MARDI GRAS!!!!!

Oh what a wonderful time of the year! I get very excited and hopeful this time of year....Mardi Gras is here, Lent is just around the corner and Easter is almost here which means the winter is ALMOST GONE!!!!! There couldn't be any better news around this time :)
K, J and I rolled southward last Friday with Mom, Roy, Sissy, Taylor and John not far behind. We made it to Lafayette in time to rest a little before meeting up with everyone else for dinner.

I finally got to go to Prejean's and it did not disappoint! I liked it better than DI's and it was much closer.

We had the whole damn gang there and ate and drank and listened to music until we were about to pass out. The band even referenced the "Tennessee Gang" several times.
Saturday morning started with a trip to University of Louisiana - Lafayette to check out the swamp they have on campus that K has been telling us about for a while.

The microbiology unit at UL had the swamp built a long time ago on campus and uses it for their studies. It was really neat!

We even spotted a Gator.
After the swamp tour, we met up with everyone at the parking lot at Peanut's work where we would be conducting all of our tailgating activities in between parades.

We had quite the gang and we ate and ate and ate and ate. Boudin, wings, gumbo cracklins, boudin balls and King Cake all day long! It was heaven.

K even did a little cracklin cookin'! The batch he cooked was the best one IMO.....he doesn't like them as crispy as the other ones that were cooked, just like me.

When we weren't eating, we were doing a lot of hanging out too. The Krewe de Chiens parade was the first one of the day and we made our way over in time to snag a pretty good spot.

The dogs were adorable again this year!

The second parade was the Carnival en Rio that night and it was a good one too. The always play the best music.

Everyone was totally into it and we collected a huge amount of throws!

Once we made it back to the hotel, we sorted everything out and put all the beads on J. It was a load!!!!

We ended our Mardi Gras weekend with a trip to Rouse's Market to pick up red velvet King Cakes to bring home and an amazing brunch at the Blue Dog Cafe before heading back north....against everyone's wishes :(

Another fantastic Louisiana weekend was had by all!