Spring....Break : A Photographic Tour (Part 2)

Don't worry...there's nothing wrong with your monitor.











There is a very good reason why these photos seem to all have that pixelated, digital-still look to them. All of these fabulous sculptures were constructed from Legos.

Can you guess where these photos were taken?

If you guessed Legoland near good old "Sandy Eggo", California, you're right.

The boys couldn't have been more excited at their surprise. "Weow at Way-go-wan-d?" Judah shrieked in excitement when we woke him to tell them where we were.

I couldn't have agreed more. The artist in me is drawn to all the possibilities of things that can be constructed with legos, and this place does not disappoint.

Now, as the kind of parent that has dragged our kids through nearly every tourist trap we've ever passed by in their lives, this is probably my favorite amusement park of them all...even though, having been geared towards younger children, Jericho may be getting a bit long in the tooth for most of it by now.





He's not above reliving his childhood memories, however.

The thing I love best about Legoland is that navigating through this park is a breeze. It's not elbow-to-elbow like Walt's place up in Anaheim. Ever. Even at the busiest times we've been there.

Let me just say from experience that a sure way to stress out a parent and ruin a family vacation is to venture into parks with crowds so thick that you're on edge and worrying about losing your children in the crush all day long.

To my knowledge, that sort of thing doesn't happen here. It's never been our experience, anyway.

There are also plenty of benches and other places for weary parents to sit down and wait with nice ocean breezes and plenty of vegetation to provide cool shade on hot SoCal days.

Even on busy days, the lines are reasonable, and the people standing in them are generally patient, courteous and friendly.

It's also a pretty pleasant place to be due to the fact that Legoland caters to a very low-key clientele.

Nerdy Intelligent children that enjoy playing with legos for extended periods of time are about the only kids that would be caught dead in this place that beg their parents to take them to this particular park.

Which is fine by me, because there is something about watching such children put elaborate lego sculptures and robots together in some of the attractions that gives me the distinct feeling of rubbing shoulders with greatness...witnessing the future generation of engineers, scientists doctors and professors hard at work.

At least that's what I try and remind myself since my children are right in there amongst the other bona fide Legomaniacs, lol.

Of course, while there one must also take advantage of all the great rides.

Most of the rides are geared towards younger kids, so Jericho was forced into going on some that he wasn't exactly enthused about for little brother's sake.





Note the rather sarcastic, Jim Carrey-esque look on his face.

We made sure he got to go on a few of his favorites, too...especially the one with the big scary dragon at the entrance.



As you can see, Judah wasn't too thrilled about this particular ride. I believe right here his exact words were, "NOOOOOOooooooo!"

Daddy and big brother, however, LOVE it, and it goes without saying that they chose 'extreme' for their ride level. They're kinda crazy that way.

Upon getting securely clamped into your 'seat' you are lifted up



twisted and dangled upside down and sideways



flung overhead like rag dolls





and mercilessly spun around until moms taking pictures can barely stand to see anymore because they get dizzy just watching.

It more or less simulates what getting caught in an enormous dragon's mouth might feel like if it were a vicious dragon and whipped you around like dogs sometimes do with chew toys.

But then, almost before they know it, the ride gently sets them down before coming to a full and complete stop.



And Jericho begs to go again.

So while waiting for dad and brother on round two, Judah decides to finally brave speaking into the voice-changer feature at the base of the Dragon sculpture.

You yell into it and it converts what you say into a roaring dragon type voice.



It thrilled him to wield such power, though I couldn't quite capture in photos how he jumped back in fright the first time he heard his own voice roaring just above his head, lol.



One thing about this park is that it fulfills a lot of kid fantasies.

You want to know what it would feel like to be whipped around in a dragon's mouth? Check. To fall five stories? Check. To pilot your own boat, plane or helicopter? Check. To drive your own car? Check.

Speaking of which, Jericho (who long ago earned his 'driver's license' here) is an old pro at the 'driving' attraction, though this time he switched it up a bit by swerving around on the roads just to see what those cars are capable of.



Which wasn't very kind or courteous to others, as he found out when kids began yelling things like, "Hey, you're breaking the rules!"

Meanwhile, Judah went on the little tykes version of this ride next door, but didn't even make it all the way around the track.

He kept crashing into either the outer wall or the curb in the center.



