Springin' and Califormia dreamin'

It's springtime here in Texas. It's the wonderful time of year before it gets too hot! Actually, winter has been so mild here that most of 2017 has felt like spring this year. Super nice for now, but it's a little foreboding when I think of what the summer MIGHT be like if the winter was so un-cold?! But for now, we are enjoying the sights of spring (and have been for almost two months now). Here's spring around these parts....

It makes me think of the lyrics from "Spring, spring, spring" from one of our favorite musicals "Seven brides for Seven Brothers"

Oh, the barnyard is busy in a regular tizzy,

And the obvious reason is because of the season

Ma Nature's lyrical, with her yearly miracle

Spring, Spring, Spring.

Every field wears a bonnet

With some spring daisies on it,

Even birds of a feather show their clothes off together.

Sun's gettin' shinery, to spotlight the finery,

Spring, Spring, Spring.

 Spring means baby lambs on the farm that we pass every day leaving our home! My favorite time of year for that farm for sure! What's cuter than lambs??!! One pasture has sheep with black faces that have black lambs and another has sheep with white faces and have white lambs. We passed this mama/baby set on our way to CC a couple of weeks ago and HAD to stop and take a picture. These lambs were probably just a couple of days old at this point. By now, they have longer legs but still cute bodies. It's so much fun to watch them grow up (and not have to be the ones responsible for their care!)

 I know just how this mama feels, nursing twins! :-) At least I could sit down while nursing!!

 And it was a stellar year for bluebonnets!! They actually bloomed a few weeks early, I think because of the rain and mild weather. They were gorgeous!

 After the bluebonnets and those yellow wildflowers (whatever they are called.."bluebonnet 'also rans'"), there is a wave of lovely pink and white wild flowers that take their turn, and then a wave of firewheel wild flowers. Those are blooming now. I just love how there is wave after wave of wildflowers each year before the spring when the yard just produces grass (on a good year) and weeds (every year)!!

Spring also means Natural Products Expo West that Michael attends every year. A couple of years I've been able to go with him, and every year I wish I could. March is one of my FAVORITE times to visit California! (April-February are my other favorite times!😉). This year we were ALL able to go. This is actually one of the (FEW) upsides to being a household of four: it's cheaper to travel!

We got to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, because it was the cheapest hotel in Anaheim (which is where the convention was). That was so much fun for the boys (and me too as I sat in my hotel room and finished two (non-CC related!!) books in two days! J&J also met up with some friends who got them into Disneyland or free (gotta love those kinds of friends!) and they had a blast not just hanging out with their friends, but doing it at Disney and the Great Wolf Lodge. Of course, while they were at Disney, I was shopping and lunching with Gin! WIN-WIN!💓

Besides the fun, friends, shopping and visiting, another great thing about California is that it's relatively easy to eat healthily there. I took my blender and made smoothies each day at the hotel. But even outside of the hotel, there's just fun and funky places to eat. Like this Vegan pizza joint right around the corner from the hotel.

 Yep, it was all vegan and the crust was gluten free. AND it was really good!! Even the boys liked it! There was a weird video playing in the pizza place that was like a "don't smoke, don't do drugs, don't eat meat" type of propaganda film. But that added to the "California-ness" of the place. (Except for now, they would probably take out the "don't do drugs" part if Cannabis is part of the equation. 😉)

And OF COURSE, the MAIN reason to love CA is Tony and Gin-Gin. We had the chance to spend several days there (and Jeffrey even stayed on a couple of extra days before heading up to spend some time with Jeremy in Portland).  On our first day there, Jeffrey and Josiah, of course, wanted to head to the beach. I mean, come on! It's CA! You go to the beach, it's what you do. So, they headed upstairs to put on their swim suits and came back down with a dispute happening. Jeffrey was more than a little miffed that Josiah had brought a swim suit that was identical to Jeffrey's. (Here's the backstory on that...Jeffrey ordered a suit online...neon blue-no shocker there!...that he really was excited about because it was the brand he loved but was on clearance. Problem was that when he got it in the mail, it didn't fit. So, he passed that one on to Josiah and bought a bigger size. But there wasn't another color on clearance, so we had two suits in bright blue. Jeffrey didn't know that Josiah had brought THAT particular bathing suit with him to CA. He was irritated that they were going to look "twinsie" while heading to the beach.)

But the Pacific was going to take care of that concern for him. Not long after Michael took them down to the beach, Jeffrey called and asked to be picked up with an added "and hey, I got some tar on my suit, so could you bring a trash bag or something to sit on". Turn out, he doesn't know how or where, but he got a GIGANTIC glob of tar on his bathing suit. And it a place you really don't want tar! A place where it looks like there was "an accident of embarrassing proportions". So when he got home, Michael and I went to work. We pulled out the dawn dish soap (saves baby seals and ducks from oil spills, right?!) and Gin even got some Avon Skin So Soft (Hello 1990s!!) and we scrubbed...

And rinsed and scrubbed some more...most of the tar came out. But there was really no salvaging the suit. That's the thing with a bright blue suit...even gray smudges unfortunately placed render it unwearable. 

Side note (see me wearing a blue jean jacket in March?! Because in CA, it's still nice and cool in March! 💓💓💓)

So, the next day, the boys and I went shopping and got Jeffrey an inexpensive suit that he called a "dad" suit. I told him I didn't care. He didn't have to love it; it just has to get him through and it just cost $7! I thought he was fine with that. He told me he was. But then, lo and behold, the next day after Disneyland with his peeps, I find out that they've all headed to the Nike outlet and he's purchased ANOTHER bathing suit. Of course, more stylish; of course, a funky color; of course, much more expensive. Of course....

The boys didn't just play. They also did jobs around Tony and Gin's house that were needed. They cleaned the glass on their dining room table, scrubbed pencil marks on the ceiling, power washed the garage doors, fixed decor in the kitchen and hung up art work that we got for Tony and Gin for Christmas.

Once again, spring and California have not disappointed! I'm grateful for all the things that have happened (and are continuing to happen!) this spring!