Happy Mardi Gras Texas Style!

It is fun to be back in the south where Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal! We have celebrated Mardi Gras in some fashion since we moved to New Orleans in 1984. I usually make jambalaya and we have a king cake and try to have some beads around and the grandchildren have come to love this tradition. More photos later in the blog.

We ventured into Houston a couple of weeks ago to one of the big convention centers where they were having an RV show. John has been dreaming of having a small, van style RV so it was fun to get to look at some.

We realized after we got close to the convention center that we would probably need cash for parking and we didn't bring any, so we had to stop at a convenience store and use the ATM - probably not the best idea in the neighborhood we were in, but we survived!

It was nice to be able to climb around in them instead of just looking at them on YouTube.

We didn't time our trip home very well and had some good Houston traffic to wind through.

Our nice neighbors brought us a sweet Valentine's bouquet!

We were eating dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants and two sister missionaries walked in, so I had to jump up and talk to them. They were meeting a family from their ward who was feeding them that night. We LOVE the missionaries!

We love seeing what these big live oak trees are going to do next! They don't change to fall colors or lose many leaves in the fall but they do drop a lot of acorns then; but this week they all just had a big leaf drop, so there were crews out cleaning up.

I love the beauty of these trees and the fact that they stay green year round -

our walks on this street are so nice!

But, I'm glad I don't have them in my yard - the cleanup is year round!

This is the park next to our place, and they had a little Mardi Gras celebration over the weekend.

Lots of families out enjoying the great weather.

We love having something fun to do on our day off!

John found this wreath for our front porch.

They had a parade - on a much smaller scale than the parades in New Orleans. This group with dogs in costume was a lot of fun!

There were a few "floats" -

They drove around the park and threw beads and some candy -

the kids loved it of course!

I changed into a lighter jacket and then regretted it. I have the hardest time deciding how to dress here! It can be in the high 60's, and if you are in direct sun with no breeze it is pleasant. But, if there is any wind or shade I get too cold.

There was a live band playing Cajun and Zydeco music too!

The local grocery store has been having a crawfish boil every weekend, so we decided to get some for old times sake. It was REALLY hot!!! I had a few shrimp and a few bites of corn before I quit. John kept eating but then broke out into a nice sweat from all that good cajun heat!

Today was the first of three days of zone conference, and again it was really another great one! Today is also Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, so after zone conference we came home and made Jambalaya. We invited the other two senior missionary couples that live in our complex to come celebrate with us, and it was a lot of fun!

We had an apple filled king cake a a cream cheese one - they were pretty good!

The Jambalaya was made with andouille sausage and shrimp - and just the right amount of cayenne pepper!

We decorated with some of the beads from the parade.

Elder and Sister Cluff, and Elder and Sister Melzer.

We found some Martinelli's to add some sparkle!

It was a great day, now back to work getting ready for tomorrow - we've got to keep these missionaries healthy!