Lego Contest

The boys did the Lego contest at the Nashville Library again this year.  We missed last year because we were in Orlando but had participated in the contest the previous two years.  The awards ceremony was yesterday afternoon.

Carter's design was titled "Machu Picchu":

Rylan's design was titled "Lego City Park":

Gray's design was titled "Picasso at 3 years old with Legos":

The boys all worked hard on their builds and we thought they did great.  Carter was the only one to win something this year.  He got a superlative award in his age group for "Most Realistic Landscape"

He won a ribbon and certificate. 

Carter won a superlative in 2015 and Rylan won first place in his age group on 2016.  Carter and Rylan are already working on their entries for next year!

Valentines

The boys picked out Valentine cards from Pinterest this year.

Gray did Play-doh ...

Carter and Rylan both wanted to do dogs.  The version that we found online of these cards had "XOXO" on the bottom so Carter made this version on his new computer.  They turned out cute!

Nashville Soccer Club

We bought season tickets again this year for the Nashville Soccer Club games.  This year the team has moved up to the USL which is one step below MLS.  Nashville recently won an MSL team but that's a year or two away.

This season, NSC is playing at the Nashville Sounds baseball stadium.  They put artificial turf over the dirt and call it good.  The seating is a little odd but it works.

NCS had their first preseason game last Saturday afternoon against Atlanta's MLS team.  The good news was that it got up to 58F that day.  The bad news was that it poured ALL DAY.  We decided to go the poncho route and I picked some up at Walmart during the week since we knew it was predicted to be wet.  

This little man wasn't too happy (but he looked like a cute E.T. to me!) ...

Rylan hunkered down on the end and hid in his poncho the whole game

Carter was willing to stand up and get into the game more.

We wanted front row seats so that the boys would be able to see since people often stand during games.  Sideline tickets were out of our budget range so we needed endzone.  By the time NSC got to us during the season ticket sale, we had to take the corner to get front row.  And since they are using a baseball stadium this season, it's a bit of an odd seating arrangement.  We are actually right behind the 3rd base dugout and the foul ball net.  These would be awesome seats for a baseball game!  They aren't bad for soccer either and we'll get a better feel for them when it's not raining.

NSC did great.  The game was scoreless at halftime (and Atlanta brought their starters).  Atlanta ended up winning 3-1 but two of those goals were because of errors with passing the ball in front of the goal where the water was pooling in the artificial turf covering the dirt and the ball died.

We are looking forward to 17 more games!  And hoping for drier weather!

ABC's

Gray is getting better and better at counting and singing the alphabet.  He recognizes some numbers and we are working on letters.

A shirt is optional when you sing the ABC song ...

And here's a little "Wheels on the Bus" ...

Gray's Extracurriculars

This semester I've signed Gray up for some classes.  We didn't do anything structured in the fall (other than starting preschool), but after Christmas break, Gray started gymnastics on Monday mornings and soccer on Friday mornings.

Gray is doing the preschool gymnastics class at Harpeth Gymnastics.  Both Carter and Rylan did this class when they were 3 and it's also where we had Gray's last birthday party.  I was so impressed how well he did things like forward rolls and the balance beam at his party even though it'd been months since his mommy and me class at another gymnastics facility.  Gray is doing great so far and really seems to enjoy it.  He always comes out of the class telling me he did everything.

I also signed Gray up for a soccer class with LPG Academy.  LPG used to be Lil' Sluggers and only taught baseball.  I started Carter in a baseball class with them when he was 4 1/2 and they only had a couple of classes a week at one location.  Now they offer dozens of classes in various sports at multiple locations.  Both Carter and Rylan only ever did baseball classes but they had really enjoyed them and got a lot out of them.

Gray is doing great at soccer too.  He has a great coach that is awesome with the kids (and I'm hard to impress).  Gray listens great and does EXACTLY what his coach says.  He never picks up the ball and is just so happy that he's constantly bouncing up and down a little where he stands.

 

I took a few videos of Gray warming up yesterday.  I'm loving that he is using both feet in these videos!  And not picking up the ball!!!

The Capitol

2017:

1990:

Rylan - Indoor Soccer

Rylan played his first ever indoor soccer game last night. 

He did awesome (he scored 4 goals) and his team won 13-0.  The league has changed a lot since Carter first played two years ago.  There are a lot less travel players and many more kids that are new to soccer (at least in Rylan's age group).  However there are still a lot of talented kids.  Brian drafted really well and has a strong team.  A couple of Rylan's friends are on the team.  Liam was on Rylan's outdoor team last season and his mom is our unofficial assistant coach so we could guarantee Liam would be on our team.  She is helping Brian during games with subbing when she can make it which helps to keep playing time fair and really appreciated.  We also drafted Maddox who was in Rylan's class at Otter Creek and has also been on his baseball team for a few seasons.

I got a video of Rylan's first goal ...

And his last goal which included a great assistant from Liam!

Lost Tooth

Rylan had the craziest snaggletooth for a couple of weeks.  It was his left front upper tooth but was just not loose enough to come out.

We went to a performance at the Nolensville Library on January 3rd and Rylan finally got that crazy tooth out!

It was getting really loose ...

And then it was out!

He was super excited for another visit from the tooth fairy!

Washington, D.C.

The boys got the full week of Thanksgiving off again this year.  And my sister was due with her first baby on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  So this year we decided to go to DC again before heading down to Raleigh for Thanksgiving.