He just didn't seem to 'get' how the steering wheel turned the direction of the vehicle.



The attendant finally just shadowed him, because she knew she was going to have to clear the accidents off the roadway in a moment or two anyway...and she was right.



I kid you not, he crashed SIX times.

We're so proud. (Did you detect my sarcasm here?)

I hate to think what our insurance rates are going to be when these boys start driving on real roads.

One thing that really cracks me up about amusement parks these days is that they all seem to have a 'playground' area.

These parks are filled with all manner of mechanical rides to dazzle and thrill and amuse children, and yet every time we go, our kids always BEG to hang out there.

Kind of like recess after having to stand in line, listen and follow rules all day, I suppose.

There is just something about cutting loose and running wild and crazy over bridges



and through all types of courses and getting bopped in the face by dangly foam boat bumper pads that our boys find hilariously fun.



They also love climbing up the shaky rope ladder for a couple of stories to take the super long reflective slide down to the bottom.





One of my favorite parts of SoCal amusement parks is all the beautiful or otherwise interesting vegetation. Beautiful and interesting things grow in this climate.

Like this, which looks rather like a green knee to me.



Green knees in need of a good clean shave.

Especially if you turn it upside down, lol.



And oh, the flowers! Gorgeous.



Just look at these Hostas.



There were, of course several other wonderful photo ops throughout the park as well.



On that same ride, I got a couple of other great shots



My baby. A mama duck and her baby.



While most children will go with the flow when it comes to appeasing their mom's with picture taking. Mine do not.

As for the sharks jaws, Judah clowned around.



And Jericho played dead



Then, instead of sitting nicely on the old Salt's lap, Jericho opts to give him a noogie, while Judah tugged on his beard.



Then, after a photo with his beloved Thomas



we found that it was close to closing time.

So, we hoofed it back to the car and headed for Old Town "Sandy Eggo" (as both my boys always call it) where they have some of the best Mexican food this side of the border.

While awaiting our food, we were even serenaded.



See the very obvious notes posted on their guitars? The ones suggesting tips?

Well, I didn't (until loading my camera card onto my computer later, that is).

Which is probably why the guy didn't look too happy there at the end of his song.



Oopsie. (Sorry about that, fellas. Your song was lovely, by the way.)

It was a great day, and little did the boys know that our little vacation was not yet over. In fact, it included a rare hotel stay. In a hotel with a pool.

Though how they still had energy to expend in said pool after a long day at Legoland was beyond me.

I was already turning into a pumpkin back at the hotel room just thinking of what the next day held in store for us...

Ahhhhhhh, Spring! (Part 1)

Before we could go have fun on our Spring break, we had to take care of some very important business.

Landscaping.

Oy, was that a job!

Jeff and Jericho had been working for a while in the afternoons to rid our property of some overgrown bushes and a couple of small trees that were threatening to invade the septic.

Jericho worked at chopping down the spindly massive tree in the yard, while Jeff cut back and then wrestled the Oleanders out of the earth.

And they hung on, let me tell you, clinging for all they were worth.

But, by the sweat of his brow, Jeff won.



Jericho, too. See that long stick trunk there behind the root balls? That's his tree.

This flurry of activity began to prepare the ground for a rose hedge, and to take back the lawn.

Here are some blooms from a couple of the young rosebushes which we bought to add to our collection.







Oh, the lovely fragrances of Spring!

And you simply can't go to nursery after nursery without being tempted by all the fruit and nut trees you see there, especially when they're blooming.

Naturally, we came home with a few of those as well, which will soon be added to our little orchard out back.

This is one of the two dwarf Empress peach trees.



Here is a gorgeous Red Baron peach tree. The flowers are the most incredible color (the photos don't do the actual color justice)...imagine a hot pink mixed with salmon and a bit of red. Beautiful.



While I have vague recollections of picking hazelnuts as a child in Western Washington, I don't ever recall seeing an almond tree up close.

Here are what baby almonds look like.



Aren't they cute?

They look kind of like fat little mice trying to climb down into the blossoms though, don't they, lol?

Our beloved Raisin enjoyed spending time with us in the yard.



Here she picks her way across the freshly tilled soil to get her ears scratched by me.

