Almost Famous

We went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival again this year. I've got tons to post and a gazillion picture to go through, but I thought I'd give you a little peek into our Sunday excitement.

Once again, the kids made the best of a very muddy situation. And then they became almost famous because of it. While we were watching Raul Malo play at the Austin Ventures stage, the kids got out the beach ball and started playing mud soccer.
Before we knew it, there was a crowd of festival goers gathering and lots of people asking if they could take pictures of the kids.

Once Raul Malo finished his incredible set, we made our way through the mud and over to the Dell Stage to see Sam and Lake's favorite, Michael Franti and Spearhead. Boy-o-boy, what a show. And what a crowd of professional photographers gathered around our kids.
It was crazy. I was starting to wonder if Brad Pitt was standing behind us or something.

I love that our girls are willing to get down and dirty and have a good time with the boys!

Once that show was over, we got some water and helped the kids wash the mud off of their faces. Sam had so much mud covering him that even his teeth were brown. Ick.

I've gotta say that I think Sam, Lake and Alex are pretty darn cute, even when they are covered in mud!


And the very very best part of the whole situation is that we were given another beautiful example of the kindness of strangers. I started going through our pictures yesterday and was really bummed out to see that I didn't have one single shot of the kids hanging over the front rail at the Michael Franti show. And then I realized that a lot of my mud pictures didn't turn out so great because there was a bit of mud on the lens. (go figure) So after much internal debate, I decided to go out on a limb and email a couple of the folks that gave me business cards when they were taking the mud photos. Well, lo and behold, I received a reply message today from my new buddy Karen, the Digital Executive Producer of KXAN here in Austin. Can you even believe that she took time out of her busy day to send me a few really incredible pictures?!?! I mean with a job title like that, she must be super duper busy - and she still sent us the pictures. I am so so so thankful. What a kind and special person she is. (Thank you SO much Karen.)

So here are a few of the pictures that I received from my new friend Karen with the swanky business title who works for KXAN the NBC Affiliate here in Austin.


Photo credit:
Super talented memory saver for taking pictures of my kids in the mud: Charlie L. Harper III, photographer

One of the nicest people ever for sending a mud tired momma some great pictures: Karen Brooks, Digital Executive Producer KXAN.com

Oh, and you can also find a picture of our muddy kids on the Michael Franti and Spearhead flicker page by clicking here. And did I remember to tell you that the muddy kids got to get up on stage with Michael Franti and dance and sing in front of thousands of people. Yep, they sure did. And nope, I don't have a single picture of it.

Oh, and you can also see a few photos of our Ella singing at ACL with the Barton Hills/Palm School choir here.