A catch-up by points:

* Mr. W’s birthday present last Thursday was tickets to the Pageant of the Masters at Laguna Beach. He’d never gone, had wanted to for years, and was very excited. We had dinner first at 230 Forest Avenue Restaurant & Martini Bar, I had great Chilean seabass and he had a giant cioppino, and then we walked through the art exhibits before entering for the 8:30pm show. No photography was allowed as with most art shows and exhibits, but Mr. W insisted on bringing his camera, sneaking it into the theatre, and embarrassing me by taking photos while ignoring all my protests. I kept picturing his flash accidentally going off and our having to be escorted out and having his memory card confiscated. I tried reasoning with him saying that his photos in the dark aren’t going to be better than whatever he will find online at the Pageant’s website; I tried coaxing him to stop taking photos; finally I got mad and demanded he put his camera away. He finally grouchily obliged. I’m gonna have to remember that he likes to break the rules, and take precautions next time, such as hiding his camera.

* Mr. W’s son was at our house when we returned from the Pageant on Thursday. The next morning, which I was able to get off work, the three of us went to pick up Mr. W’s daughter, and the four of us drove to Vegas for Mr. W’s family reunion. The four of us also stayed in a large hotel room, Son taking a pull-out sofabed while Daughter chose to take the sleeping bag over the floor cushions. I had a great time bonding with the kids.
* We had a few family gatherings throughout the weekend; Friday evening the four of us went with my parents-in-law to Rocker Bro’s house, where Chicago Bro and his wife, two kids, and Rocker Bro’s daughter visiting Vegas for the summer were in or around the pool. I finally met Mr. W’s Chicago-based family for the first time. First impressions when I saw them: Chicago bro looks remarkably like Mr. W especially in profile; Chicago wife is prettier than I’d expected — something about her features reminds me of Amanda Peet; they have two attractive boys, the older (13?) looks like and has Neil Patrick Harris expressions which kept throwing me, and the younger (11?) is less rambunctious than the older and has a charming shy smile.
* The next day, Saturday, was family paintball day. I was impressed that all the kids, even Daughter, “suited up” to play. I never lost a game except for the first one, which Son and I agreed was an unfair win for the other side, as Mr. W broke the rules and charged onto our side to shoot Daughter point-blank. It was unsettling to know we had a safe-zone on our side, and then to hear Daughter saying, “Dad! What’re YOU doing here?!” *POP!* While I ran up to argue with the ref that Mr. W was off-zone, I was shot out by Chicago Brother. Daughter refused to play another game after that. Mr. W now agrees in retrospect that he should’ve let her shoot him, instead of destroying her shaky paintball confidence like that.
* After paintball we all had an early dinner at Aurelio’s, the Chicago pizza joint that Mr. W HAS to eat at every time he’s in Vegas, then the whole family regathered at Rocker Bro’s adult daughter Jessica’s new house and played in the pool. It was like Parade of the Paintball Welts. Gamer Bro looked like a red-spotted leopard.
* The day after that, Sunday, was family photos day. Mr. W and his Gamer Bro came up with the idea of going to a playground with monkey bars and jungle gyms for endless photo posing opportunities. It was a brilliant call. You guys know me and how much I love goofy photos. I didn’t get as goofy as I would’ve wanted, but others got sillier than they’re used to being, so it came out a wash. Mr. W’s parents, for example, climbed up a spiral pole thing and posed half-hanging from it. I wanted the four brothers to climb on some netting and equipment reminiscent of when they were kids together, and they did that, Mr. W hanging UPSIDE-DOWN from his knees. Kids were on monkey bars, slides, rocker horses. This made the smiles very natural and announced to the viewer, “We’re a FUN family!” Plus it kept complaints of “I’m bored, how long is this gonna take?” down.

* Monday, we had our usual departing breakfast at Silverton Casino Lodge, Rocker Bro and his younger visiting daughter joined us, and the four of us left to return to California, musing about how cooperative the Vegas weather had been. Despite expectations of 110+ temperatures during paintball and photos, the skies were always overcast when we needed it to be, which made for cooler running around outdoors and no sun-cast shadows on faces during photos.
* We’d convinced Chicago Bro’s family to drive to California to visit us since they were on the Westside, so Mr. W’s parents drove Chicago Family plus Rocker Bro’s younger visiting daughter down to us on Wednesday. I called a favor and got half-price Knott’s Berry Farm tickets for them and they played at Knott’s all day Wednesday. They came by the house Wednesday night and since Mr. W is still off-work, he brought them all to the Lake yesterday to kayak, boat, swim, play on the beach. After I got home, we all went to an Italian place off the Lake for dinner, then after getting back to our house last nite, I stayed up and had an hours-long bonding session with my newly-met sister-in-law, a continuing-school teacher of high school students. Today, they leave for Vegas and will likely be gone by the time I get home from work, and soon the Chicago Family will be returning to the Windy City.

I’ve figured out that I wait to blog until I have photos ready to illustrate my stories, which may or may not ever happen. So here’s the blog first and photos may be to come. Unfortunately we have no paintball photos because Mr. W made us leave all our stuff in the car, so that means no cameraphone, and Daughter’s camera was left behind. We do have family photos from the playground, tho.