All in One Weekend!!

What a great weekend! To start off, I took my first run after 2 weeks on the bench with a knee injury. And I took it through Boston (in cooler weather to boot!). I got through 6 miles before I became nervous I wouldn't find my way back to the hotel. But I got a little neat surprise running into Paul Revere's house on the north side!

Love of my life.
Had about 34 of these in 2 days.

The old state house.
The sight of the Boston Massacre and also where the Declaration of Independence was read to the citizens from that balcony.
I love history!

A view only to be envious of. Look at that!
One of our financial advisors has a quaint little office in downtown Boston.

This embellished marker belongs to John Hancock.
Quite the... uhh... metaphore, eh?

So I read that funerals and head stones were really expensive back in the day so there are up to 20 bodies (in the family) at each head stone. Paul Revere and Sam Adams is also buried here.

As though his office didn't have the best view, our advisor Jonathan introduced us to THIS view.
From his penthouse. I said that I could live there with no furniture or bedrooms bc I'd just do everything facing the window!

We got to sit behind home plate at a Red Sox game!
Not the biggest baseball enthusiast, but that was FUN!
And my dear Andy and I don't look like tourists.
At all.

We left early (for din) but not before Ortiz hit a homerun!
The rest of that night is kind of fuzzy...

Can't leave Boston without eating seafood!
But no.
I refuse to eat clams. Or oysters. Whatever those things are... they look like rubbery tumors.
Not appetizing.

Whale watching!
I was freeeeeeezing!

I took video but we did see a whale! He kept surfacing and diving, it was truly amazing!

After my last cup of dunkin donuts coffee and a long flight home at stupid:o'clock in the morning, we arrived in Austin and headed straight to the ACL Festival!!!!! Couldn't miss it!

We started it off with a little Airborne Toxic Event:
http://youtu.be/nhrcckqvTko

My favorite artist Joseph Arthur, whom I was most excited to see, completely disappointed.
He played all his depressing songs. Andy said Joseph made him want to jump off a bridge.
I was hoping he'd sing this one:
http://youtu.be/oeg9Af7q9Jw

AWOLNATION came through! Amazing live performance. The guy even threw a boogie board into the audience and then jumped on it and "crowd surfed"...
http://youtu.be/gyN_jD58qCI

It was whirlwind but an amazing, fun, exciting weekend!!!

A Day in the Life of Kelli Eye

I love turning my phone on to see the pictures she colors me and saves in the photo albums. Did you do that when you were 2?

It's still in the upper 90's here, but obviously we favor the Fall. If it says "Boo" or "Give Thanks", we own it.

With Sydney being a big Kindergarten student, this gives Kelli and I plenty of Mommy-Monster days to play and do things that big sister would turn her nose to. One of our favorite spots is the Sculpture Garden @ Zilker. Clearly she was excited about being there!

New butterfly benches, added since the last time we visited. Big hit.

I am completely busted as the parent who lets her kid watch a good amount of tv when the 2yo can't go anywhere slightly adventurous without singing "Come on vam'os! Eehh-rybody less go! Come on less get to it, you know whoa we do it!"
As we walked through the gardens she kept clapping twice and repeating "where are we going" (clap clap) "to da gar-denz!" (repeat 20x)

Another big part of Kelli's life is tagging along to all of Sydney's extracurriculars and waiting *patiently* for Sissy to finish. And by patiently I mean screaming, crying, rolling on the floor, desperately moaning "Sissy!! sissssyyyy....here...sisssssy here!!!!"
Which is cute but tiring. On days that Sydney has choir or gymnastics, I actually dread those car rides because the storm is about to begin. Then I walk in the door with two hungry and tired children looking (and acting) like Medusa.

Kelli will only eat colored or variety cereals because the fun for her is categorizing the pieces and seperating them. Then eating them.
*disclaimer*
No, Mona. She is not autistic.

"Mommy less play park!"
I love our park time. It makes me reminisce about Sydney at this age. Watching that imagination come to life and seeing her little spirit light up when I play along and order a banana split. Made from wood chips.

We go for a lot of walks on town lake now, too. Especially since she tolerates the stroller (in fact she loves it! Only took 2 years). I took the B.O.B. in for a tune-up at the bike shop downtown and Kelli tested out some wheels.

peanut butter toast for breakfast.
It was my fault for leaving the jar on the table next to her.
Ewps.
soooo.... peanut butter for breakfast.

Have you figured out yet that we own every Hello Kitty t-shirt in size 2T?
None of us (even Kelli) have any idea who HK is, what her powers are, any special talents or why she is popular. Just a white face of a kitty that Kelli has really fancied. And it's an obsession.
I'll be honest though... it's SO hard to get angry with this little monster. Despite her saucy attitude and stubborn personality to contradict everything you say or do... she is SOOOOO dang cute!

When I took this picture, I realized how long her hair is getting.
Yet another park stop. She had sandals on and kept getting rocks in her shoe. She came over to me "Mommy my sue" (my shoe)
So I'd take them off and dumps all the rocks out and she turned around 2 minutes later saying something I couldn't make out. "nah-uh-gennnnn!" over and over. Finally I said "come here Kelli, what's wrong" and as she got closer I could understand "Not agaaaaaaainnnn!"
We dumped the rocks out 4 more times and then went barefoot.
It's Texas.

