Spring Break Chapter Two: Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park

We were so excited for our Yosemite followup spring break trip to Southern California to stay with our dear friends Marie and Rick in Orange County. Then Clay's big project at work started to implode. He would be staying in town and working 15 hour days all week. This left me with a dilemma. Either stay home, or go by myself with the kids. Weather check.

Local: rainy, cold and crappy
So. Cal: rainy, a bit warmer.

Will it be worth the solo drive to end up housebound driving Marie and her family crazy? I am definitely not going to be taking the kids to the amusement park without Clay. What will we do?

Incoming call from Marie. A bit sheepish. Um, well, a friend of mine called and she has a timeshare in Palm Springs area that she won't be using and I would love to go. Would you be OK if we went there instead of you coming to Orange County?

Weather check.

Palm Springs: 80's and sunny.

Mind you she is calling while I am sitting at the campfire after the 20 degree night camping in Yosemite. 80 degrees sounds mighty fine. Hallelujah. Um, yeah. We will be going to the desert.

The 7+ hour drive actually wasn't that bad. We listened to The Witches by Roald Dahl on CD. What a fun book. We ate lots of treats. We almost ran out of gas (the entire town where we stopped for gas was out of power and the next town wasn't for 40 miles). Prayers were answered. Kids were great. I wasn't dangerously tired like I usually am. I thank the 40 mile an hour winds that were sweeping and swaying the van as we drove down I-5. It was white knuckle for at least 100 miles.

Then we got there and headed to the pool. It was 87 degrees and perfect. What a payoff for the drive. Perfect weather and great friends. And a new baby to meet, too.

More on all that when I get the photos done.

Confession: My kids are Junior Ranger junkies. They have a thing for that coveted badge. This was Kiera's first time and she did great. Drawing rocks and flowers and marking off in tic tac toe style all the desert plants and animals she saw. And then she got to take the pledge and become a Junior Ranger. Maren told me she hates it now when they have to do the pledge and everyone in the visitor center stares at them. She must be 9.

Joshua Tree was amazing. There is just something about the desert that captivates me. So intriguing. Stark and poignant.

Mishap at 2:19

Wednesday schedule:

7:30 a.m. Big girls off to school an hour early for Breakfast Book Club
9:00 a.m. Drop off Kiera for Preschool
9:15 a.m. Target for a few boxes of cereal and a bathing suit for good measure.
10:00 a.m. 24Lift class at Gym
11:00 a.m. Leave gym. Run two errands to return yet more stuff that didn't fit my skinny kids. Feeling a bit hungry.
12:15 p.m. Pick up Kiera and her darling friend for carpool to Ballet.
12:30 p.m.Sit outside ballet and read email and chat with Lisa. REALLY ready for some lunch
1:45 p.m. Drive from ballet to the elementary school to pick up the big girls.
2:10 p.m. Arrive home to do a quick snack for the kids before leaving at 2:20 for piano lessons. Finally time for me to get some lunch in the 7.5 minutes we are home.
2:16 p.m. Find leftover homeade roasted tomato soup in the fridge. MMMMMmmmm. So good.
2:17 p.m. Should I really reheat the soup in this plastic container? I never really do, you know with all that talk about plastics, cancer and BPA, but considering usual stoneware reheating option won't have a lid, and I know I don't have time to eat before leaving again, which will leave me eating in the car, I make an exception given the time constraint and pop the plastic container right into the microwave for reaheating purposes.
2:19 p.m. One minute in the micro will do nicely. Perfect timing. Pop that lid back on tight to avoid any car spills. Grab spoon. Recall that I refilled my Nalgene BPA free water bottle upon leaving the gym, so my drink need should be all taken care of for my in the car lunch on arrival at piano.
2:20 p.m. Load 'em up. Girls are ready. Piano books gathered. Nintendo DS charged and ready. I am cruising down the hall with my cute little portable lunch that I am so looking forward to, when suddenly I hear a loud pop. Tomato soup tsunami. I wonder what the splatter pattern would tell the lovely folks down at the CSI.
2:21 p.m. I already needed a post-gym shower, but now I need a little something more.





