Fly on the Wall...

If you had been a fly on the wall (or maybe, more appropriately, a fly on my shoulder because I wasn't always near a wall) during my recent trip to CA, you would have seen the following:

--Me throwing things into the car at the last moment (again) because I wasn't as organized as I thought I was (I once again ended up with a million clothes for Annie and 4 jackets for Sam and barely an outfit for Evan, sorry middle child).

--An amazing "golden moon" in the rearview mirror on our drive out to CA.

--Many photo-worthy moments at Disneyland...like Evan's face upon exiting Matterhorn ("I really really like that ride," he whispered, and then burst into tears. I think he meant "I really really didn't like that you convinced me to go on that scary ride against my better judgement and now I'm not sure I'll trust you the rest of the day."), seeing Angela from The Office in line at Small World (get the irony there? By the way, Jeremy said her husband looked like Toby and then Googled her and found out she is married to the actor's brother--the fact that he googled her made me feel better about the fact that I pointed at her and said, "That's Angela from The Office" really loud which was kind of uncool. We would have ridden on the same boat as her if we hadn't been having ice cream/communication problems), and the kids' faces as they watched the amazing fireworks show at the castle (thanks mom, for once again saving seats for me and even watching 3 grumpy kids while getting squashed by the crowd as Jeremy and I went swing dancing for old-times' sake).More pictures weren't taken because of the fact that 3 children are hard to manage at Disneyland

--Sweet reunions with old friends, especially one from Kazakhstan who now lives in the OC (I still can't get over hearing her talk about shopping at Costco and accidentally calling Hank Hannegraff "Frank Flannelgraph"--love you Masha!)

--The boys having a picnic in the front yard, waiting for the postman (postal carrier?) to bring Toy Story 2 (Netflix), and apparently, waiting for the bad guys to show up so a valiant warrior in tool pajamas could shoot them with a broken golf club.

--The fun/work of getting ready for a garage sale...

...my dad trying to be a good sport about it all
...having pouring rain on opening day (though the die-hard garage salers were waiting in the cul-de-sac at 6 am--I still think someone should make a reality show about them...especially the old ladies who pretend that an entire basket of new gloves are 25 cents because I said "most items are 25 cents" or the ladies fighting over an outdated pants suit)


...the boy who left his cookies for us to find later

...my sister and I betting on which outfit would sell first

answer=neither

...the boys fighting over a piece of a broken belt they found

...or Annie adopting a toy that looks like it belongs in the scary neighbor's room in Toy Story 1 not visible in picture=doll's rusted right eye

--Sam going to a Superheroes concert with my mom. After much debate about what his costume should be, he decided to go as a Navy pilot because my sister just got back from delivering food and supplies to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. I think that's a pretty good hero!I know what the above picture looks like. It's not supposed to, people!


--Evan being bored.
Evan playing in the gutter.
Then Grandpa making him a boat to float in the gutter.
Then Evan sticking the boat into a drain pipe.
Then me giving him a wooden spoon to try to fish it out (later he put the spoon in his mouth--oops! Yuck!).

Then grandpa making him another boat, this one with a long mast (smart Grandpa).

--A delightful stop at Burger King in Kingman in which Evan threw up (might have something to do with the gutter-spoon the day before), Sam ran outside, an old man yelling at me in the playplace because my kids woke him up from his nap, 3 stinky poops, and an older woman telling me what to do with my baby. On a scale of what is a fun experience, this experience was not on the scale.

--This reunion when we came home.

Now I just need to unpack and maybe have a garage sale with all the stuff I brought home from the garage sale.