Marchand Family News and Stuff: 2019

This was a great year!

We took 3 trips! Our first trip was to the mountains of North Carolina during spring break. It was FREEZING (literally). But, that didn't stop us from doing a bunch of stuff like hot tubbing, s'moring (?) by a subpar camp fire, playing in a creek by our cabin and hiking. What did stop us was closures. Some of the roads and hiking trails were closed because of ice/hazardous conditions. We took a very cold trip to Biltmore Estate. It was fascinating to me! I could have spent the whole day walking around looking at everything there. We stayed at this cabin for a few days and then went to Chattanooga, TN. We went to Rock City where we saw a green waterfall (it was close to St. Paddy's Day) and 7 different states. We also went to Ruby Falls. It was fairly touristy, but the story of how it all came to be was fascinating. I really enjoyed Chatt. We still really love the whiskey from a small distillery downtown.

Next, we followed daddy up to Chicago for a week. We stayed at the London House for the week while daddy was working, and it was pretty swanky! It was right on the river, and the view was really great! While daddy was at work, we were tourists in the town. We walked to the "bean" in Millennium Park. It really was so cool. There was such a fun park area around there, too. The kids and I had a blast. We got to see daddy for lunch and meet his co-workers. We had some real deep dish pizza. We went to the zoo (my first Uber ever). We went to Navy Pier and the Children's Museum and rented a bike that we treatcherousley rode across the bridge on to see the Buckingham Fountain. We took a boat tour and saw an amazing view of Chicago from Lake Michigan. We went to the aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. We went bowling, and ate at a spy house named Safehouse. We ate at Rainforest Cafe. We saw Blue Man Group and went on a donut tour. We had an amazing time in Chicago.

Later in the summer, we went to Destin with the Ferraras. We did glass art (which was really fun). We took a tiki boat to Crab Island for my birthday. There were no bathrooms there. So, when Gavin told me he had to poop, we ventured to the edge where he tried to poop, and I tried to keep us from floating away in the current. Ultimately, he didn't poop, and we didn't get sucked away by the current. We had a great time at the beach, even though Gary hurt his wrist trying to catch a very poorly thrown ball. He went to urgent care and got an impressive splint with a less than impressive diagnosis. We spent a lot of the week swimming in our swimming pool and walking to the beach that was only a few houses down. The kids enjoyed when I read them books before bedtime in my silly voices. We ate at McGuire's Irish Pub. That was one of the most stressful times in my life. It was loud, and the waiter came by every 30 seconds to try to take our order. It probably wasn't that bad, but I don't remember that being a positive experience!

Gavin turned 10 and Emaline turned 7 and entered 5th grade and 2nd grade, respectively.

We had a few school functions and two musical performances...

We went to the Parish Fair for the first time ever. It was incredibly HOT, but the kids had a blast.

We went hiking and "mountain" biking around our house. We went on a hike around the Northlake Nature Center. It was a fun time, but Beaux came home full of ticks. We went for a bike ride around Sunset Point. Emaline was a trooper!

Gavin cooked for me, Grandma and Gigi at his cooking class. It was wonderful! I enjoyed being spoiled by him.

We spent time with cousins...

We took family pictures...

And, we did all the Christmas stuff...we got a Christmas tree at the same place we always do. We went to Celebration in the Oaks with the Ferarras. We had an ugly sweater Christmas party. We went to Benedicts to see Santa and a reindeer along with other merriment. We went to a festival in Old Mandeville and rode on a horse and carriage. And, we spent lots of quality time on Christmas Day.