I know this because nearly every time she sees me, she does this...comes up to her 'mama' snuffling and doing this "Shrek" thing with her ears and acting all affectionate, all while doing her best to look adorable so that I'll scratch her ears and rub her jowly, wrinkly face and croon to her like I did when she was a puppy and she imprinted on me. (Don't let scientists try and tell you that only feathered fowl do such things...Raisin did this, too. She knows who her mama is.)

Why is it that even the dog comes to me for such things? My boys are just as bad...crawling into my lap all affectionately just to ask, "Mama, weow you squatch my back?" or coming in the room to say, "Hey, mom...could you get that itchy spot right between my chicken wings?" and turn around all expectantly.

Ahem. Anyway, getting back to my story...as far as the boys were concerned, the best part about all this yard work were the large holes which remained where trees and bushes had been.

Jericho and Judah made good use of these foxholes while Dad finished tilling the soil.











Yes, it was quite a productive couple of days.



Judah fancied himself quite the farmer after all that hard work 'helping' daddy work the land, and went and dug out his cowboy hat and spent the evening riding his horse around the farm yard.

They were having so much fun, they gave no thought to the fact that we'd mentioned a special surprise for them the following day...

Decompressing...With Crochet

Sounds kind of old-ladyish, I know, but before y'all kick me out of the clubhouse, allow me to explain.

There is something very relaxing about the art of crochet, especially when things in life have been really hectic. The very nature of crocheting causes you to sit down, take a load off and slow down for a bit.

I think it has a lot to do with the mindlessness of the task. It's like you can set your hands on autopilot while you wait for blog pages to load (here I'm still dealing with the very archaic dial-up) watch a movie or listen to the radio, keep an eye on the kids playing outside or even just sit and think, and before long you've accomplished something useful.

Which, when you spend the majority of your day doing those myriad SAHM tasks that must be done but end up being done over and over and over throughout the day without any real evidence of any progress having been made in a day (save for barely keeping on top of things), well, it's nice to see some tangible evidence for your efforts.

It's also helped me with dieting, because I can't just grab a snack like I could if I were reading a book. It's kind of hard to do such a thing when both hands are preoccupied.

Unless I were to get one of those little harmonica holders that guitar players sometimes have, but that would be hideous, would it not? To want a Snickers with Almonds Kudos bar that bad?

Whatever the reason (maybe the chaotic busy-ness of the past couple of weeks?) I’ve been crocheting with abandon…bordering on OCD.

I think this is also because my artistic M.O. seems to dictate that when I start one project I always get ideas for others.

I usually have about ten three or four projects going at once, as is the case now. Here are just a couple of them:





This time around, it happens that one of my brainchild projects was to make a protective floor mat for under our kitchen table.

I am getting weary of seeing the folded white washcloths that have been under the legs of the table since we put the laminate flooring in a couple of months ago. (I may be a frump, but even I reach a breaking point with such things sooner or later).

I've been searching for months for an area rug or mat or something to go beneath the table, but nothing has struck me as "This...this is it!"

Nothing that lines up with my budget, anyway.

It would probably help a lot if I finally made the drapery panels that are to be hung up in there, because then I could better tell if floor treatments would 'work' with my color scheme.

Lately, however, I’ve been seeing these sea grass and other natural woven mats that are bound at the edges with canvas and really liked the look.

Frugal frump that I am, I wasn’t about to pay the prices I’ve seen them for.

So while going through my entire Jane Austen BBC movie collection crocheting recently, I came up with the brilliant idea that if I were to do a tight single-stitch crochet with twine I might be able to achieve something similar for a lot cheaper.

I went to Wallys and bought a few rolls of some non-scratchy yet sturdy looking hemp twine (as for jewelry making) that happened to be a similar color to the paint on my walls and got to work.

Trouble was, after using one roll up, I realized that to make a large enough mat, I’d be looking at spending almost as much on the twine as I would for a pre-made mat.



Hemp twine is expensive!

If only I could grow my own hemp and make my own twine…

...but alas, I'm pretty sure the growing operation required for that particular plant would be frowned upon by the authorities, lol.

Not to mention seriously tarnishing our reputations and good standing in our community.

Nope, wouldn't be prudent.

It also kinda makes me question my sudden addiction to crocheting.

Hmmm, maybe I should just turn that project into a beach bag, get a bigger crochet hook, and make a big old rag rug instead.