Daytrip to see old friends =)

Today the kids and I got up early, picked up my Mom at 9:30 and hit the interstate. We went to see our old neighbors and great friends Mrs. Sandy and Mr. John. They were our neighbors for 12 years when we lived in New Orleans. They have since moved to Pass Christian, Mississippi, a beach town just a few miles from Biloxi. We were planning to be there for 11:00 but we made 2 stops and I misread their directions and got a little lost on the way! We got there at 11:30 finally and as I passed a large, beautiful yellow house I stopped as I remembered that was the one I saw in their Christmas picture. We backed up and pulled into their long driveway. They were sitting out on their Acadian style porch and their dogs ran up to my truck to greet us. One is a huge sheepdog named Max and the other a mix breed named Dooby.
We went in and they showed us around. When they bought this house it was completed on the outside but nothing had been done on the inside. So they pretty much finished it and designed the inside the way they wanted it. It was very nice and comfortable, a lot of class with a touch of country. I left them inside to talk and catch up and I took the kids outside to go run and play on their land. They had a huge front yard and on one side had a bench and a hammock so we all took turns laying on that. And the kids had a blast playing with the dogs! Then we ate lunch. Sandy had asked if we wanted taco's or roast beef sandwiches. We opted for the roast beef sandwiches b/c I didn't want her to go through to much trouble and just keep it simple. Well, I thought we'd have just deli roast beef on bread, but no, she had cooked a real roast overnight, with bread rolls, homemade potato salad, and chips. It was SO good! After we ate we all went out back on their porch and sat and talked and watched the kids play with the dogs. Oh, and Logan figured out that he could fit underneath their house where the dogs couldn't get him, LOL! That was funny. Well, until I told him he had to come out b/c I was scared there could be spiders or some nasty bugs hiding under there with him. Then we had some brownies for dessert and talked some more. It was really good to catch up with them. The only part I didn't like was when Mr. John tried to bring up the old times of me when I was in my awkward teen years, LOL! Ya know like when I used to wear my Dad's Army camo gear and wore army boots and had pink hair, the rebellious years I guess you would call it! I put an end to that conversation real quick! See I turned out ok and now I've been married 16 yrs. and am raising 3 well rounded, well behaved, smart little boys =)
Around 3:45 we said our goodbye's and headed to the front yard to tell the dogs bye.
The beach is only 15 minutes down the road from them and I wanted to go take a peek to see what the recent hurricane's had done. So we headed down the road. We got there pretty quick and parked and walked through the sand down to the gulf. It was a chilly day so there was no one out there. The beach looked really funny, I guess b/c they had been working on leveling it out again after Hurricane's Gustav and Ike. We let the kids play for a bit, took some pictures and then headed back to the truck. I had wanted to take a drive a few minutes the other way toward Biloxi to see how it's cleaned up since Hurricane Katrina. It was pretty much completely wiped out and I know a lot of places that we used to go to aren't being rebuilt. The main thing being Red Lobster. We used to like to go there and you could see the ocean while you were eating, it was nice. Oh well, maybe another day we'll take a drive down there.
We got back on the road and made it home by 6:30.
Here are some pics of the day-