Landing in the City of Lights...

On Lauren's birthday last Sunday, David surprised her with a trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana with the family. We all piled into his new truck (all 6 of us) and headed south for about an hour to see the festival lights along Cane River Lake and eat some dinner at The Landing on the historic Front Street. I'm not entirely sure if I can call it the "festival of lights" because I think it is just considered that on Saturdays when they do fireworks, but hey, we enjoyed seeing the illuminated light displays along the shoreline. For those of you that are interested in attending, the 87th Annual Christmas Festival is December 7th! It is ranked number 3 in the United States for best Christmas display and can't you see why?!

{That fried pecan pie and the hot chocolate to-go were my favorite parts of dinner!}

 After dinner we smooshed back into the truck for a drive down main street before going back to the Merrick's house to open gifts with Mrs. Capi :) I hope you had a wonderful birthday, sweet sister.

a birthday on front street...

Dad's birthday is on April Fools Day - no, this is not a joke! Since we had Monday off for the Easter holiday, Dad wanted to go somewhere different for lunch. He, Mom and I headed south for the day. Why not in Natchitoches?

 {After visiting the oldest general store in Louisiana, we appropriately chose Papa's for lunch!}

 {where's waldo?}

 {does anyone know what this building is that was recently built on front street? Mother was aghast at it's modern shape...it really is an odd placement. Any ideas?}

Happiest of birthdays, Pops!