Little League Natitude

It's mid-July now but my blog is still living on June-time. Ooops.

Every June, Charlie's little league offers discounted tickets to a Nats game - in the highest, furthest seats in the house - and it's always been one of our favorite traditions. We buy up 8 tickets and go with our besties, the Allens. We fill up on beer, Jenny and I share soft pretzels and the guys down Ben's Chili Bowl dogs and the kids insist that we wait in the huge line for Dippin' Dots. And as is custom with home-played Sunday games, after the game, the kids run the bases high-fiving all the President mascots. It is always such a fun day!

Sadly, this year was a bit different than our usual routine. The Allens moved to Louisiana just two days before this game, so we went solo. Boo. :( And due to all the rain this season, the Nats had to make up a game with a double header so the kids running the bases was cancelled. But, on the brighter side, this was the first year that Henry did not freak out and monkey-cling to me the entire game.


Doesn't get any higher than the 400 level! BALLERS!!! :)

I have to be honest. My very first taste of a Ben's Chili Bowl dog was a bite off Mike's at a game a few weeks before this one. It was amazing -- even though I'm told it doesn't count as my first because it wasn't from the original place on U street. Feigning over that one bite, I got my very own at this game and it was totally delicious. Although, I forgot to get napkins. Fail. And a knife and fork. Fail. And I ordered it without mustard which is not "all the way". Fail. And I couldn't eat it all. Fail.

Thanks to my girl, Siri, I got in some reverse camera shots! Hey, look! It's me with my favorites!!

Why is Charlie cheering??? The Nats had just scored their sixth run which hooked us up with 6 free wings per ticket at Hard Times Cafe! YAY! Charlie's favorite!!

What do you do when you're three at a major league game?? Climb all over the seats, of course! And be adorable.

The Dippin' Dots. Always the Dippin' Dots.

Since it was the little league's game, most of Charlie's team was there which meant Charlie had lots of friends to hang with. He even spent some time sitting next to his awesome Coach.

I think it's virtually impossible for 9 year old boys to make sweet, smiling faces at the camera.

NATS WIN!!!! Go Nats!!!

And more of Henry being adorable!

Cherry Blossoms

Years ago {nine to be exact}, when DC was still so very new to us and I was very pregnant with Charlie, I wanted to see the blossoms for the first time. I couldn't bear fighting the crowds with a ready-to-pop belly so Mike drove me down after dark. I remember sitting under the trees and moonlight twinkled off the blossoms as they fell onto our heads. It was that exact moment when DC moved into my heart... and I knew, even if we were to move away, DC is and will always be our home.

Two weeks ago, after what seemed like a never-ending winter, pink blossoms again covered the trees lining the tidal basin. As the wind blew, the pink snow fell to the ground and left a guided path towards spring of perfectly pink petals.

And even though I was so busy and had many other things I could/should have been doing, I dropped Henry off at preschool and raced to the city to meet my cousin Chelsea on the steps of the Jefferson. We walked slowly with the crowds and breathed in the beauty of every blossom. DC is my home, at least for now. And I will cherish her and all of her many, many blessings.


Pink snow. It's sooooo much better than real snow.

Liberty Mountain Snow Tubing

If anyone out there wonders why so many people live in Washington DC when there is so much traffic, well, the answer is simple - this place is amazing. Just read my blog a little bit. See all the things we do here. You might begin to understand why the traffic is sooooooo not an issue. It. Is. Worth. It. {Unless Mike is taking too long to get home for dinner}

Last weekend, we enjoyed just another amazing benefit to our area - the nearby mountains. A few friends of ours discovered that if your kiddos are too young for skiing, Liberty Mountain Resort, about an hour and a half drive away, has a giant snow tubing hill!

I've never been to a ski mountain/ski resort/snow tube hill ever. I don't know how to ski. I don't even know what to wear when you just go to snow tube. Do the gloves get tucked inside the jacket or does the jacket get tucked into the gloves? What do you wear under ski pants - pajamas? I am a southern girl born and raised in North Carolina. If you're from NC, then you know, there are mountains to the west and beach to the east. We were the kind of family who headed east. And on the rare occasions when it snowed in my hometown, my mom always sent us to play outside in tennis shoes with plastic baggies on our feet in between layers of socks. I was a bit unprepared for a day in the snow.

