Ace Show New Orleans

Last week Ace Hardware had their Spring show in New Orleans.  Call me crazy, but I wanted to go to the Ace Show one more time with kids.  I thought Brooks would have a great time and figured this might be the last chance he could get to go for awhile.  So I booked our tickets several months ago and convinced my parents to drive down to help watch kids while Blake and I had training and other meetings.  Before we left I was so nervous about how Keely would do on the airplanes.  I knew Brooks would do fine cause he could play his iPod or Blake's iPad.  Turns out all my worrying was for nothing...each plane ride was timed perfectly for Keely needing a nap, and she slept from takeoff until landing on all 4 planes! Hooray! Brooks was a little scared when the plane would take off and land since it was bumpy and felt funny to him, but by the last plane ride, it didn't bother him one bit!
We had a several hour layover in St. Louis each time.  The kids did pretty well, Keely wanted to crawl everywhere, which I cringed at each time because I'm sure the floors were not clean, but it's hard to keep a crawler couped up for so many hours! Keely and Brooks both loved watching the planes.

 And Brooks got to try out headphones for the iPad...he didn't leave them on long, but he looks so cute!

The kids did pretty well at the Ace Show, they loved walking around and looking at everything.  Brooks found a basketball the first half hour we were at the show at one of the toy vendors and could not talk about anything else! When I told him he needed to give it back to the vendor so we could keep walking, he said, "Maybe we can buy it?"  Not right now buddy.  Finally the next day, after hearing nothing but talk about the basketball, we told him we would buy it from the vendor at the end of the show if we was a good boy the rest of the time.  Luckily he got his basketball :)

 Walking with Daddy...

 Testing products

 Brooks loved the M&M candy holders...

 One thing is for sure, hotel rooms are not designed for a crawler and an active 2 year old.  We struggled with keeping them entertained, but luckily Grandma and Grandpa were there to help! Keely spent more time in the pack n play than she wanted.  She wanted to crawl on the beds, but it is so hard to keep her from falling off!
Clapping at a basketball game...

 Playing with Grandma

 Cheering for the basketball game..we were lucky there were games on for something to watch and that Brooks loves watching basketball so much!

I was really nervous at what Brooks would find to eat down in New Orleans because he has become super picky.  One would think he would be better at trying new things by now, but he's worse! ugh! anyway, he ate decently, and even had fun at the places we found to eat.  One place we went, Mulate's (or something like that) had a live band that started playing when we were just finished eating, and Brooks and Keely thought that was great! They danced along in their chairs to the Cajun music.

 Brooks found plenty of freebies too (not as much as other years, but that was ok!)  He liked the free freezer pop...

 And free hat...

Keely did great riding in the stroller...she held her bottle well for herself and was pretty happy to just ride and look at things!

 Brooks loved all the Ace signs

 This was a pretty common sight...Brooks playing the iPhone, and Grandpa talking on his phone!

We had a fun time, but it was exhausting!  Needless to say, this will probably be the last Ace Show we take the kids to for quite some time, but I am glad we went this time.  However, New Orleans is just not that great of a place to take young kids! We didn't do much but go to the convention hall all day, find someplace to eat that was kid friendly (which was a little difficult a couple times!), then go back to the hotel to hang out in the room until bedtime! We didn't get to see a whole lot of New Orleans, but oh well, we still had fun!