Benich Family: New Orleans, Awesome Weather, Soccer and more!

We flew out to New Orleans early last Monday the 17th and stayed until late on Thursday the 20th. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm -- high 80's -- great for shorts and sundresses! Simply lovely! We were flying to New Orleans to give a couple of speeches at the ATS Conference from a patient's perspective. I was to give a short 5 minute speech on my experience with pulmonary rehabilitation, and then I was to give a longer 15 minute speech on how being diagnosed with LAM has changed mine and my family's lives.

I didn't have to give the speeches until Wednesday morning, so once we arrived there Monday we had a couple of days to just hang out, sightsee, and have some fun. I've never been to New Orleans before, and Kenny had once before when he was a teenager.

The streets were VERY narrow, it seemed most everywhere. The shuttle buses and taxis drive through there like maniacs! It seemed like they barely had a quarter of an inch to spare at times. I kept cringing, and I know my mom would have completely freaked out. :-)

Kenny REALLY enjoyed all the New Orlean's food. We ate several places throughout the week:

I am not a spicy food eater, so I was doing all right at the beginning of the trip with the food; however, but by the end of the trip -- I was COMPLETELY SICK of food that was spicy in any-way-shape-or-form!!!! Even my prime rib that we got at The Crazy Lobster was spicy! UGH!!!

We did a little sightseeing, we went to Bourbon Street:

So I can say I've been there, but since it is pretty much just bars and strip clubs (and I don't drink at all), I was pretty much ready to leave after a few minutes and find something else to do. :-)

We rode the street cars around, and we got to see a lot of New Orleans that way (a lot less walking for me!).

And we found this adorable little restaurant off the St. Charles Line and ate up on their beautiful terrace:

We also went to the Riverwalk a few times. We had some meals in restaurants around there, like The Crazy Lobster, did some shopping, and checked out the Mississippi River.

After the speeches were over Wednesday (THANK GOODNESS), we had the rest of Wednesday and Thursday to relax. We slept really late (heaven!), no rushing around, and just relaxed. So different, from our average day at home with kids in school and various activities and, of course, soccer!!! We apparently also brought the warm weather home with us, as it has been simply gorgeous here at home since we've been back. You're welcome!

But the laid-back time had to end unfortunately, we came back late Thursday night. Friday we had to do TONS of laundry (for both us AND the kiddos who stayed at their grandparents), then pack and get ready to leave town again for a soccer tournament in Fort Wayne for Delaney! YIKES!

Since Kyle had an early morning game Saturday, Delaney went ahead Friday night with another teammate and her family. Then Saturday morning for Kyle's game, we were not sure where the projected sunny weather was, as it was misting pretty much the entire game. It wasn't really raining, but it was just drizzling enough that I kept up the umbrella because I didn't want my camera to get wet.

The ground was really soft and muddy -- pretty gross if you ask me! Just by walking slowly to sit and watch the game, we were getting mud splattered up on our clothes. Their game shirts were simply awful, with the mud that was splattered up while they were playing. I didn't have a good picture of one of Kyle's shirts, so here is one of a teammate of his:

Nasty! Then we had to get them clean for the team picture afterwards, nice. NOT!

After Kyle's game, we had a quick breakfast and headed out to Fort Wayne. We had to miss her first game of the tournament, which apparently was a very good one. She scored like 4 really great goals, and we missed it. :-(

We did make her second game though, and we got to see them win again!

Delaney had quite a few runs to goal, but she got overwhelmed by blue with this one and couldn't quite get it in.

Their third game was with a team that they beat twice easily, so coach decided to switch up the offense and defense. It made for a really strange game, seeing Delaney in defense the entire time AS WELL AS a goalie!!!

So we got some different shots than normal, like Delaney throwing in the ball.

Apparently coach had asked for any volunteers to play goalie, since everyone was switched around, one of our goalie's got hurt, and the goalie in there wanted to get out in the field. Delaney piped up and said, "I've played goalie before, but my parents said I'm not allowed to volunteer to play goalie anymore." Then coach said, "Well, how about if I put you in?" And next thing we know... here is Delaney as goalie!!!