Our DNC Experience... and some Violet too

The Democratic National Convention has come and gone, but we're still talking about it over here!

We were lucky enough that my mom was able to get us into a couple of events. We literally got to "hob-nob" with some senators and lobbyists which was way too cool! Jon and I rode our bikes downtown each night and walked around downtown in the crowds (which grew considerably as the week went on!).

The first night we went to the Young Democrats party (just up my alley, huh?). It was really cool to be a part of everything! We ended up hanging out in the VIP area with my mom, Guy, and two lobbyists who have worked with my mom over the years. It was really cool to get the inside view on politics and politicians, plus what lobbyists actually DO for a living ;)

Here is a picture of the MSNBC tower that they had set up just when we walked over the bridge to downtown:
Jon and I with Union Station in the background:

The next night we met my mom and Guy downtown again. I had NO celebrity sightings myself, but they both saw their fair share of the rich and famous. Apparently Matt Lauer ate dinner right behind them. We only missed him by a few minutes! Ugh!

Anyway, night two brought us to the nifty rooftop bar at Tamayo. Here it is from the outside. Ironically Jon and I had walked down this street the night before and said how cool it would be to hang out up there!This party was sponsored by the NAR and was all about Sustainable Real Estate. It was a carbon neutral event ;)

They had a really awesome band play called Hot Tuna. Maybe you've heard of them. The two dudes on the left were the bassist and guitarist for Jefferson Airplane. The guy in the middle is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. They played AWESOME blues/bluegrass/folk music which was right up my alley. The bar was pretty small and my mom and I were standing right up front for their first set. It was SO COOL!

We also had a birds eye view of all the goings-on as people made their way back from the convention. There were a lot of protesters out, which made for interesting people watching as they got in some pretty heated arguments with people walking by...Thursday night we watched Obama's speech at home. I had gone to Target earlier in the day and people were already walking to Invesco Field or setting up parking areas. We only live a few miles from there. As the speech ended and they started letting off fireworks, I ran outside to check and sure enough, we could see them from out on the street!! And we weren't the only ones, most of our neighborhood was out standing in the street watching it happen. It was a fitting end to an awesome week!

And in Violet news (this isn't nearly as exciting, I suppose!) but she can fit her hair in a ponytail! Isn't it about the cutest thing? I love her little curls.

I had left her Pack n' Play in the corner downstairs and she did this all by herself - she climbed up on it and sat and read her book for a while. It was so cute!
Still not a lot of progess on her walking. She did walk almost all the way across the living room today to Jon, but refused to put on a repeat performance. Silly!

She also *gasp* finally did her first sign the other night for "more" - and said "hot!" which was very cute. We're slowly but surely adding to her list of words! I was pretty proud of her for doing a sign too, I admit I haven't worked on them as much as I should!