Two weekends ago we loaded up on a Saturday morning and headed an hour and-a-half south to
Gulfport and
Biloxi. We didn't even think about it at the time, but it was the anniversary of when Hurricane Katrina hit 4 years ago. The coast has come a long way since that time, but it still has a ways to go. It is strange to think of the huge casinos being gone. You can still see many brick steps, chimneys, and huge oak trees that once belonged to beautiful, old, grand homes sitting alone now.
Our first stop was Mary
Mahoney's. Everyone around here knows about this amazing restaurant, but I first read of it in a John
Grisham novel. The French house was built in the 1730s and was at one time home to the commander of the French territory. It survived Hurricane Katrina, when the water got as high as the mark you can see on the balcony in this picture.
This tree sits outside and is over 2000 years old!
Being the history nerds we are, rather than spend most of the afternoon shopping at the outlet mall in
Gulfport as planned, we stopped at Beauvoir instead. This beautiful place was the last home of Jefferson Davis. It suffered a great deal of damage from Katrina, but has just been reopened to the public.
Macy loved the front porch, which has been completely rebuilt. It has a great view of the ocean.
These front doors survived with minimal damage & are original to the house.
What you see here is PAINTED...it isn't actual woodwork or anything. They had a color specialist come in after the hurricane & after 4 months of analysis going through layers and layers of paint, these are the colors they decided were most original.
Did Macy enjoy the trip? Or will she one day cringe each time we pass a historical marker? Hopefully she will share our loved for history, although she may prefer we save places on the coast for months other than August!
For those of you who may not know, we recently discovered Macy is very hyperopic (farsighted). Ironic, isn't it? We made her a pair of glasses out of the smallest frame we had. We are in the process of finding more frames so she'll have a variety. 
Macy has amazed us with how well she wears her glasses. Ocassionally she will still look over the top of the them, prompting us to call her "professor". She rarely takes them off.
We took our little pumpkin to a pumpkin patch set up at a local church. She loved it and didn't want to leave.
Just one more week and our sweet baby girl will turn a year old! Happy Fall!!
It is fun to watch Macy & Taylor interact more these days. Sunday when we got to church, he was sitting a few rows in front of us. He'd squeal & laugh at her, and she'd do it right back. It was too cute. Does this look like trouble or what?
When we had our fish fry, we let the kids play in the back yard. Macy likes grass just about as much as she likes sand. The only way she would play is on a blanket.
She is very sweet & loves to get up in our laps to snuggle. She began to blow kisses this week, and I'm hoping to get a video soon. She has 4 teeth now, so she likes to eat more good stuff.
The child loves the outdoors, so we went out this morning & took a few shots. 
sueños dulces (sweet dreams)....or maybe crazy ones???
Macy was not a fan of the sand. 
She didn't like being too close to the waves coming in either. 
Seeing as this was a spur-of-the moment trip, we didn't have time to try & find someone to take photos. We thought we'd do it ourselves...with a only a tripod...and an infant. Need I say more? We didn't have any huge keepers, but I'll throw in a few for fun.
It was a bit overcast at times, but the cooler temperatures made it more enjoyable. In fact, after everyone cleared out on Labor Day, it was as though we had the whole place to ourselves! 
We sat out on the balcony at night listening to the ocean, and looking in on our little sleeping beauty. What a great way to celebrate two years of marriage! Some people weren't even ready to leave as check-out time rolled around! 
