Yes, we're a little crazy about tomatoes

Today was the first day of the Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Cal-State Fullerton Arboretum. As I said a couple weeks ago, this is an important time of year for us, and we made it to the event at about 10:30.

But that wasn't the beginning of our day.

First, we were out the door at 7:15 for Natalie's 8 am therapy. Konrad and Lukas and I shopped at Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's before her therapy ended at 9:30. Then we went home to meet Cammie, who watched Natalie while the boys and I went to the Arboretum.

The event "started" at 10 am, but I know from past experience that they open as soon as people are there, so they probably opened right after 9 am. There were several hundred people there by the time we got there. As I was loading the kids in the stroller, a lady asked if I'd purchased my parking pass. I said I was just going to, and she gave me hers (she was leaving and it was an all-day pass). I could tell already that this was going to be a great day! Tomato lovers even look out for each other in the parking lot!

As we entered the Potting Shed, there was a little old wagon that someone had just finished with, so I gave it to Lukas to pull for me while I pushed the stroller. The place was quite crowded, but he did great maneuvering the wagon around, and I found the five tomato plants I had selected (from the more than 200 varieties they have!) Whoo hoo! I didn't have to go to my second choices. Lukas was SO helpful in pulling the tomatoes in the wagon!

But then there was the line! It was circling around and back, around and over...we made it to the end of the line, continuously pointing people to the end of the line when a break occurred. But everyone was quite congenial.

We stood in line to pay for 25 minutes in the hot sun for our 5 tomatoes and 2 pepper plants. Konrad slept through it because I had him shaded in the stroller (it was comfortable in the shade, but hot in the sun), and Lukas stood in my shadow to stay cool, and was VERY well behaved to wait patiently for so long. Everyone there was kind and considerate, so it was a great event. And when I loaded the kids and the plants in the car, I passed on the parking pass to someone else (it turned out to be a student, who was quite thankful).

You still have three more days to experience this phenomenal sale...just go to see the tomato lovers of the area!

Yes, we take our tomato growing seriously here at The Happy Ones!