Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Cactus Lighting!

So...this post never got published.  I'm 95% sure that I scheduled it, but now, a month later - it's just now being done manually.  Thanks, blogger.

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Last Tuesday was the annual cactus lighting at the Ethel M's Chocolate Factory cactus gardens...so naturally, we went to check it out ;-)

We arrived as George Wallace was about to introduce a man named Michael Grim on to the stage.  I remembered him from America's Got Talent...last year, maybe?  Not sure - but I do remember thinking that he was pretty great.  We could hear him...but unfortunately couldn't see a thing beyond the really tall, very rude man that pushed his way in front of us.  Whatever.  Jordan put Ez on his shoulders so that he could see the lights and people up on stage, so at least he was happy :)

Once the official lighting of the cacti was done, we all poured into the gardens to check out the sights.  We've never been here before, and frankly, it looks a whole lot like the cactus gardens (next to the rose gardens) in Balboa Park.  But they had a bunch of inflatable characters and animals all around, so Ezra had some fun.


Here he is at my first attempt at taking his picture, solo.  Clearly, he was not in the mood.

The driving force behind this one was that Ez was completely obsessed with the penguins.  There were a few different inflatable penguins throughout and he simply fell in love...

Here is our Little Man next to a dwarf Joshua Tree.  Hopefully, we'll be camping in Joshua Tree sometime in the next few months...

Ez!  Go stand next to a bunch of rocks!

It's entirely possible that he was breaking into an impromptu Macarena. 

Me and my Mini.  I love him so.

A little boy (maybe around 6 years old?) who was walking behind us, came up to Ez and gave him his balloon butterfly.  This is what was left after it spontaneously burst a few of it's "parts."

After a couple hours out in the wind and crowds, a kid likes to relax with a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, some Mickey pajamas and some frozen blueberries...okay?

And this one was from a couple days before the cactus lighting.  He seriously just sneaks up on me with these inflatable things on his hands...and it's quite startling ;-)