I am sure it will surprise no one to learn that we’ve been keeping busy. So many people to see, so many things to do, so little time! And everywhere we go, as Sonja pointed out, there are hundreds of cameras taking billions of photos. We joked that we should start a Flickr group for our trip. And then Sonja went and actually did it, because she was smart enough to realize it was kind of a good idea: Bethany and Annalie take SoCal 2010.

I am tired right now (in a good way) from a late-night gabfest with Madge and her husband, and am unable to come up with coherent words to describe these photos. So I’ll just say that these are some of my favorite photos from the last week.

If you want to see more photos, my photoset goin’ back to Cali is on Flickr. And now there’s the Flickr group!

“Our flight from DCA-LAX leaves in just over 12 hours. Am I all packed? No. Am I mostly organized? Sort of. What am I doing right now, other than blogging? Oh, messy crafts with Annalie, contemplating baking cookies—the usual, in other words.”

I wrote those lines last night when I should have been busily packing and preparing for our trip which starts today. I’m actually writing this at the airport, sitting at our gate, while Annalie plays with play-dough. I did make cookies around 11pm, because when I said something about how I’d wanted to make cookies, Troy said, “You still can!” So I did.

I was planning to finish this blog post last night, too, but instead I crocheted while Troy and I watched the last two episodes of Season 1 of Veronica Mars on Netflix Instant. (Have I mentioned how much I love Netflix Instant?) So I’ll write my catch-up post this morning instead.

Troy was on leave for a week, just because he had the chance to take some time off before things get busy again this fall. The week started out auspiciously, when the goldfinches came back. We saw a goldfinch in our neighbor’s yard a week or so before, and that day we saw a dozen goldfinches! A whole charm of goldfinches. I’ve seen them several times since then, too.

Out hostas, about the only flower we have in front of our house, have been blooming like crazy. I always forget that hosta blossoms actually smell good until they’re blooming again. And they’ve been hosting a million bees and butterflies, which has been fun to observe.

Since Troy was on leave, we took that road trip to North Carolina and Virginia Beach last weekend, but other than that we just hung out at home, enjoying having Troy around for a few days. We ran errands, we went to the park, we goofed off, Troy let me sleep in whenever he could. It was really nice.

One day last week, when it was rainy and considerably cooler than it had been, we had a fire in the fireplace. Annalie has been begging all summer to for a fire, so she was thrilled.

Then we toasted marshmallows, because why not? Might as well, if you’re sitting in front of a fire anyway.

The day it rained, I also took advantage of the cooler weather to enjoy some of the tea that Lauren Hewings bought me from England. I drank my PG Tips (England’s No 1 Tea) from the mug I painted with Lauren Carter when she visited me in San Diego last January. The internet has blessed me richly with so many good friends!

We hit the Museum of Natural History one day. Annalie could go there everyday and not get bored, I think. So could I.

On Troy’s last day of leave we went back to the splash park. We had originally been planning to go miniature golfing at that same park and then cool off in the water, but the day we had planned to do that was the day it rained. The next day was sunny and warmer, but because of appointments in the morning we didn’t have time to do both.

Annalie had been really excited about what was going to be her first time miniature golfing, and she was disappointed that we couldn’t do both. But she handled it really well. She decided that since the splash park closes at the beginning of September and we wouldn’t have another chance to go there this summer, we should go do that, and we could mini-golf another time.

And we did have a lot of fun at the splash park! Annalie had a fantastic time playing in the water with her dad. Troy was properly impressed with the coolness of this particular splash park.

Annalie especially had fun ordering Troy to stand underneath the buckets, where he pretended over and over again that he didn’t know he was going to get dumped on, much to her amusement. Ditto for the mushroom shower thingy. Troy was a very good sport.

Even though none of us wanted Troy’s leave period to end, this was a good way to end it.

Now, I think I’m all caught up! Except for the pottery photos I need to share. But I’ll do that another day. Because now we’re on the plane (thank you, gogo in-flight wifi, for making my first blog post from 30,000 feet possible—the future is now!) and on our way to California.

Despite the annoying, horrible traffic on the drive down there, we had a great time in North Carolina last weekend visiting Troy’s sister and her family.

We jumped on the trampoline, we swam in the hotel pool, we relaxed and ate grapes and popsicles and cookies and pizza and Mexican food.

Some of us performed in aquatic-mammal shows. Annalie would ride Troy’s back across the pool, then tell him “If you do a good job, I’ll give you a tasty fish!” Then she’d pat his head and tell him he was a good dolphin. It was hilarious.

Poor Bretty wasn’t feeling great on Saturday, and Dana ended up taking him to urgent care for what turned out to be swimmer’s ear. I wasn’t surprised because Brett is a regular fish and would spend all day in the water if he could. Leo and Annalie had a good time in the pool, at least once everyone had assured Leo that he didn’t have to go in the deep end if he didn’t want to. They had some elaborate game going on that involved going back and forth from the pool to the hot tub, doing a countdown each time. It was fun to watch.

Basically, Annalie had a blast hanging out with her cousins.

We said good-bye on Sunday night, and on Monday morning we got back in the minivan and headed for Virginia, where we would eat the world’s best hummus, climb to the top of a lighthouse, hit the beach, and meet a god and live to tell the tale…