More Disneyland

Driving for Change

This is from a few months back. We were in our rent-a-car on ship heading back to Mass from the Vineyard. Both the kids love to wrangle their way our of the car seat (once it's been unbuckled) and jump into the front. Noah likes to push all the buttons, which can be tricky the next time you start the car. Isaiah, on the other hand, likes to drive - boys!!! He also has started pushing his hot wheels around the house and making car sounds with them. He loves balls, animals, food, cars, books and his mommy. He calls me mama and calls Broderick Daddy. He has eight teeth and the cutest, fat, square, Flinstone feet ever. Noah's feet are long ad skinny and she has big Broderick toes that she always asks me if I want to eat. She also thinks it's very funny to tell me that I have toe jam in my hair. On our way back from preschool she immediately takes off her shoes and tries to tease me with her toes. She also likes to roll down the window and pretended she's going to stick her feet out the window and perhaps a bird, a monster or a tiger will eat her toes. After she tires of that she tells me about the toe jam in my hair. Today she hummed at her highest pitch and loudest voice, the Little Mermaid song. We then pretended that daddy was King Trinton.

Dang, my windows were just shacking - I think a helicopter just landed on my roof. Or maybe it's ET.

Groceries and chil-ren

I wish I could say that I take the kids to the grocery store every time, but I'm just not that stable or that talented. I usually go on Monday mornings and take Isaiah while Noah has her Spanish lesson. Sometimes though I get into something and miss my awake window with Isaiah and leave them both with Delmy. I enjoy going with the kids - it takes four times as long, and I usually have to do some yelling, and on bad days a little pinch to get Noah to sit down, but I get to talk to them and I see them take in the other people and all the colorful items in the store. Noah ALWAYS wants to sit in the front and it's ALWAYS an issue, but sometimes she gets her turn and Isaiah sits on and eventually cracks all the chips. One time when Noah was in the back of the basket I noticed she had eaten the whole pint of blueberries.

Sleepy Smurfs

This is a perfect example, everybody gets to nap except me, These pictures were taken while we were on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. It was our second year joining the Simmons and Thompsons. I love seeing the kids together. There are so many little kids, it warms the heart, to see them enjoy and like each other. Noah fell in love with Gigi, Rhonda's daughter who is five and all the pre-teen girls fell in love with Isaiah. I didn't have to worry about him falling off the porch or playing in the toilet because he had a harem of babysitters. There was one incident that showed how the week went - I needed to feed Isaiah lunch and the girls, all five of them, asked if they could do it. They organized themselves and each got a spoon and gave him one bite. Then a few days later they did the same thing but decided to start with the person who went last, last time. We loved being in the Vineyard so much that we've decided to rent a bigger house (so we can take a few real sitters) and go for two weeks. I'm glad to be leaving the blue house, as I still believe it's haunted, even in a good way. Next year the kids will be really easy at the Inkwell. Isaiah will be two and Noah will be four. They're playing together right now. They think it's so fun and funny to crawl and tumble on the futon in my office. I had to hide the chalk because Isaiah puts it in his mouth and looks like he swamp thing with green drool or demonic with red slobber. I don't understand why he likes the taste of chalk!

The bubbies this summer

Dang, I guess we're well into Fall.

Disneyland

Lake Arrowhead, land of the Yes on 8

This past weekend Team Johnson headed up into the San Bernadino mountains and made our first visit to Lake Arrowhead. I had no idea a place like this existed so close to Los Angeles. It took us about 2 and a half hours to make it out of LA traffic and up the mountain. The road we took up the mountain is actually build on the side of the mountain and winds up the road like a thin ribbon wrapped around a massive wedding cake. Even through the smog, fog, haze and marine layer you could see what looked like eternity or at least a lot of southern Cali. The trek up the mountain on Rim of the World drive reminded me of Cathy, Heidi and I's dangerous pilgrimage into, up and down and all the way around the mountains of New Zealand. Truth be told, I got sick on the way home. But it was a great weekend. We had won a weekend in a cabin at a silent auction, one of our favorite things...not cabins, but silent auctions. My dad and Doreen met us and stayed in the loft and Jonathan and Jenn drove up too and stayed on the pull out in the living room. There was an old fireplace and an antique lock that Jonathan teaed dad was the same brand as the one him and McCain cracked in WW II. The shower was more like a power hose in a creepy closet, but the air smelled like pine and there were gray squirrels everywhere...not in the shower but outside. I saw a few Blue Jays and one tiny chipmunk. We spent most of our time in the village where we saw a lot of McCain bumper stickers and overheard a lot of stuff that would get your told off in LA - some racist stuff, some redneck stuff and some gays are going to hell stuff. But the lake was beautiful and the ducks made the kids smile. We ate at the same two restaurants both days. The waffle house for breakfast (the 2nd day we were swarmed by bees) and Woody's Land of overpriced cafeteria food. We walked around the shops, Noah got her ears pierced and we drank specially brewed ice teas. Noah and Isaiah shared a decaff blueberry Roobios. Isaiah drank most of it. The second day a baby bear was in a big cage with a woman who looked like she was going to be malled at any minute. The bear kept biting her arms and she pretended not to notice the blood trickling down the finger tips. I went for a hike with Jenn and Jon around Gregory Lake and was informed by Jonathan that the leaves turn colors because the sap pulls back into the tree - thank God for Blackberries.