SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

"let me know if you want to go to sea world or the zoo or anything," my dad said, "i can get discount tickets, save you some money"

"i'm gonna save even more money by not going at all," i said, "but thank you"

-because, sometimes..

sometimes a day at the beach is all you want or need.

THANK YOU here to our cousins/family in yorba linda for all their awesome company and hospitality

excellent to share the experience of pageant of the masters together. it is THE ONLY WAY to share the experience by the way..

you can't share it through words or pictures. you must be in the audience to understand.

in the outside ampitheatre, under the stars on a beautiful night.

surrounded by gorgeous mountains, or should i say, ~the laguna hills~ on all sides.

full live orchestra setting the mood, while skip conover's voice provides all the intriguing,

entertaining, educational narration for each piece of "living" art.

it was the 75th anniversary for pageant of the masters this year, with

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE as the celebratory theme.

last time i attended my son could fit in the sink at the hotel for his baths, and my daugthter was pretty little too. i sat in the bleacher seats with one child on each knee.. and i knew they were too young to understand.. too young to make it through the entire show.. but even to see some of the show..

even if we last only 15 minutes, i told myself, it will be worth it. i wanted to see it again, and I wanted to be the one to introduce my children to this magic; to this "most creative thing i've ever seen!" i wanted to watch them watch it.

and it will always stand out in my otherwise poor memory, how they each sat so still. my daughter on my write knee, my son on my left. they had been so restless and wiggly in the car on the drive over.. snipping at one another like siblings trapped on long road trips do..

but there, at the pageant of the masters, outside under the stars, people all around and the curtain opening to reveal such breathtaking art.. paintings, sculptures that

"LOOK! THEY MOVE! THAT'S REAL PEOPLE PAINTED.. NOT A PAINTING!"

well, they were as mesmerized as i was.

"do your children always behave so well," someone asked me. "yes" i lied with a big smile.

and the other thing that will always stand out in my otherwise poor memory, is just how poor my memory was about pageant of the masters..

because in my mind, the way i remembered it and described it to my toddler children was that ALL THE PEOPLE MOVE.. all the time. "it looks like a 2 dimensional painting...

like this one... (point to painting on the hotel wall).. only BIGGER. much bigger! they recreate a painting on the stage

but then.. just when you think you're looking at a great big masterpiece.. a 2 dimensional painting ~just like this one~ like this one (pointing again to painting on the wall in hotel room)

IT'S NOT! a person in the painting just pops out and walks off the stage! a real person!

it's the greatest magic show on earth!" i promised them. "imagine write now," i said (pointing to a person in the painting on the hotel wall)

imagine if that person just all of the sudden popped out of this painting and sat down with us...

that's what i'm taking you to see" i told them.

but the reality.. the reality was that even though every giant recreated masterpiece of art from around the world was in fact, "living" art, with one or more of the people in the art piece alive and breathing but posed and painted and camauflaged to appear as if they were the 2 dimensional painting

the reality was that only in a select few (out of very many) did the painted person actually move and reveal the secret magic to the audience.

and the embarrassing thing to me now is this... i remember learning that lesson when i brought my children as toddlers.."oh! it's just in a few that they move.. oh! they show you the how-we-do-this only once.."

but i forgot AGAIN. because that's what stands out.. how suddenly.. a still masterpiece

-awe inspiring enough in its masterful recreation -

suddenly comes to life with the shift of an elbow, or the blink of an eye, or a deep breath, or an actual walking write out of the painting and off the stage!

unbelievable. it remains the most creative thing i've ever seen!

anyway.. as well behaved toddlers, my children made it all the way to intermission that year, and i was so overjoyed they lasted that long, it did not break my heart at all (not very much) to leave before the last supper.

because that's always the close of the show -for 75 years now- leonardo da vinci's, the last supper.

and this year.. this spectacular year.. they nearly made the whole show. it does run pretty late.. starting at 8:30, which is our normal bedtime, and running to after 10:30pm. i saw eye lids getting heavy and heads falling forward after the first hour. and my cousins, who joined us, and have two little ones themselves.. their laps were filled and shoulders pillows after the first act too, but we all agreed to stay for act two.

and my favorite this year was in act two: the lost shoe, 1945, stevan dohanos

(all rights reserved: http://www.curtispublishing.com/)

it's just so magical and wonderful in every way. i want the whole wide world to see it.

and after that great visit, and great time in yorba linda, we headed to san diego to visit great- grandma. get her the heck out of that hospital room and outdoors where there's some fresh air and sunshine. we picnicked together out by the rose gardens, chit-chatted and shared stories for a while; stories, hugs and kisses

and we made a new friend out of her hospital roommate too. they both lucked out that way.

-two patients to a room.. so personality and compatibilty really matter. she was reading saul bellow, collected stories.. gave me such testimony i have it on order from towne center books..

then met with more family/friends in pb (that's pacific beach for tourists); hung out at the beach.. i read, journaled, took pictures from the best seat at the beach; my portable backpack chair

and watched my children for hours on the swing, in the sand

remembering my own youth in little random bits and pieces.

synchronized swinging with my brother.. locking legs.. getting tangled, dizzy.. flying high, letting loose

letting go

and landing.

"again?" "again!"

and again.