Yesterday Chad and I celebrated our 4th anniversary! I can't believe we have been married 4 years . . . they have been kind of crazy (Doulos, Katrina), but we've been so blessed and have had a great time together!
We don't ever get each other prizes for our anniversary because we usually like to go out to eat somewhere new instead, but Chad sort of broke the rule (I didn't mind) and got me beautiful roses for the office and for home! What a sweetheart!
We got all dressed up and went to a little Italian restaurant in the Quarter called Irene's. Thanks to our great friends Owen, Amanda and Austyn Nease, we had a gift card so we could splerge a little! The restaurant is really beautiful with a real cozy feel and isn't very touristy.
We had Oysters Irene for an appetizer . . . they kind of looked like loaded potato skins except it was an oyster on the half shell . . . very delicious! Chad ordered the duck and I got cannolloni. Both were really good, but I think Chad made the best choice! We were debating whether to get a dessert until our waitress Nora said they had creole cheesecake . . . You see Chad and I have decided to find the best cheesecake in New Orleans so we had to get a piece . . . right?! I wanted to ask Nora to take our picture and I joked with Chad that maybe if I told her it was our anniversary that she would give us our cheesecake for free. Sure enough, she brought us the BEST cheesecake we've had so far . . . compliments of Irene!!
We had a fabulous dinner and loved Irene's. It was also a great time to relfect on the last 4 years. A couple sitting close to us came up to the table as they were leaving . . . they said they were betting that we were on our honeymoon! I was proud to tell her that we were celebrating 4 years! What a compliment!
After dinner, we went home to finish watching season 1 of The Office, which was our joint anniversary prize, even though we don't get prizes!! All in all it was a wonderful anniversary!
Hopefully we will have some pictures of our Orlando trip soon. I let my mom do all the picture taking so I have to get them from her. Also to come, pictures from our hiking trip tomorrow . . . we are taking 43 . . . yes 43 . . . international students hiking for the day!!
On Saturday, we took a group of 34 international students hiking for the day. We went to Tunica Hills, which is right on the border of LA and MS and is only about 2 hours from New Orleans. Louisiana is pretty flat so I wasn't so sure how great the hiking would be, but the area was absolutely beautiful and had great hiking. We hiked for about 3 hours and of course it rained almost the whole time! We didn't mind the rain, though, because it was better than being blazing hot like usual! 
