Supercross Fanatics!!

Our Trip to New Orleans- Supercross!!!

Colben with his Chad Reed shirt on and his beads. We found them on the way back from the race. I promptly put them in the sink with scalding hot water and soap. The kids thought they were awesome.

We split up the trip because it's a 9 hour drive so we spent the first night in Bossier City, LA which is exactly where I was 48 hours before for my New Kids Concert!! I should have just stayed there!!

I took this pic inside our hotel room cuz i've never stayed somewhere where they had a tv in the bathroom. Classic!!

The Horseshoe Hotel and Casino- no, we didn't do any gambling!!!

We're finally in New Orleans and this is the view looking outside our hotel room.

Bourbon Street!!!

Not exactly Disneyland but it was actually nice to have the kids cuz then no one bothered you to come into their bars!!

We only walked for like 2 blocks and then turned around cuz it was just slimy and gross!

Out of all places we found a Krystal on Bourbon Street!! There used to be one of these restraunts in Denton but it shut down and I loved the food here so I was soooo excited to eat here!

The boys left so we got the camera out and had some fun!!

Danika loves playing the game "you be happy and i'll be grumpy" so I was the happy and she was grump in this pic.

The kiddos. They were just happy to be out of the car.

I had to document that we ate at Krystal because I was just amazed that amongst all the bars/saloons/tatttoo parlors/pubs they were here!!

We then took a drive around town and there is the coolest houses here- with us being there so close to St. Patty's Day everyone has having parties in their front yards so there were decorations everywhere. I loved how laid back people were, they would just be sitting out on their porches in lawn chairs drinking who knows what and waving to everyone driving by.

We had a little balcony in our hotel so this is the kids watching some major construction going on across the street.

Another really cool house!!!

I wished Ben would just stop the car and let me out so I could have taken pics of every single house. They were amazing!

On Saturday we went to the WWII Museum. I guess during Katrina all the windows got blown out and they were really worried about damage to the artifacts but it looked like everything looked just fine.

This is Colben doing some riveting (sp?)

His certificate showing that he is now a "Master Riveter" maybe we should start hiring him out?

I didn't know this but the designer of the Higgins Boat was from New Orleans and a lot of the boats were made there. Kinda cool!

Outfits of both the Germans and the Americans. Shows you how different they suited up their soldiers.

This was something I had no idea we did but I guess we would send down "parachute dummies" The description reads as follows: "Early on D-Day morning, they would be dropped with several real paratroupers. They would be dressed in real uniforms complete with boots and helmets. To create the illusion of a large airborne drop, the dummies were equipped with recordings of gunfire and exploding mortar rounds. It was designed to distract and confuse the Germans while the main airborne forces landed further to the west.

The Enigma Machine.

Re-creation of glider airplanes that would have jeeps and stuff in the back to bring troops much needed food, ammunition and means of travel.

Actual clothing that someone from the 101st Airborne until wore- it also included a map in case they got lost, gloves and a gun. I've read a lot of books about the 101st. so it was cool to see what they wore.

I have no idea what that black stuff is at the top- it wasn't there when I took the picture or else I would have deleted it and took another one- maybe it's a ghost????

This was really cool- they used this model to show you how many ships/planes we used during the war.

This is an actual piece of metal from the USS Airzona.

The plaque underneath says "In 1960 the portion of the battleship that was above the waterline was removed to make way for the USS Arizona memorial. This piece of metal was removed from the Arizona's boat deck."

Outside the gift shop Danika saw this little mannequin and couldn't stop playing with it. She loved playing with his hair and shirt and wearing his hat. She wanted a picture with him. Call me morbid but the cemetery's are just amazing!!! I wanted to walk through one but it was raining so I made Ben drive slowly so I could take some pics.

I really wanted to go down to the Lower 9th Ward to see the destruction from Katrina but everyone we talked to said even in the daytime it's dangerous to go down there. We were told of some areas that are still recovering that are safe to drive through but had a hard time finding them. We did go down one street that had several trailers in the front yard but I felt dumb taking pictures so we just kept on driving and I took just a few as went by.

I saw this house as were getting back on the main road.

It was hard to know if that houses that looked like they were in bad shape were that way because of Katrina or just run down. There are obviously nice areas of New Orleans and the "ghetto" so it was hard to determine if a house was boarded up and pieces were missing because of the hurricane or because it was just an old house.

Getting back to the city- thought this building looked cool.

Supercross!!!

They didn't really have a "pit" area because there wasn't enough room but we have our ways of getting back there. (he he he he)

This is Ivan Tedesco's bike and I sweet talked some of his mechanics into saving me something off his bike after the race (I tried getting a jersey but it was a no go)

After taking the pic above one of the mechanics said "why don't you go get in it and i'll take one of your whole family" He was really nice!!

Notice that it's Danika on the front? She's gonna be the next Ashley Fiolek)We saw Bubba come out of his rig and by the time we got over there he was already swarmed so this was the closest I got to him.

On our way back into the stadium we ran into Ms. Supercross and asked her if she would get a pic taken with Danika- she was super nice and said Danika was soo cute!!!

Right before the lights went out!!

Supercross is #1!!!

WOOHOOO!!!

Kevin Windham- he's from Mississippi so this was his "home town" race. His jersey looked like a football jersey and his helmet looked like a New Orleans Saints football helmet. After the race he was giving away his gear to the person who guessed his fastest lap time. (Ben was like 1 second off!!)

This is Chad Reed whippin' it during his hot lap.

Great pic don't cha think?

Before the main event the freestyle guys came out and did some cool tricks. At the end all 4 of them do back flips right after eachother!! Really cool!!

As we were walking back to our hotel I noticed there were these Trolley car statues everywhere so I made the kids stand in front of it.

This is our loot- we were able to finagel (sp?) our way back into the pits after the race and I made a beeline to Ivan's rig and when the mechanic saw me he smiled and took off the front plate and gave it to me!!

Meanwhile Ben went over to Mike Alessi's rig and got his side plate!!

We need to get them signed!!

On our way home.

I thought this looked really cool- it's on the side of a Holiday Inn.

The Superdome.

It was weird being in a place where so much death and destruction happened. It was also weird being in the Superdome knowing that so many people suffered in that building and here we were enjoying ourselves as if Katrina never happened.