake looked at me and said with wide eyes, "I want off!" Then as we kept going faster and faster he said a bit louder this time, "I WANT OFF!" and then he started saying, "IwantoffIwantoffIwantoff....!" So I started yelling at the carney guy that we need off, but the problem was that when we went by him we were spinning so fast that he couldn't hear me. So, I started screaming at Phyllis, who was below us taking pictures and smiling and waving. No clue that her son was now saying, "mommymommymommy" over and over in a soft voice, which alarmed me almost more than the screaming. I started telling him that we are okay and there is absolutely no way we can get hurt on this thing and that I am trying to get them to stop the ride. Then I said a quick prayer that God would not make a liar out of me and that he would keep this squeaky carnival ride in one piece until I can get this boy back on the ground. Finally I get the canival man's attention and let him know that WE NEED OFF and he stopped the ride and let us off. Whew. Crisis mostly averted.

I felt so bad for Jake! The good news is that he was laughing by the time we finally left and made it to the car. Now Jake and I have this special memory together of the horrible, awful octopus ride at the Mardi Gras festival.

Here we are on the ride. You can't see Jake, probably because he is crouched down in the seat, praying for his life. And I look like I am having a great time, but if it weren't so fuzzy, you could see that I am pleading for dear life for someone to stop the stupid ride!!

It was such a fun day...even with the little hiccup of a carnival ride gone bad. Good food, good friends, good times!