Louisiana!

Hello from Louisiana!  Moving proved to be a challenge.  Nothing major happened.  Everyone arrived safely, including the reptiles.  We closed on the house the morning that we arrived and the movers showed up right after.  It was probably one of the smoothest transitions ever and yet, it was still stressful.  Leaving behind friends and family was hard, especially for our daughter.  Moving in the middle of Freshman year is not ideal timing, to say the least.  To keep ourselves busy, we started touring our new home state.  We, of course, headed out to New Orleans!  The amount of inspiration there is astounding!  And no trip to NOLA is complete without beignets from Cafe du Monde.

   Our next trip was to the Baton Rouge Zoo.  It happened to be raining that day, so we basically had the whole zoo to ourselves.  Our daughter loved it and it seemed to cheer her up.  Keeping her busy was the key to battling the loneliness of being the new kid.


Our next trip was several weeks later.  We drove out to Lafayette, which is about an hour and a half away, to take a Cajun swamp tour.  Our daughter loves all things nature and I thought this would be a great way to enjoy the beauty of Louisiana.  To say that it was gorgeous is an understatement!  The tour lasted two hours and I could have stayed out there all day!!  Since it was still early in the year (April) the gators were just coming out of hibernation, so they were everywhere.  They have to lay around and warm up their bodies before they can start eating.  During this time, sightings are abundant.  Once they get warmed up, they hang out below the surface and are not seen as much.

 I was so inspired by the entire experience.  Addison had a blast and we learned so much about our new state.  This last picture is of an old, abandoned duck blind that somebody built.  I just thought it was cool looking.  Once I got back home, I quickly dove into some painting.  I can definitely feel the spirit of LA making its way onto the canvas.

                                            
Since I'm not working, I will definitely be blogging and painting a lot more.  I can't wait to share more of what I've been up to these last 6 months!

XOXO,
Nicole