ACL 2013...Austin City Limits Music Festival

Yep...I won two 3-day wrist bands for the 2nd weekend of ACL!! 2 weeks ago I received an e-mail from SiriusXM that went out to approx 27,000 Austin area subscribers to win 2 3-day passes to ACL. All you had to do was click the link in the e-mail at 3pm and if you were fast enough you won tickets...luckily I'm a fast clicker and won!! I was so excited because I rarely win anything - but maybe my luck is changing?? I guess I was really lucky considering I cancelled my SiriusXM subscription several months ago :)

For different scheduling reasons we decided it was better if Justin didn't go (since you're not supposed to share wristbands) and luckily Lauren was able to come down and go with me! She arrived around 2:30 Friday afternoon and we promptly headed downtown to try and get to fun. by 4pm.

We decided to try and park west of Mopac near Lake Austin Blvd due to a recommendation from my dad's friend that went to ACL the first weekend. We found a perfect parking spot that I was able to parallel park in (score!) but there was a lady standing in the yard next door staring us down. After a few minutes of deliberating we decided we better not risk it (there were signs that said no event parking in neighborhood) and headed to downtown. Lauren pulled up the ACL parking map so we were looking for a lot/garage near Republic Park where the free shuttle to ACL was running. After meandering through all the downtown construction we ended up at the Frost Bank tower and parked in the garage. It was around 3:25 when we parked so we started booking it to Zilker Park. After a 2 mile walk in the warm afternoon sun we made it to Zilker and sat down at 3:59 just in time for fun. we were SO excited! We were discussing how we would get back to the car since it would be dark and the way we went would be scary so we considered a pedicab or regular cab when all the sudden I realized we could just take the shuttle...duh! Well then 5 minutes later I realized we found a parking garage close to the shuttle so we could take that to the festival...NOT walk 2 miles!! Major DUH! How both of us forgot about the shuttle is beyond me...it must have been our determination to see fun. haha!

Friday Evening we saw fun. Vampire Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse & a little bit of Depeche Mode.

fun. - Amazing!!
Vampire Weekend - So good!
Queens of the Stone Age - Not my kind of music 
Muse - They were alright (we didn't stay for the whole thing)
Depeche Mode - We listened to them as we were leaving and think we would have enjoyed them more than Muse!

Beautiful day!

Just in time for fun.!

fun.

The ACL moon :)

It rained for about 20 mins during Queens of the Stone Age - our ponchos came in handy!

Muse

Saturday morning Lauren and I went to Top Golf with Justin and one of his friends from work. It was Lauren's first time but you could see the skill from her golf lessons when she was 10 :) Apparently every time we go to Top Golf it's warm and humid...I'm hoping next time we go it's cold - or at least cool!

Manmosa

Bloody Mary - yes that is a beefstick straw! haha

We were excited we got a bay with couches this time!

We headed downtown around 1pm and caught most of Walk the Moon and then turned around and laid in the HOT sun and listened to Delta Rae. After sweating for 2 hours (it's October - can we please cool down Texas?!) we decided to go grab a bite to eat and hung out in the shade by Austin Eats. We listed to Little Green Cars while we people watched.

Walk the Moon - Amazing! My favorite from the weekend!
Delta Rae - They were really good - didn't have a song I didn't like
Little Green Cars - We listed to them while we were in the shade people watching and really enjoyed it
Grimes - We listed to them while we were waiting for Passion Pit - NOT a fan!
Passion Pit - Really fun show!

Day 2 - Bring it on!

SO many bikes!

Thank goodness for Keens! Walk the Moon

We each bought a COLD "bottle" of water when we got there because we were so hot

Water filling station

Lots and lots of food choices

Passion Pit

Passion Pit

My ACL Tips & Lessons Learned

I have never seen so many high waisted {jean} shorts in my life! or shirtless guys for that matter 
There were WAY more kids than I expected...not an event I would bring a child to
Not enough parking - $20/day is ridiculous!
Bring a Camelback and drink water all day for free!
Lots of good local Austin food
No smoking in the festival is a lie! If I could volunteer to be the smoke police I would :)
Wear comfy shoes - just looking at the people in boots made my feet sweat!
Wear comfy clothes - I realized that I could have gone into my closet with my eyes shut and ended up not looking half as crazy as most of the people there!

If you are taking the shuttle and not walking across town...bring folding chairs - they'll save your bum!
If you like to people watch...GO!
Everyone keeps asking if I would go to ACL again if I had to buy tickets. I had a fantastic time but 3 days was too much for me - even if it hadn't gotten rained out yesterday we weren't planning on going. My allergies were bothering me after being outside for 2 days and I wasn't looking forward to paying another day of parking. If they go back to doing 1 day passes and there were a few bands I wanted to see then I would definitely go back! Although if I paid for the tickets I would definitely feel obligated to be there the entire day - it was nice not feeling pressured to get there at a certain time and not feel guilty leaving early! That being said - I am super thankful for the free tickets and being able to experience something so "Austiny" after living here for almost 16 years! ACL 2014? We'll see!

Color in Motion 5K!

This past weekend I went to Houston to visit Rachel & Lauren and run in the Color In Motion 5K. I got to Rachel's Friday evening and we went to Chuy's for dinner with her parents - YUM! When we got home we just talked until we went to bed because we were both pretty tired and knew we had to be up early.

The run was at Reliant Stadium - it was super well organized and SO fun!! A little bit different than our somewhat disastrous color run last year but I won't get into that haha. The weather was PERFECT!! For those of you that have never done a color run...DO IT...even if you aren't a runner. Every kilometer or so you go through a spot where they throw color (colored corn starch) on you. The color powder is totally safe and washes off after the race!

