Our next stop after visiting our dear friends in Sweet Home Alabama was Louisiana, where we “Laisser les bons temps rouler” (Less lay bohn tohn roo lay) that’s Cajun for “Let the good times roll!”. And the good times did roll. When we left Alabama on Sunday afternoon around noon after spending the morning spending more time with the Lirette’s and pack up the van. A great deal of time and effort went into sweeping out all the food that the Littles had managed to spew all over the entire van. We had tears of sorrow and tears of joy, we left the Lirette’s and made our way to Louisiana near Baton Rouge. We were going to stay with my dad’s aunt, uncle, and Grandfather. I’d only met Grandpa Hill and Aunt Barbara once when I was six-months-old so it was kinda like we were meeting them for the first time.

It took us forever to get there, and one of the reason being because the Highway Department had eight guys out at 9 o’clock at night sticking reflectors on the road while traffic was stopped up for an hour. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they had moved the “lane closed” sign up about 10 miles so everyone knew that’s not where you had to drive at 20 miles an hour in a single lane. We were only forty-five minutes away but it took us over an hour to get past the “road construction”. Oh, we were so mad when we saw the hooligans with the stickers.

At about 10-11pm we arrived at Aunt Barbara’s. We were all so happy to get to of the van and even more so knowing we’d be there for a few days. Aunt Barbara was so sweet and kind to us when we all got there. She welcomed us with a cheery smile and open arms. She accommodated us in any possible way and let us cook for her (and when then rest of the family that came over). I was so happy we could do that for her. She takes care of Uncle Leo and Grandpa Hill while working a 8hr job so it was nice for her to get a break.

We had a nice time having fellowship and “meeting” our extended family. My dad was happy to see his Grandpa Hill again after nearly 17 years. Grandpa is in his eighties, and I’m glad we got to see him again before he passed on. He’s still mobile and likes to sit out on the porch, reading the newspaper or enjoying nature. While we were there Eric and the other Littles sat out with him, which I think he enjoyed a lot.

My Uncle Leo is quite a character. He likes to tease people and make conversation… haha that went well with me. He kept calling me Curly Sue since I had curly hair and he couldn’t remember my name. It was interesting being around him. He also couldn’t believe I was 17. I wasn’t surprised. No body ever believes me when I tell them I’m 17. They always assume I’m either 12-13, and Rachel is an inch or two taller than me so that doesn’t help. I decided to start telling people I’m 22 when they ask that way when I say “naw, I’m kidding. I’m 17″ so it won’t be that big of a shock when I tell them my real age. hehe

Uncle Leo asked all of us girls if we had a boyfriend. When we told him “no” he looked at us oddly and said, “well why not?” My reply was simple, “I only need one and I don’t need him right now.” He was baffled and just couldn’t understand it. I hope we were able to be a witness to him in more ways than one.

Uncle Leo took pleasure in showing us all the different canes he made out of trees from the backyard. Some of them were quite interesting. He gave Eric, Hannah, and Isaac each their own cane to fit their size, and they’ve been having fun with them ever since.

We were all sad when we had to leave. We said goodbye to Aunt Barbara early on Tuesday morning before she had to go to work. She is such a sweet person. She was always smiling or making someone else smile. She loved having our big family there and was just so kind. She is definitely one relative I wouldn’t mind seeing again soon. Uncle Leo was sad when we’re getting all of our stuff into the van. He wanted us to stay a few more days. Takes a few days to get used to him and we had to leave right when we did! Haha, he was such a curious character, and I’m glad we got to meet them all and spend some time with them.

Blessings!