Easter Weekend at Coushatta

We are home (doing laundry, sigh, of course) from a really great weekend! I did manage to finally post pictures to Smugmug (the link is in the right column, down a bit. Once in, click the "Spring/Easter 2009" folder)

Friday morning the kids woke us up. They were fully dressed, had eaten cereal, teeth brushed, and informed us they were ready to go to Louisiana.

I'm not sure who briefed them on Louisiana, so I'm not sure what they were expecting. But in any case, they were very excited about the trip. Perhaps, like Mike and I, they were just eager to get out of town for a couple of days and go do something different.

So we left around 9 am and arrived in Coushatta at about 11:30 AM. Nina and Papa were not there, and we couldn't check in until 2:30, so we killed time by exploring the lake, the playground, the casino (although they kept chasing us out since we had the kids) and picked up a few supplies at the grocery store.

Once Nina and Papa arrived, they had brought fishing poles for the kids so we set right to it. We didn't catch anything more than a couple of lilly pads. Three bobbins later, we were finished. We dropped the kids off at Kid Quest at the resort and hit the blackjack tables.

After playing for a couple of hours, it was about even, so we decided to try our luck on the craps tables. Yeah, big mistake. For anyone who has ever played craps, when it's fun and you're winning, it's FUN! But, WOW, you can really lose your shirt fast. Then it's not so fun anymore. So we left the casino Friday night $100 down. Sigh.

Saturday morning, Troy and Mike left to go play golf. My mom wanted to do a bit of work, so I took the kids fishing again. More lilly pads. I basically went from kid to kid untangling lines from the lilly pads and recasting it out. The funny thing is I didn't bother with bait. They were having enough fun reeling it in to worry about it.

Then mom and I took them to the park for a while and then let them ride their bikes. Hayden had been working with Michael a bit on his new two wheeler, but still needed the "run beside me" technique. After running with him a couple of times, all of a sudden, everything clicked into place for him. He was off!

I worked with him on braking. That took a while. And the last thing was taking off. By the time Daddy got back from golf, he was amazed to see the boy zooming all over - proudly - on his bike! Yeah Hayden!

Again, the kids were all too happy to return to Kids Quest. The night before, they didn't want to leave! It's nice to be able to leave them somewhere that caters to them so much. They even FEED them!

This time we stuck to blackjack, and we got on a great table with a dealer named Taka. He must have easily been 80 - 85 years old, yet he had more personality than any other dealer in the casino. By the end of the night, Mike and I had won back our $100 we lost the night before - plus change! After some late night gumbo at "Gumbeaux's", we headed back. I was quite happy.

Then it was time to play Easter Bunny and a few hours...

Yep, kids were up again, wondering where the eggs were?? (FLASHBACK FOR ME!) So we went over to Nina and Papa's chalet and had a fun egg hunt and Nina's famous French Toast. Then the pack up and head home.

Now, for those of you who have children and hate road trips (like me) you MUST invest in a DVD player for the family vehicle. Nice, peaceful trip!!!

We stopped for a scrumptious meal at Cracker Barrel in Baytown.

A wonderful weekend... HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!