Hard knock life my little Kelli Belli.
Tonight I sat her in the crib and she leaned against the railings facing me, opened her little book to "read" and said "I yuh-yoo Mommy. Ni-night"
I could evaporate and float to Heaven now.

Sydney's First Choir Performance

She practiced a lot but struggled during her first performance with finding the right pages. They gave her such a big book (we've since traded it in for a small one). She was so nervous you could tell. She is the smallest (youngest) in the choir.

Woulda been a great picture if that guy wasn't trying to squeeze past me!
I'm proud of her! She's letting her colors shine!!

Grindin' the Clock Everday!

Sydney had Choir on Thursdays after school and most of the time I have to bring Kelli with me (which is undesirable). Kelli doesn't like being away from Sydney. I have to play a major distraction, but this time Kelli sat nicely outside the music room and listened. Usually she cries "sissy!!!! sissy!!!! i want sissy!"

Friday I took advantage of some alone time with Kelli, so after her gymnastics class we went back to the Botanical Gardens at Zilker. She loves this place. Nowadays she sings the songs for Dora the Explorer everywhere we go, so she trotted along "come on vamanos! everybody let's go! come one let's get to it you know that we can do it!"
but it sounds more like this:
come in vamos! errrrbody less go! come on less do do it you you and do it!"

vamanos!

Look! a willy pod!

Mommy! a buffly!

She was VERY happy to be there!!! Very excited!

Sydney drew me a picture about how sad her heart was. "It's raining in my heart" she said.
Why. Because she was scared of soccer since her friends bump her so much and didn't want Daddy to be angry at her for quitting. So it rained in her heart.
(she chooses golf as her 'sport')

WHO YOU GONNA CALL!

At LBJ is where we Stay!

"Look Mom! I'm peeing!"
#keepinitclassy

This binky is an issue. Andy and I spend *literally* 15 minutes tearing the house apart looking for just ONE binky so we'd survive the drive home. We have no idea where she stashed them. She's on to us.

Ducks? Or floatation devices? Meh, either way... here are some cheerios!
Quack!

Brandy is a good sport but in life saving emergency, I would totally hang on to her!

Daddy with daughter-squared

"I jumpy!!" ~ Kelli

At first the notion of this was "wow! great idea! now we can communicate if one is on the dock and one is up at the house!". Good plan right?
Sydney knows how to work these things now and every 9 seconds or so you hear a muffled static turn on with "Mom. You there? Over"...."Dad the ducks are on the pier. Over and out"...."guys? anyone there? over"
"kkrrrsshht hello krrrsht?"

water baby!

She is slowly but surely learning to swim. And proud of it. But she still will NOT jump in the lake.... and I have a suspicion she never will. #likemotherlike...daughter

Yeah, this 'boat' was not big enough for Kelli. Jet ski fail.
Little Cody was ALL about the jet ski!!!!

While we cleaned up the house the girls watched Land Before Time on netflix. I forgot how scary those cartoon movies were back in the day. T-rex was scary even for me... Kelli, luckily, found a place to hide yet still be able to watch the battle go down.

Purple

Look at this Purple Sass! Doing poses for me on the playground with Kelli.

Best big sister ever.

Two peas in a pod!! (unless Kelli touches Sydney's baby doll, Melody)

I went purple in honor of Erik's Purple Heart. He makes me proud! Cannot wait to run the Marine Marathon. Granted my knee holds out. #prayers

Eye Cousins!

At the end of August the Eye family came to visit and all 5 cousins were reunited! It was definitely a girl-fest for 4 days and they got along so well and enjoyed their time together. Parents were a little worn out but we got a "grown up night" out on the town, so no complaints!

We took them to an indoor/outdoor play area called Austin's Park & Pizza which has games, rides and go-karts. Kelli had a blast. We didn't have to give her coins to play, she just enjoyed sitting on all the machines and pretending. She was in overload. But i had to leave early with her before she hijacked a go-kart and went awol. She was not impressed with all the big kids getting to go on all the rides and not her. She got a little outdoor playground but I wasn't willing to stand there without any shade in the 114* heat while she made the bridge wiggle. #goodtimes

Sydney was a natural on the cars! I watched her for a while before Kelli & I left and she never hit ONE tire! Champ.

Kelli loved her cousins!

Back to School perks

Cooler weather and morning coffee outside ALONE while Andy takes Sydney to school & Kelli snoozes.

Getting a little more one-on-one time with Kelli and doing more activities together. She LOVES Little Gym. She knows the second we take a left onto the street it's on... "GYM!!"

I can do storytimes with her, which she really loves. When she sees Barnes & Noble she screeches "Read a book!!!". And they always have crafts and activities to do after the story.

I have more liberty to work out and focus on my goals without dumping the kids on Andy!

And I get to pick up Sydney and listen to all her stories about Kindergarten adventures! One of my favorite parts of the day!