Spring insanity is finally over

I don’t know about other families, but April and May get so incredibly busy for us, and it seemed to be doubly so this year. We didn’t plan to go anywhere for the boys’ spring break, but with a birthday party and a family wedding thrown into the usual mix of all the movies and outings I plan for us every couple of weeks — this spring felt like a neverending frenzy of exhausting weekends.

March technically kicks off spring, right? We started it off with a lunch date with Trinity’s sister and nieces, one of whom is getting married this fall, so it was also a chance to hang with her fiance a bit.

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We saw three movies that month — all for free, courtesy of my lot’s administrative building theater — and also ventured out to the IE for a get-to-know-you barbecue with the family of my brother’s fiancee. Going out to the IE is always exhausting — it typically takes us two hours just to get out there, and this was no exception.

April brought Elliott’s birthday party and my brother’s wedding. Elliott turned 5, and we spent at least one Saturday prior in downtown LA, hunting down stuff for his giveaway grab bags — we did stationary packs, bracelets and cups, all emblazoned with Spider-Man — before his big to-do at Chuck E. Cheese.

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As for my brother’s wedding, it wasn’t even a big affair in the vein of some of the weddings we’ve decorated in the past, but man, it took some effort from us, because we had to make sure the boys were dressed appropriately, and I was tasked with taking photos.

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I took two days off prior to my brother’s wedding, since I knew it was going to be a busy weekend, what with a wedding and Easter Sunday the very next day. So did I keep us all home and relax? No, I dragged us out to the poppy fields.

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I had never been! And I really enjoyed it, even as exhausted as we all were when we got home. I had thoughts about trying to go out to Santa Clarita the next day to see more wildflowers, but we were too tired. We stayed home and vegged.

May is when the frenzy peaked. First, there was Mother’s Day — I had some ideas about trying to get my family out to the beach or the skating rink, but we only managed to get dim sum. Which was a feat in and of itself, thanks to traffic, and the huge line at NBC Seafood.

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The very next weekend was the Strawberry Festival, which we’ve only missed once in six years I think. It was the first time it was so cold — and right about when we were getting ready to leave, it started raining!

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The next Saturday was just a tad more relaxed — we watched Detective Pikachu and had dinner with my brother and his new wife at Universal Citywalk. The following week, however, was a hurricane of activity — getting ready for a couple of nights away from home, driving down to San Diego, stopping at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, and visiting Sea World.

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There’s more pictures, from both the mission and Sea World obviously, but the ones I posted on Instagram are basically the best and most representative of both outings. And, honestly, I’m still trying to recover from my “week off” — because we still went to see John Wick 3 while the boys were at school, saw Avengers: Endgame again at a work screening, and are trying to restock and resupply for getting back to work.

I’m looking forward to a more relaxed summer. Ha!