Miss Pamela

The afternoon before we left Lake Charles we visited with my friends Pamela and Allen. They are both so wonderful with children, as you can see in these photos.

They let the Anna and Alexander feed and sit on their horse, Dancer. The children got to ride a golf cart from their home across to the field and stable area where the horse stays, and that was almost as much fun. You can see Alexander waving to the horse from afar in one of these photos.

We also hung out at their old country store, which is about to open. There, the kids got to play with the antique toy tractors and trucks and horse ride and binoculars, etc. And, of course, what’s a trip to the South without lounging on a porch swing for a spell.

We wrapped up our visit with a little trip to Pamela and Allen’s cool vintage houseboat, which is docked in a pretty swampy part of the river. We were on the lookout for gators, and the kids were a bit disappointed we didn’t see any. This boat had no railings and I put the fear into the children about safety and not falling overboard. Notice how Alexander is holding Allen’s hand in the photo of the children on the boat’s porch swing.

Before leaving town I picked up a few pounds of boiled crawfish, corn and potatoes. I wasn’t able to capture a photo of Anna’s and Alexander’s initial look of disbelief and disgust when I placed a crawfish on their plates. But Anna ended up eating quite a few of these delicious mudbugs once I peeled them for her.

She’ll try most anything. And, Alexander, though he’s turned out to be quite the good eater, will chomp down some things that even Anna will not. But he drew the line at these tiny lobster-like creatures with eyes and claws!

There are also a few photos mixed in of the day before our visit with Pamela and Allen when my mom and I took the kids to a park for some play time and a picnic lunch. I might have been supposed to post these the other day with the airplane pics, so sorry about that.