All Hallow's Eve

Halloween finally arrived. In the afternoon we went trick or treating on "The Lawn". The area in front of the Rotunda at UVA. It was crowded to the point of not being that fun. But seeing all the kids costumes was a treat and the weather was perfect.

We actually had more fun on the walk back to the car

Elise lives next door and Gabrielle lives across the street. These 3 are together A LOT. And they're getting a little silly.

Finally time to trick or treat. Mom is bringing up the rear.

I don't remember this from when I was little, but our neighborhood had about 4 "Boo Houses" for the little kids to go to. After trick or treating Nile drove Athen and Elise to go see them. What a fun way to end the night.

What has 2 thumbs and just passed his LICENSING BOARD EXAM?

This guy right here!!!!!!!!

THE RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY

The morning after our "Obama sighting" we got everything ready so that Nile and I could lend our support to John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity (accompanied by Colbert's Rally to Restore Fear). The Rally was pretty much a cry for the media and the political parties to give us Americans a break from their extreme tactics. Basically it was a rally to poke fun at fear tactics and lies while embracing working together and rational thought. We knew it was another long shot, but we believed in what they were saying and wanted to give it a go.

Here we are at the Vienna metro station. We caught major rally traffic on the way into DC and then had to wait in the metro station 1 1/2 hours before getting on the metro. By this point the rally had already started, but we didn't care. There were thousands of people there with us with costumes and signs just hanging out and having a good time. We all knew that we'd only catch a glimpse of the rally, but happy to lend our support all the same.

Shoulder to shoulder...and a little sweaty...and a little stinky...

People had GREAT signs. Some were silly, some were poignant. Many were both.

Haha. Get it?

Lots of people came in costume. Evidently Colbert asked people to come to his (mock) Rally to Restore Fear dressed in scary costumes.

We did make it! This is as close as we could get to any monitor or speaker. When we got to this point we both looked at each other and smiled as we recognized Colbert's faint voice coming from the closest speaker we could get to. If we got on our tip-toes we could peak at the closest monitor and barely see John and Colbert doing their stuff. If you're interested in what John Stewart told the crowd in his few moments of sincerity (after all he his a comedian), here's the clip: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=363864&title=jon-stewart-moment-of-sincerity We mainly walked around for a few minutes enjoying the atmosphere and signs and costumes before it was time to jump back on the metro. We had to leave before the rally ended so that we could get back to the kids at a decent time.

Name that flick. "I'm glad we were here together in our nation's capital."

This sign touched us the most. We are devastated at the recent push to equate your average Muslim American with the extremist terrorists that caused 9/11. This is uneducated, unfair and will end up hurting innocent people if they don't cut it out.

Another sign we liked was "Think outside the FOX". But the best one of all had 3 gears turning each other. Each gear had a word on it. "listen, THINK, decide"

We had time to get an eggroll from a hotdog stand and then jump back on the metro.

Steve and Stacie were kind enough to watch the kids. When we got back we all went to the Trunk or Treat at their church.

Thanks S&S! We owe you some babysitting!

Cute stuff

Again, Van boycots the costumes...but not the candy

OBAMA SIGHTING

So, President Obama came to Charlottesville on October 29th. Nile was at work so I decided to brave the crowds and pack up the boys to make sure Athen got a glimpse of this historic president. He wasn't speaking until 7:30, so I picked up Athen from school at 3 and took the boys straight to the downtown mall to park and wait in line. HA! When we got there the line already went from the Pavillion out the other end of the down town mall. Later that evening, Nile and I decided that it would be fun to see him drive by, so we looked for a place we could get a glimpse.

Our first try was by the whale tails out side our neighborhood.

Everyone had a good time running around, but in the end they had to evacuate this area.

That didn't stop us. We ended up outside of Kroger on 29. First they closed off the highway, then Air Force I flew in really low right over our heads. Several minutes later the President and his entourage came zooming by. We made sure to look for the SUV with the flags. I didn't expect the lights to be on, but they were, and Athen and I got a small glimpse of the President. It was a fun chase. After we got home, we went to the neighbor's house to watch Obama speak. I was surprised that Athen half listened, and had some really good questions.

MUSE

The day of the Muse concert finally came and we headed over to JPA to see the show (thanks for babysitting Wendy). We met our friends, Heather and Selwyn there. They really showed us how it's done. They got there 3 hours early so they could be right up in front and saved a little space for us too! We really owe those guys. The show was SPECTACULAR! I wish I could post a million photos, but I only have room for five...

You just had to be there.

The week before Halloween, the Dowtown Mall had games and trick or treating for the kids. Van refused to wear a costume. When we showed him his, he leaned back and said, "no, no, no, no, no, no, no". He got confused when Athen put on his costume. He would say "Mario! Athen! Mario! Athen!" Over and over and over.

It's Mario Time!

Oh, you didn't think we forgot Luigi, did you?

Van's dressed as a homicidal psychopath, they look just like everyone else.

I didn't mind that Athen chose to be Mario, but I was sure that it would be a pretty common costume. We were surprised at the amount of attention he got. Everywhere we went people were like, "there's Mario! Hey Mario!" They would shout to him from across the mall, and come up to him to check out his costume. Thank you Target.

This is so cool. We had to get a new DVD player so we let Athen take apart the old one. Athen was really into it all afternoon. Once he took it all apart Nile showed him what all the parts were and they used batteries to make the little motors inside work and so on. They had the best time.

We had a great little visit from our good friends and old neighbors. Here's Steve chillin' at our place, making our furniture look small. It was good to see a familiar face. I would have posted a photo of Stacie as well, but she would have killed me.

This is their super happy baby Maren. She's all blue eyes and wiggles and giggles.

The best part of seeing the Thomas family is getting Adam and Athen together. They never miss a beat, even if they haven't seen each other for over a year. These 2 boys were truly born to be friends.

We spent a very crowded afternoon at Carter Mountain Apple Orchard...just had to get some of those hot apple doughnuts.

It's quite a view.

Hey! I think I finally figured out how to correctly make a post on this blog! Third try is a charm. Now I can quit deleting my previous posts and they will just move down like they're supposed to.

Mom and the boys at the pumpkin patch

This was a cute (and long) corn maze for the kids

Van was thrilled with this swing because he could do it all by himself.

Athen's favorite part was playing on the hay bales.

Athen took this one.

Love these boys!