Luckily, I married a man from Michigan with a good deal of snow-sense and my BFF is from Indiana and accompanied me for an emergency shopping trip. Once we had the basics, we were ready to go! I packed up my "little" DSLR and picked out some great lenses I thought I'd need for this specific kind of adventure. Once we got to the mountain and I pulled out my camera bag, everyone made fun of me asking how the heck I was going to carry my camera on the mountain. It apparently was an instagram day!

We went with our good friends, the Allens (Jenny - the redhead in the black hat) and the Davises (Keri - the blonde in the pink hat), and all the kiddos and husbands that went with it!

My kids Charlie thinks snow is this really amazing and special thing. I think this has to do with the majority of his life being lived in Southeast Texas and being deprived of the white powdery goodness. It had snowed about an inch the day before we went tubbing and Charlie had played outside in it for three whole hours. There was even more snow up on the mountain and he was so happy. He kept wandering off from us to pick up a handful to throw or to climb a pile of ice.

Keri and I both have toddlers so we took the littles to the kiddie hill to play while the dads took the bigger kids down the main hill. Then, the plan was to switch half way through. Henry used to hate everything but he has had a pretty good run lately with liking most things we do. Well, that streak had come to an abrupt end. He hated it. He started crying the second I put him in the tube. He didn't want to go down the hill. He kept his mitten hands over his eyes and refused to look at anything. And I was that mean mom who pulled the squirming, crying toddler up the hill and pushed him down anyway.

I eventually just gave up and took the monster into the lodge and fed him cookies and pretzels while sitting next to the fireplace. To give the kid some credit, I couldn't find his snow boots before we left and the rental boots I was planning on using did not come in baby size. His little feet had gotten really cold in his tennis shoes. Southern Mom. Poor kid.

While I sat in the lodge with monster crabby-pants, Mike took C down the big hill. I was SURE that C was going to freak out and refuse to go down the hill and Mike would have to force him and then he'd cry and be too scared to go again -- based on the 50,000 questions on the drive up about how big the mountain was going to be. But Mike said he had no problems. He loved it. {tears} Big kid. So proud.

AND THEN IT WAS MY TURN TO PLAY WITH C!!! Oh, my sweet big kid!! It's so fun to hang out with you! We had so much fun talking about everything as we waited in line to go down the hill. You're so funny and I love every single thought that goes through your head.

On my first ride up the lift, it broke and I had to start hauling our tubes up a giant hill! Fastest way to find out how out-of-shape you are? Giant hills.

But the ride was worth the huffing and puffing!! Charlie had to convince me it wasn't scary. It looked REALLY high and REALLY fast to me! But it was so much fun - after I asked the teenager at the top if there was a way to walk down and he said the only way down was the tube...!

I leave days like these thinking of how completely and totally blessed I am. I'm a lucky woman to have such amazing friends and a happy family. Writing these blogs is a constant reminder of all the many wonderful moments and people in my life.

Hockey Is Back

Whoo hoo!!! Hockey is back!!

Ha ha ha ha. Ok, ok. So, I don't actually care. But, my husband does. And I have two little boys who I should probably encourage to enjoy sports so they can develop some sort of man confidence. When the Capitals sent an email out last week saying there'd be a fan appreciation night at Verizon Center to welcome in the season with an open practice, I couldn't disappoint all those boys just because I can never keep my eyes on that darn puck and never remember the rules of the game! Plus, they were giving out free food!! On Thursday, we joined 10,000 other Caps fans and went into DC with our best friends, The Allens.

The kids loved riding the metro. Henry is really into trains right now and of course, the metro totally counts as an authentic choo-choo! He climbed on board, insisted on sitting with the big boys and lit up with smiles as it started to move!

Our kids are loud. And full of energy. And so are their moms. Jenny and I were pretty sure that the young professional who took the seat behind us was texting his entire contacts list to let them know he'd never be having children and if he did, they'd be much more well behaved on the metro.