Karey ended up getting induced on Friday, November 17th (the boys last day of school).  Her baby boy Ollie was born a little before midnight.  We drove up to DC on Saturday and were all super excited to meet our nephew/cousin.  We finally got in to the city around 8pm so Brian dropped me off at the hospital for a quick visit before we headed to our hotel.

On Sunday it was super windy and cool so we did a day downtown visiting museums.  We are early risers and the museums don't open until 10am so we walked by the White House first and stopped at the White House Visitor's Center.

Then we went to the History Museum for a bit.  We didn't do the History Museum when we were there two years ago and the big boys were looking forward to seeing the flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours at the museum and then decided to grab some lunch.

On our way we stopped at the Old Post Office Tower which is operated by the National Park Service (and now part of the Trump International Hotel - eeekkk).  Since the Washington Monument is still closed, this is the highest point to view the city.  There were great views but the wind was whipping through there and it was COLD so we didn't stay too long.

We had lunch at a Potbelly in a little hidden basement spot and then headed to the Natural History Museum for awhile.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours here before heading on to our next museum.  This museum was packed so it was hard to enjoy it.

Holding large grasshoppers ...

Since Carter (and Rylan) love art, we decided to try the Hirshhorn Museum.  We all struggle a bit with contemporary and modern art but enjoyed parts of the museum.

The boys really liked this room.  A sheet of white paper would fall from the ceiling about every 10 seconds.  They liked trying to catch them and burying themselves in the fallen sheets.

After the art museum we decided to head to the hotel for a few minutes and then get dinner.  We ended up in Old Town Alexandria at Hard Times Cafe.  There used to be one of these chili places in Raleigh that Brian and I went to a couple of times when we lived there.  Brian was the only one that ended up with chili though.

It was still cold on Monday so we decided to do another day of museums downtown so we could stay mostly inside.

A quick picture with the Capitol ...

Our first museum of the day was the National Museum of the American Indian.  I always feel like this museum is going to be bigger and have more stuff for the kids and was a little disappointed again.  But we still enjoyed it and Brian and I really liked the section on the Inca Trail since we hiked it before we had the boys.

The next stop was the East Building of the National Gallery of Art which houses modern art.  On the roof was a giant blue chicken!

Everyone was starving so we headed up to Union Station for lunch.  We ate at Shake Shack and then took the boys over to the trains so Gray could see them.

Right next to Union Station is a newer Smithsonian museum, the National Postal Museum.  We decided to try it and really liked it.  There are a lot of interactive exhibits for the kids which made it fun for them.

When we were done at the museum, everyone was getting tired.  However, Rylan still had a little energy.  Gray fell asleep in the car immediately.  Rylan really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial.  Since parking was so hard to get close by, Brian dropped us off and parked over by the FDR Memorial.  It was fun for Rylan and I to get a little time together by ourselves.  And it was beautiful with the sun starting to set!

We also checked out the adjacent Korean War Veterans Memorial.

We started heading over to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to meet Brian where Brian found parking.

Carter met us over there and we could also see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin.

Our last stop for the night ... dinner!  We stayed downtown and went to We, the Pizza for dinner near the Capitol.  It was good and the boys are always happy to get pizza (though Gray would have rather of still been sleeping!).

Tuesday was slightly warmer finally so we made it to the National Zoo.

Carter had just taught Gray to dab!

We were super lucky on this visit because we got to see an orangutan (with her baby holding onto her) cross the o-lines from one enclosure to another!

When we got hungry, we exited the zoo on Connecticut Ave and walked a couple of blocks up to Fat Pete's BBQ for lunch and another good meal.

After lunch we went back to the zoo for the afternoon.

The panda were out eating something out of a paper bag.

These guys were the BEST part of our visit to the zoo.  We played with them for probably 30 minutes.

Check out this video.  The kids found rocks and would drop them at the glass and the sea lions would follow them.  It was really, really cool.

After we left the zoo, Karey was ready for a visit from all of us!  Carter LOVED holding little Ollie and would have held him for hours if we let him.

Rylan was more reluctant but gave it a go for a picture :)

We stayed about an hour and then headed out.  It was great to finally see Karey's new house and spend some time with her and her little family!

We went to dinner at District Taco and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

On Wednesday we went hiking at Great Falls Park.  We knew we needed to get out of DC early to avoid crazy day-before-Thanksgiving traffic so we tried to do something we could finish before lunchtime.  We stayed too late two years earlier and our 4 hour drive to Raleigh was closer to 8 hours (Gray was barely one then and hated the car and threw up a couple of times because he was crying so hard - it was along night).  Unfortunately leaving early this time didn't help much due to an accident and it still took almost 7 hours.

Great Falls is a National Park around the Potomac River.  We went to the Maryland side and hiked the Billy Goat Trail.  Brian and I did this hike when I interned in DC in 2002 and were excited to take the boys on it.

The weather was warm enough (as long as we were out of the wind).

The kids LOVED all the rocks on the trail.  It's a really fun trail but a slow trail.

There is one really cool section that you have to climb up a wall of rock along a crack.

After completing our loop trail, we hiked out to see Great Falls.

We ended up hiking a little over 4 miles.  We got on the road as soon as we got in the car and waited until we were out of the city to grab an easy lunch at Chick-fil-A.  Luckily now that the boys are older, the drive wasn't too bad but we were all happy when we finally arrived in Raleigh!  We had a great trip to DC and look forward to visiting again soon!