September Concert #2: First Aid Kit

In my previous post, I mentioned the Friday night concert I went to in September: Jethro Tull. That one was relatively close by, at Wolf Trap. The following Monday night, Natalie and I headed a bit farther away to see First Aid Kit in Washington DC. She had to miss her dance classes to go, but she loves the band so much and was so excited at the idea of seeing this concert that we agreed it was worth it.

I knew traffic into DC could be pretty bad, so we arrived fairly early in order to find a decent parking space near The Anthem and grab some dinner. Kathy went to the show with us, but due to some very unexpected car trouble she was unable to meet us for dinner (but luckily still made it to the show!). So instead Natalie and I explored the area, including these awesome giant swings before grabbing some seafood for dinner.

Then, it was finally time to head over to the show!

We had seats way up high in the second balcony. I chose those because we were quite near the stage (even if up high), and I thought they would make for a pretty good view of everything. Natalie liked being up so high, but I think she would have liked to be down one level. Those seats would have been great, but they were definitely more expensive! Without zooming in, this was our view of the stage (photo taken of the opening act - she was pretty good).

Then, finally, it was time for the sisters! This is the 4th time I've seen them, and they continue to put on a great show! I really like their latest album, Ruins, so I had no problem seeing them so soon again after seeing them earlier this year. Plus, it's so much fun to share an event like this with Natalie.

I'm really loving the live version of "Hem of her dress" that they do at their shows. It's off the latest album, and the acoustic + trombone is just fantastic. Hearing it live actually made me like the song on the album more!

First Aid Kit in DC

In February, I had the pleasure of seeing First Aid Kit in concert for the third time! The first was when they opened for Brandi Carlile at Wolf Trap a few (three?) years ago. Second time was when they headlined a small-ish venue tour for their last album, and back in February was the third time! This performance was for their new album, Ruins, and was also the first time I saw a show at the Lincoln in DC.

Great venue - I would definitely see another show there. The seats were not assigned, which we were slightly worried about (I went with Kathy, Beth, and Rachel), but we got 4 seats in a great spot, stage left.

I had been thoroughly enjoying listening to their most recent (4th) album on Spotify, so I was very excited to hear the songs live!

They ended up playing the entirety of their new album, Ruins, and one of my favorites of the concert ended up being one that I wasn't a big fan of on the album: "Hem of her dress". But seeing it acapella, with the trombone, really made me enjoy the song a lot more!

Here's a short clip:

I didn't really take many videos, because I try to enjoy the show (and not through my phone), but Natalie is also a big fan of First Aid Kit, so I did take some videos of her favorite songs, including this one (Silver Lining) - their big hit off of their last album.

They are returning to North America later this year on a second part of the same tour, and we are going to see them again, this time at the Anthem in DC. Kathy wanted to go with me, and since it's an all ages show, I got a ticket for Natalie too - she is SO excited! I had not yet been to the Anthem, as it's such a new venue, but actually saw Brandi there this past weekend (post on that soon!). 

A January day at the zoo

In honor of the beautiful weather we are (finally) experiencing, I want to remind myself (and everyone else) that we didn't just have awful cold for the past 4 months - there was actually some pretty nice weather in the winter months. And on one of those lovely days, in January, we took the kids to the National Zoo to enjoy the nice weather.

We started on the carousel - I let the kids pick one "special" thing to do (which required additional tickets to be bought), and this was their choice!

 

 Across from the carousel are the prairie dogs, which were out eating lunch. They're so darn cute.

 We then went up to the big cat enclosures, where we saw one sleeping tiger.

 Three beautiful lionesses.

 And two active lions.

 We then headed to the great ape house, outside of which were some chimpanzee statues.

 And the family showed off their monkey faces. We saw nothing, we heard nothing, we said nothing!

 There was a baby orangutan in the ape house, of which I was fortunate enough to get a couple of decent shots.

 The National Zoo now has (one of?) the oldest elephant in captivity, at 70 years old, and we got to see her!

 Finally, a couple of shots that Evan took - I love when he photographs me being a photographer. Those are always fun shots.

 And here's what I was capturing of the kids, walking on the elephant tracks

And finally, one of me and the kids. We had a fantastic day!

January sunset in DC

On January 20, I went into DC for another Kennedy Center show (this one was a play, The Humans). But this post isn't about the play (which was overall ok, but the ending was...dark and kind of left a sour taste in my mouth about the whole thing). This post is about the sunset that I saw as I walked from the Kennedy Center to the restaurant where my friend and I had dinner. Check out this beautiful sky!

 And ice on the Potomac! And birds! And reflection! And building silhouettes! Just beautiful all around.

And these were taken on my iPhone, with no filters applied or changes in post. It was truly stunning to capture.

I love this shot with the moon above.

And finally, a look back across the ice at the Kennedy Center itself. Such a gorgeous night!

The kids visit B-Line Medical

On the first day of the kids' Christmas break, I took them into the office with me. While at that point I was primarily working from home, the kids had been asking about where I worked now, and really wanted to see it. Since they were going to be home with us for a LOT of the nearly 2.5 weeks they had off for Christmas, I figured why not take them in for a day?