We got to the Verizon Center about 10 minutes before the doors opened and the line to get in was at least two blocks long. It was insane! And the considerate young lady in front of us was smoking a cigarette. Classy.

We threw a couple 'bows and got some great seats a few rows up from the ice! Mike and Brad The kids were so excited.

The practice was pretty fun. The free food meant waiting in a long line but the soft pretzels were delicious and the kids had FREE dippin' dots which pretty much made their year. After the players hit a bunch of pucks for an hour, they skated around and threw tshirts over the glass and did a round of adorable interviews where the players talked about fun stuff like their wives and new babies.

Gangnam Style started playing and the audience started showing up on the jumbotron. The kids were dancing and trying to get the cameras' attention when I looked up and saw ME on the big screen. I wish I had done something cool but instead it spooked me and I screamed! I'd like to think it was intentional and not coincidence that the "sexy lady" part of the song was playing when I was on the screen...

We're such a lucky group to have so many fun things to do and extra special friends to do them with.

Christmas 2012: Gingerbread & Capitol Tree

I was so busy this December. So, so busy. Between photoshoots, a trip to Boston, room-momming (yes, I just made room mom a verb) the third grade winter party, co-chairing the PTA holiday bazaar, running the school book club, and TWO HUGE parties at my home with editing and blog press, so many things we usually enjoy doing during the Christmas season were snuck in whenever we had a free moment. It was NOT a relaxing holiday. But, really, I can't complain. I have a full life and many, many blessings.

I ended up dropping a lot of our fun family traditions to free up some time but our tradition of decorating gingerbread houses was happening - even if it had to wait until almost Christmas. The bright side to waiting until three days before Christmas to decorate gingerbread houses? The kits drop down to $5 and my hubs was home from work.

Mike has never been home when we decorated gingerbread houses and I was completely surprised at how much he liked it. I handed the more complex kit over to him and Charlie while Henry and I decorated the one that didn't require additional ingredients and rolling out fondant!

So many times we women want things to look the way we would do them. I try very hard to quiet the voices in my head that want to tell my husband he is doing it "wrong" when it isn't how I would do it. As he squeezed TONS of icing out to glue the gingerbread shapes together into a house, I feared we'd run out of icing (husbands don't know how little icing you get in the kits!) and I chimed in "Babe!! That's too much icing!!" He looked over at me and said, "Charlie and my gingerbread house is being built to withstand hurricane force winds. It will be the most structurally sound gingerbread house of all time. That requires a lot of icing." These are the times when I remember I'm surrounded not only by all men -- but also, engineers. So, I told my voices to shut up and I let them do their thing.

Henry REALLY didn't care about decorating but he LOVED the candy. He was totally content to let me take the reins as long as I didn't cut off the supply of m&ms.

Love this shot of Henry trying to move in on Charlie's candy when his ran out... Ha ha! Siblings.


Gingerbread houses are messy. But so fun.

Mine and Henry's on the left and Mike and Charlie's is on the right. I love them!!


I really wanted to find the time to see the Capitol Christmas tree this year. Everyone told us to see the Capitol tree over the White House tree because it's less crowded and not blocked off -- you can walk right up to it. Mike proposed to me at night on the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol so, of course, this makes the Capitol my most loved "monument" in DC. I really wanted to take our boys there to see the tree and make the place even more special than it already is.

I looove shooting at night and rocking low light! The tree was so pretty and the top of the Capitol building was well lit -- it was just beautiful. My new full-frame camera has pop up flash -- but I have NO CLUE how to set a camera on manual for flash (learning this and using a speedlight is my 2013 goal) so I always have to click over to auto for husband-use and flash images. I don't mind. When I'm always the one behind the camera, I'm totally willing to be in flash images that are blurry. As long as I'm in them with my boys, my photography standards lower and being in them is all that matters!

Charlie was freezing and crabby and Henry just wanted to run in circles. They could have cared less that it was a special place. But that's ok. It IS special. It's where Mike and I committed to be their parents -- so even though they were obnoxious, I was in heaven.