Happy Fall Ya'll

Our DC Visit- day 1

We took a family vacation in the end of Septmember to go to Washington DC.  We had a great time!  The kids were great and we got to spend lots of time with my dad. We woke up very early on Tuesday and headed for the airport.

.  We arrived in DC around 11 and took a cab to our condo.  We stayed in a cute little row house that was divided into a few condos in the U Street/Adams Morgan area of DC.  We unloaded and headed out to eat some lunch.  The place we were headed to was blocked off because there had been a shooting, so we hopped in a cab and headed over to the Capital Hill area of town.

We grabbed a quick lunch and then went to look at the memorials and the Washington Monument.  Barrett wanted to race me from the WWII Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial, so we were both tired when we got there(and Barrett beat me!)

 We met my dad and got a tour of the Washington Monument.  It was fun to go up to the top and look around at the city.

 Then we headed over to the Capital(all in dad's jeep) and went to watch him debate a bill.  Derek, Brooklyn and I sat in the gallery, but Barrett got to go down and be on the house floor with my dad. Things kept getting off schedule and after and hour or so, it was my dads turn to talk.  It had been a long day, and when Barrett finally sat down and settled, he got really tired.  And, well this is what happened.

Barrett on the house floor

I was in the gallery watching and I was mortified!  We knew he would be on tv and since the video got out, he's been on a few other shows.  Its funny now, the poor kid was just tired, but at least he was trying to stay awake.
After we left the Capital, we went to dinner at Good Stuff Eatery, owned by Spike from Top Chef. The food was good- burgers, fries and shakes. Yum!! It was time to head back to our place and get some rest.
Day 2 coming soon...

Austin City Limits Festival

 We spent the majority of our time last weekend at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.  It was so much fun.  Last year was our first time to go and it was a rainy muddy mess(even thought we got to listen to some great music). We only went for a day last year and got the 3 day pass this time.
 We had so much fun!!  We listened to great music! Derek and I had fun hanging out together and just chilling.
On Friday, we listened to several bands we had heard before(Amos Lee, Pat Green, Band of Heathens) and then heard some that we like their music(Spoon, The Strokes, Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses, & Vampire Weekend).  It was fun! AMD, where Derek works, is a sponsor at the festival, so we got to hang out in the huge hospitality area.  There was free food and drinks and we saw lots of friends from Derek's work, so that was cool. It was a nice perk, but we spent most of our time out listening to bands.

 We love some Amos Lee

Relaxing listening to some tunes

Ryan Bingham  & the Dead Horses

We took the kids on Saturday and they had a great time listening to some bands, running around, eating sno cones and doing some fun activities in the kids area.  We also hung in AMD hospitality area some too. Brooklyn even got her hair sprayed  blue. We ended up staying several hours and the kids were great. Our favorite of the day was Pete Yorn but we also liked Lucero(where we got to go up and view them from above the stage), Broken Bells, The Temper Trap and Mayer Hawthorne and The Country. 

 Listening to Pete Yorn

My blue haired girl playing the drums

B jamming out

On Sunday, we went mainly to hear Switchfoot, a band Derek loves.  They put on a great show.  We also heard a few other bands-Robert Earl Keen,  Flaming Lips, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Cage the Elephant.

 Switchfoot- the highlight for Derek

 Having fun among the thousands of people

 Budweiser stage hearing Robert Earl Keen

 Seas of people!  It was a blast!

Flag Football

Barrett is playing flag football this fall and LOVING it! He is on the ravens and plays with several kids he already knows.  He has a blast and loves running.  He especially loves wearing his mouthguard!!

Loosing teeth

Barrett lost his first tooth on Sunday night.  He had tried to get some legos apart with his tooth and it made his tooth loose.  He wiggled it and wiggled it. Later that night, he let Derek pull it out.  He woke up in the middle of the night and remembered to look under his pillow to see that the Tooth fairy had come.  When I went to wake him up he was holding the money in his hand!  Too cute! He was so excited to go to school and tell everyone he had lost his tooth.  He got to get his name on the tooth chart and got a certificate from his teacher! Such an exciting event!!!

Holding his tooth and showing the place where his tooth used to be

 

His tooth is under his pillow, ready for the tooth fairy to come

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Some money from the tooth fairy!

Preschool has begun

Brooklyn had her first day of preschool today.  She woke up excited and ready to go to school.  

Of course, today is was raining cats and dogs when it was time to leave for school, so we were a little late and a little frazzled(me, not her).  But, lots of others were late too. She was a little hesitant to go in, since we didn't make it to Meet the Teacher.  But, then she saw the babies and all was good. 

She is going 2 days again this year and some of her classmates from last year are in her class. Brooklyn's favorite things today were painting and playing in the home center. She had a great day and already made some new friends. She said she already loves her teachers. And, I agree that they seem great!  We are looking forward to another fun year.  After school we went to Chick-fil-a for ice cream for a first day treat!

 As for me, I worked out, ate lunch with Derek and got a pedicure.  I think I am going enjoy the time she is at school almost as much as Brooklyn.!