Happy Halloween!!

Gray's school had a "Boo Ball" on October 19, so we made sure to get his costume before we left for D.C.  We didn't want to put Gray in his costume until we got to school, so we put him in the costume in the back of the car. 

 He didn't really like the hood (at.all), so most of the pictures we got of him in this costume don't include the hood.  We made him wear it on the way into school though.

The Boo Ball had little tables set up for the kids to do crafts and they had a few story times for the kids as well.  Grayson seemed to have a great time and was snatched up by his teacher for a good portion of the time that we were there, too.
Last weekend there was an event at the Arboretum (Abooretum) and we decided it was a great excuse to use his costume one more time.  My Mom was in town for the weekend, so she joined us.  The pathway of the Arboretum had little tables and games set up a long the way for kids to interact with and get candy.  Most of the tables/games were for older kids, but it was still fun to walk around in the beautiful weather with our little lion. 

He was a little apprehensive about the big owl over his shoulder, so after the picture he turned around and started poking it.  I think he decided that the owl was okay.

 They had a little train that we could ride, as well as a hayride.  We decided this year that we'd just do the train ride since their hayride was 20 minutes long.

Happy Halloween!!

DC: Days 5 & 6

We took it pretty easy Monday morning and didn't end up getting out for the day until after lunch.  Jess and I decided to walk to one of her favorite Noodle restaurants to pick up some lunch and crossed our fingers that Gray would fall asleep in the Ergo during the outing.  We had no such luck, so once we got back to her apartment, we all ate lunch and then finished getting ready so that we could head to the museum.

He looked like a teenager to me laying there like this!

  It started raining when we got out for the day, so we walked as fast as we could to the metro so that Grayson could ride his first subway train.  Grayson fell asleep in his stroller on the way (finally!), so we made our way to the Air and Space Museum where The Hubs proceeded to totally geek out.  :)  It was actually pretty nice that Grayson slept for a large portion of our time at the Museum because it allowed us to look pretty in depth at most of the exhibits.

 Once Grayson woke up, we had seen over half of the museum, and we were on the side with the space equipment.  We let him walk around a little bit and he was very interested in the moon car.  He brought his Daddy and me over to it separately.  It was super cute.

 We also took Grayson into the Kitty Hawk Exhibit and let him play with some of the examples along the way.

After that, we quickly took a few more pictures of Grayson and P in front of some planes because I wanted to see one more museum before they closed, and time was running out.

I wanted to go to the Natural History Museum so that we could see the Hope Diamond and other gems.
We walked in with about 20 minutes to look around.  It was much tougher to do with Grayson awake because he was not interested in the jewels at all.  Typical male ;).  He enjoyed a room that had a lot of beautiful pictures of animals though, so we hung out in there for little while before the museum closed.

We walked around the area for a little while after the museums closed and found a french bakery where we had a snack.  The pastries were very good and Grayson seemed to eat a good portion of his Aunt's blueberry tart.  We were to meet Kim for dinner and decided to walk toward China Town(!).  As we got closer it started to rain again, so we found shelter right across from the China Town Gates.

We had some pizza at a really cute restaurant and then headed home for the evening.  That night I realized that our flight was not departing or arriving where I was expecting, so we had to make some last minute changes to our plans for Tuesday.  We got up and packed our bags and then headed to Jess' office because she works really close to the White House and her co-workers had heard of Grayson too many times to not meet him while he was in town.  He was like a little celebrity up in that place.  He just took over the floor and distracted everyone for a little while.  We walked to the White House and took some pictures on both sides of it.

We had such a great time and are so thankful to Jess and Kim for opening up their home and being such great hosts!  The time of year that we went was perfect since there were less tourists and the weather was great.  I can't wait until our next family trip!

DC: Day 4

Sunday was our excursion day out of the city - we were headed to an apple orchard that had a fall festival and pumpkin patch for children and adults.  Jess started the morning with waffles and sausage and it made me realize that I think I would like a waffle maker...moving on.  Grayson enjoyed some banana, yogurt, and waffle before we got on our way.

Jess is a member of zipcar and she had reserved a car for the day.  That business is very foreign for people from Texas, but essentially, they have parking spots all over the city with cars parked in them that are ready to be driven.  The member walks up to the car and places their card on the windshield which unlocks the car that they reserved!  We borrowed a car seat from one of Kim's co-workers, installed it in the car, and headed to Maryland for the afternoon.
We started out at the pumpkin patch for a photo shoot.  Grayson did so well and was pretty interested in the pumpkins.  At one point he was grabbing the hay from the ground and 'shining' up the pumpkins - see 2 pictures down.

We went to the fall festival next, where we met up with my aunt and cousin.  Our first stop there was the corn maze! 

I am so sad that this is the only picture I have of Megan and Aunt P from our trip =/

 

Getting a look at the maze

 

We made it!

 Next, we hit up the hillside slides that people were going down with burlap sacks.  Grayson and Kim tried out the small kiddie slide first.

 Then, Gray went down the big slide with Daddy.  He wasn't really sure what to think about the slide.  He didn't act scared, but he wasn't really smiling either. 

 Jess took a turn after G.

We lucked out because the Orchard was really close to where my cousin lives and we were able to stop by and visit with him.  

 This picture warms my heart more than I could ever explain!

 On the way back into the city, we had a happy and tired boy!

That night, we had lined up a babysitter for G so that the four adults could go out to a nice dinner.  We decided on an Italian food restaurant, and we were not disappointed!  I got the braised short ribs on a bed of mashed potatoes and P got a scallop risotto.  The restaurant was in an old house turned restaurant and it was really pretty.  After that, we went to Mr. Yogato for some froyo before walking around the city a little bit.  We walked to Dupont Circle, and then decided to go to a bar a little closer to home.  The bar was unlike any we had been to because it had a wall of whiskey that is one of the largest whiskey "libraries" ever.  The drinks were very creative and if I liked bourbon a little more, I would have enjoyed mine a bit more.  After that, we called it a night because Kim had to go to work the next day. (and...we had a babysitter on the clock!) 
Wow.  This was a long post - if you got to the end - congratulations!