I asked my colleagues to set aside any work they had for them to do; our head of accounting had some paperwork for them to sort through and put in alphabetical order. I had to help out a little bit, but they spread it all out on the floor next to my desk and were good little workers!

One of my colleagues in support made these great certificates for them.

There wasn't much other work set aside for them, but we had brought activities for them to do. Books, tablets, and drawing. Here is a drawing of 4 alien brothers that Henry made.

I walked with the kids to get lunch at a nearby Panera, and we ate with my colleague and buddy Carlos (along with a few others on our development team). After the kids occupied themselves for a bit longer, Carlos and I took them over for a walk through Dupont Circle, as it was a nice day and it was good to get out of the office for a bit.

While the kids were not quite as self-sufficient at the office as I might have liked, I think they did have a fun time. I may try this again in the future when we have a bit more things for them to do - we shall see! Now that I'm working from home pretty much full time (when not traveling), we'll have to see what works out.

Five shows in October: 4 & 5 in DC

We've come to the final two shows I got to see in October! Ok, technically the second one was on November 1, but for the sake of this post (and saying 5 in October), I'm counting it as taking place then.

The 4th show of the month was The Book of Mormon. I renewed my Kennedy Center subscription for this year with Kathy, Beth, and Rachel, and of course this show was not included. However, we had the option to buy BoM tickets with our subscription, and as it's one that I always wanted to see I got tickets for Evan and I to go.

The show was on a Friday night, so we headed into DC as early as we could in order to avoid traffic. We parked at the KC, and then walked down along the river to eat dinner at Farmers Fishers & Bakers (so good!). We clean up pretty nicely, I think!

 

When we left the restaurant to walk back, I snapped a photo of this very cool, very tall sculpture. I have no idea what it was supposed to be, or who made it, but I love the shape and colors!

 Inside the KC there are always art exhibits, and this time were these beautiful Japanese fans all along the ceiling. Also very pretty!

 We met up with Kathy and Eric (who also had tickets to the show that night), and wandered along the outside balcony of the KC to cool off before the show (it was rather warm inside). I love DC at night!

And then, just a few days later, it was time for my final show of the month - Mean Girls at the National Theater! It was just starting its pre-Broadway run (I think we saw the second show), so we 4 ladies got tickets along with our friend Will (and Eric came too). I'd never seen a show before it makes its Broadway debut - it was almost 3 hours long, and EVERYONE got a song, so there will definitely be some cutting before it heads to Broadway. There wasn't even a song list in the playbill, as they were still working out what would be included/excluded. Pretty neat! But it was faithful to the movie, quite hilarious, and had some really great big musical numbers in it. I loved the staging, and I highly recommend seeing it!

Henry's 7th birthday

Henry's birthday fell over spring break this year, which is the biggest reason why I scheduled his birthday party to be a couple of weeks prior to his actual birthday. We didn't have any plans to go away over spring break this year, so that meant we needed to figure out what to do with the kids. I worked from home Monday, Evan worked from home Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Henry's birthday, I took the day off to spend it with the kids.

I threw a few options at Henry for things we could do, and what did he choose? The National Zoo! We hadn't been in a couple of years, and therefore had let our membership lapse. I joined back up so that we could get our freebies/discounts, and off we went.

We started at the "back" of the zoo, at the children's zoo, with Henry's favorite animal!

 It then began to rain, so we walked down a path I'd never gone before, to the Amazonia building. It was actually quite cool! Lots of neat animals, fish, etc...and birds flying about.

 The rain ended, and we went to the sea lion exhibit. I knew it had been open for a while, but we had yet to see them. The sea lions were feeling quite playful, right near the glass!

 Next to the sea lions were the elephants. They were just on the other side of the fence, and the zookeepers were there answering questions for us, and feeding them some treats.

Elephant tracks!

 We then went to the Asia trail - my zoom lens came in quite handy to find this leopard! She was at least a good 40-50 feet away from us.

 Then it was panda time! Unfortunately, the red pandas weren't out, but we were able to see the giant pandas, all 3 of them.

Apparently this frozen yam popsicle was quite tasty :) 

 Then it was lunch time, and souvenir time. A nice rest for us after all the walking and it getting warmer! You'll see the kids' souvenir choices below.

Our last stop of the day was at the big cats. And wow, did we ever get see them! Apparently it was just before feeding time, and this tiger was ready to be fed - pacing around, staring at the door, ready to eat. Once again, the zoom lens came in handy!

 The lions, on the other hand, were quite sleepy.

 And here we are, complete with souvenirs!

An awesome, awesome day with the kids. After getting home, we picked up Evan and headed down to my parents' house for Henry's birthday dinner!

Henry's big gift was from the family: us, Carrie, and all 4 grandparents. Finally, he got a large Lego set that he'd been wanting! (photo by Evan)

The kids then stayed with my parents for the rest of spring break; I picked them up on Sunday after getting to spend the entire weekend by myself! Evan was in Boston visiting his brother from Friday-Sunday, so I had the house to myself both Friday and Saturday nights. It was a really fantastic way to spend Easter weekend: Evan got time with his family, the kids had grandparent time, and I didn't have to deal with any Easter activities at all. Ideal!

Happy 7th birthday, Henry!