Visiting Duck Commander

For July 4th weekend, we headed east to West Monroe, LA to check out the Duck Commander Store. Shawn has been following Phil Robertson {far right on the trailer} for years, like since the mid 1990's, and we love how bold they are about their faith in Jesus. And geez...we named our first born after Phil's son, Jase {far left on the trailer}. Back story: Shawn and I were watching an old Duck Commander VCR tape in early college {circa 1999} and we both liked the name and said if we ever had a son, we would name him Jase. So, I guess you could say we are fans.

Here are my duck hunters right there.

"Hey Finn, lets get you cleaned up before you go inside the store!" This is his how he responds below!

All of the kids really enjoying looking around in the store. We all watch their Duck Dynasty show together, so they know quite a bit about the family and products.

At the duck call counter, Shawn managed to get ahold of a call and test it out.

I was so surprised how many stamps they had. Yes, I love school supplies. Some things never change! And I am sucker for paper goods as well! I did walk away with some Duck Commander gel pens! And they're glitter gel pens at that. Score!

The kids made a LA souvenir penny to take home.

Willie's daughter, Sadie, has a new line of school supplies out right now. I was so impressed with these products. What a ministry. Girls this fall will be bringing her products to school and they will have God's word on them. Such a blessing.

Here is the whole crew out front.

Next, we headed to Duck & Dressing, which is a boutique clothing store Willie's wife, Korie, and daughter, Rebecca, opened up less than 2 years ago. It has such a homey and natural feel about it. I loved it.

Rebecca was super sweet to take a picture with us before we left. And the dog below is hers and goes everywhere with her. Her name is Leauxla, assuming you pronounce it Lola. Ha!

We headed back to the Duck Commander warehouse for a little treat. Willie and his son, John Luke, opened up a snow cone cabin less than 2 months ago. It is located in front of the warehouse.

They were pretty tasty. And even Mae had a bite and she approved!

We had some time to "kill" before dinner, so we headed to Academy. Why not? Shawn and the kids had fun at the gun counter.

And sweet Mae was ready to be on the floor after the long car ride. We did the best we could in the shoe section.

The boys were checking out a future purchase of theirs! After they got out of the kayaks, Shawn helped them into a boat and it wasn't 2 minutes later, an Academy employee came out of the store and told them to get out of the boat! Safety Smafety. Ha! Note to self: do not play in boats at Academy.

Willie's Duck Diner was right next door to Academy and we thought that would round out our day nicely.

They gave the kids some cute Duck Commander coloring sheets and they went to town on them. Finn loves to color. He is a champ. And look at Jase, I'm not so sure when he got that big. I still picture him at 4 years old, dancing and singing in front of the TV. And Ally, she enjoys coloring as well. To me she has an artistic quality about her and she can draw a person better than I can. True story.

And before leaving, the two middle kids wanted their picture taken with Korie and Willie. They are a hoot. The food was good at Willie's Duck Diner and the portions were big, but do not go if you're trying to count calories. One downfall is that it took quite a while to get our food out and they ran out of items like fried pickles, potatoes and ham. I'm glad we went for the experience, but probably will not be repeat customers.

While walking back to the car, Shawn {jokingly} told the boys to go hop in the boats at Academy and Jase nearly fell over. He immediately told Shawn that they could not do that. He is a rule follower for sure, just like his Mama.