Long Time, No See!

Well, it is amazing to me how I am just getting around to blogging again. The Simmons' have been so super busy and I can't wait to share some pictures of our latest adventures. As far as the house goes, we have completed the pantry and almost have the laundry room wrapped up. I am IN LoVe with the pantry and we sometimes catch ourselves just standing and looking at it =)

I just love it!! Now that the pantry is complete, we can focus on finishing the laudry room. I hate to say it, but I think the laundry room will be more of a headache to complete than the pantry. The reason I say this is because we will first need to re-do ALL of the plumbing for the house before we can hook up the washer and dryer. It should be interesting...

Between working on the house and just everyday life, believe or not, we actually found (or made) time for a few trips recently. We have done a crawl to New Orleans for Jazz Fest, gotten our schnitzel on and traveled to Fredericksberg for Memorial Day and had a "thumpin'" time in Luling for the Watermelon Thump! Here are a few of the pictures from our trips.

New Orleans was a BLAST! We went with our close friends, Matt and Megan, and are so glad we did. I think this was honestly the most relaxing trip I have ever been on. We enjoyed Baton Rouge the first night and New Orleans for Jazz Fest the next. In Baton Rouge, we stayed with Matt's aunt and uncle who were awesome tour guides and made us feel so welcome! That night, we enjoyed a fun local festival...it's all about the dancing in Lousiana, a tour of the LSU campus to see Big Mike, and a WONDERFUL cajun dinner that is still making me crave their crawfish ettoufee. Needless to say, Baton Rouge was a blast. The next morning, we headed out for New Orleans for Jazz Fest. We have breakfast at Cafe de Monde and had the famous beignets...mmmmm! I have failed to mention that the entire time we were in Lousiana it rained...it poured, but I wouldn't have done it any other way. So while touring Bourbon street and all of New Orleans, we were troopers and sported our awesome ponchos and rain boots! When we finally made it to Jazz Fest, we got to see Juvenile, BB King, and Van Morrison...and yes, he sang "Brown Eyed Girl"...loved it! We took full advantage of the amazing food in Lousiana and did a food crawl through the concessions. We tried muffalettas, shrimp, fried green tomatoes and so much more! Here are a few pictures...

Our next trip was with my parents and we traveld to Fredericksberg for Memorial Day to enjoy the history, wine and great food! We toured the Pacific Museum and Reenactment, became winos after wine tasting and ate our weight in German cuisine, which also included a slice from the famous Fredericksberg pie shop. Here are a few pictures from the trip...

The most recent trip we took was with Clay's parents and family to Luling for the Watermelon Thump. We enjoyed all of the watermelon festivities, camping, Zedler's Mill, and local BBQ...mmmm Black's BBQ is the best! We even took a picture with the owner of Black's, who seems to be a local celebrity!