Definitely before - Look how clean we are!!

And after!!

Trying to take a picture but we kept falling on each other...don't ask

hahaha my face

So excited!

They had just thrown a ton of color and it created a haze

Rachel's awesome mustache

Our backs...Lauren is a liiitle too clean

Dirty shoes!

BFFs

And of course we have to have jumping pictures!!

After we finished the race and hungout for a bit after we headed over to Freebirds for lunch. We knew we couldn't go somewhere too nice since we were still covered in color - but at Freebirds we fit right in! 

After lunch Lauren and I headed to her house in Rosenberg but stopped in Sugarland to get pedicures. Oh my goodness it was wonderful! We had to explain to the girls working there why we looked like we did and we got plenty of strange looks but we didn't care. Getting a pedicure after a race is a must, it was so relaxing! After our pedicures we went to Lauren's house and decided to head to Kroger to get food to make dinner - we decided to be lazy around the house rather than going out and I'm SO glad we did! We made a delicious Mexican Spinach Dip, Texas 2 Step Slaw, Burgers, and Fries...oh and Banana Cream Pie for dessert! (I saw we but it was mostly Lauren and her dad hehe). I finally got to see Magic Mike!! and we watched the dog show...I think I need to make an annual trip to Houston to watch this with Lauren's mom!! I headed out early Sunday morning so I could beat some of the traffic and get home in time to do our Sunday errands and go to my parent's friends SuperBowl Party.

It was a great weekend! I drove over 400 miles just going from home to Humble, to Reliant, to Rosenberg and back home. I google mapped it and I could have driven from Portland, Maine to Philadelphia in the same amount of miles and crossed 6 states. Instead I just went to Houston - but I guess that's what I get since it's the 4th largest city in the country!

Can't wait for my next girls trip!! 

p.s. All these pictures are courtesy of Miss Rachel :)

Where has the time gone??

Ok I'll admit it, I'm a bad blogger. It's been almost a month since my last entry. But in my defense I am GETTING MARRIED in 2 days :) So I'm going to use that as my excuse. I'm going to use this entry to recap the bachelorette party in pictures. If you want an actual recap of the weekend...visit Mansee's blog, I just can't top that recap! And also, I have not had time to get my rebel out in the last couple weeks...it makes me so sad:( AND I didn't take any pictures during the bachelorette party so these are all stolen from Miss Rachel Barde, once again :)


My bachelorette party was the weekend of October 2nd, we stayed at the Hill Country Hyatt in San Antonio. It was Rachel, Lauren, Mansee, Ashley & Christine and we had a BLAST!




Lingerie shower Friday night!



Saturday morning @ the spa



My bride-to-be outfit!






NBD...we had a hummer limo!! Lauren is the BEST!

 


Us @ the River Walk - pre-dinner



Howl @ the Moon....Great picture-taking skills Rachel!!

 Once again...thank you girls for an AMAZING weekend!! My next blog posts will have wedding & honeymoon pictures! AHH

Almost all about Rachel :)

I promised it wouldn't be 2 weeks since my last post...this time it's only 1 week - guess I'm slowly getting better at this blogging thing. Once again it's been a very busy week...I feel like this is the way all of my posts are going to start for the next couple months!! We're now at less than 2 months until the wedding...so hard to believe!! My to-do list keeps getting longer and my time keeps getting shorter so I really need to crack down. This past weekend was my bridal shower in Houston. My mom's friend Diana graciously opened up her house for the party. The food was Mexican themed and was SO yummy!! The best part was probably the fact that Lauren brought a GALLON of salsa for 16ish people...it was an accident but still SO funny!


SOO much salsa :)

 In case you don't know - Rachel is obsessed with babies and wants everyone around her to have them. I've already informed her that will not happen ANY time soon. Also, in case you don't know - at bridal showers - the number of bows you break when you open presents equals how many kids you are going to have. Needless to say when I didn't break any bows at the Austin shower Rachel was not too happy. So she brought me this lovely gift to this shower. But don't worry - I opened it like a champ without breaking any bows...in about 20 seconds :)


Nice try Rachel

 All in all it was a WONDERFUL weekends and Justin and I got so many nice gifts from friends! It's funny how anytime someone gives me kitchen stuff there's comments about how it won't get used or that I don't cook. My mom even defends me because that is not true!! I love to cook...I just have a long way to go to be as wonderful of a cook as my mom!!


On a completely unrelated note - I did not take the two pictures above - those were taken by the lovely Rachel Barde and her new camera - which was a graduation present from my parents, and Justin and I. I was probably foolish to get her a camera that has a fish-eye setting built in. If you have seen her facebook albums you will know why.


hahaha

 This weekend won't be filled with as much fun as last weekend :( Sad day :( I have to work tomorrow all day but do get to go to Michael's birthday dinner (hopefully)!!! We should be done with wedding invitations this weekend and ready to send out by Monday!


Next Thursday we are going to New England to visit my grandparents. Justin hasn't met them and they won't be able to come to the wedding so we decided to make a quick trip up there. We're leaving Thursday evening and flying into Maine to visit Mimi & Bampy. On Saturday we're going to Boston (since Justin's never been there) and do some fun stuff there. Sunday we're going to Connecticut to visit Gee! On Monday my mom's family is having a Labor Day picnic so the family can meet Justin. And then we're coming home Tuesday. It will be a very quick/tiring/FUN trip so I'm excited!! I'm SUPER excited about the weather forecast - high's in the low 70's and lows in the 50's. It's going to be hard to come back to this Texas heat (which we've had a little releif from in the past couple of days). Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and a fantastic Labor Day weekend!!