I did, naturally, have the presence of mind to have Maren grab the camera before I did a quick strip-n-change. Shower will have to come later. Even if my hair is filled with little drops of rich, creamy delight.

I was cracking up when the girls came running after hearing the shot. I think they were just glad they hadn't caused the enormous mess. They would not be responsible for wiping the walls (all the way to the ceiling), scrubbing the carpet in a 2 foot by 4 foot area, or starting the laundry smelling all savory. Not this time. This time mommy made the big mess.

Lesson learned: don't ever reheat your food in that plastic container. The FutureCancerWarningFairies sure let me know that was the wrong choice.

Spring Break Chapter One: Yosemite National Park

Let me preface this by saying I don't really enjoy driving. I don't mind a roadtrip as much when my darling husband is behind the wheel, but no such luck this time.

This Spring Break our Sienna went 1620 miles. Yikes.



First stop was one of our favorite places to go with the whole family. We were beyond excited that our Homebody friends were willing to join us AND drag out their 2 1/2 month old baby on the trip. We missed all the other families who ditched us for lame-o Mexico.


Biking is the only way to see the park, in my opinion. I love the perspective it gives.

We did survive 20 degree lows in the tent and some puking (red vines were dessert earlier in the night) in the tent, but overall, what a grand trip.

Happy Easter

This is a long one, but worth it I hope. We made this to show today in church for the children. We managed to get almost all of them in it. I really hope they can feel the spirit testifying of Christ, his life and his mission. He Lives!

Arty Party

Aren't my little ArtyParty students clever? Another session done. We had some much fun.



Anyone want to join in for the next session? It starts on April 23rd and runs for 6 weeks on Thursday afternoons.

Quiet Weekend

We finally had a quiet weekend. It has been so long. It will probably be a long time until we have another, so we really enjoyed it.

We planted the garden. The number of tomato plants is directly proportional to how long I have been gardening. At least 80% of the garden is tomato plants this year.



I cannot get enough of warm tomatos plucked straight from the garden, so I just grow less of everything else.



We had a couple of birthday parties to attend, but while one child was at her's in the late afternoon, we sat at the park and the other kids did some sweet hill rolling, in the shadow of Mt. Diablo.



I imagine it is so quintessentially childlike because as we get older it just really hurts. It made me homesick for Shelby Farms and our dear hill-rollin' friends the Rehrer's (Congrats on the new baby!)









Bring on spring. I have been loving having all my door and windows open during the day. Here's to a few more weekends when we can enjoy the moment.

Professor Neve is Seven

I cannot believe Neve is seven. Crazy.



In honor of our second born's seventh birthday we threw her a big science bash over the weekend. We had so much fun mixing our chemicals and making goop and blowing things up. The kids were thrilled by the big pepsi/mentos finale.



Neve has really grown up this year. She is really turning into a young lady. She is still such a bookworm. Her report card we got last week was absolutely stellar. She is the most sensitive creature. She is always thinking about the feelings of others. She is an amazing artist and an increadible girl. Happy birthday, Neve the Red!

Missing: One fat cat

Our darling cat Halo is missing. He disappeared when we were out of town over the Christmas holiday. We have looked and looked. In the neighborhood, in the shelters, and the traffic reports. No Halo. We are so sad. We kind of let him fade into the past, until last week when Kiera spent 10 minutes or so arranging the magnets on the side of the fridge.



Our fat boy Halo may have used up all of his nine lives. We are still hoping some nice family thought all 20 pound of him was a stray and took him in. Sherman (our other cat) is sad. He was already a little mentally unstable, but this put him over the edge. Poor guy.




Anyone seen this sweet boy?

Sierra Summit Round Two

Life is more exciting when you are young. When my kids learn something new or do something for the first time, it makes MY life that much more exciting. I was a little worried about the day after our experience with our first ski day. With perfect weather, how could our day not be perfect. There was a little nervousness by the big girls about day two, but once they got back up on those skiis (and a little threatening to one young lady and her upcoming birthday party), all was well.



Kiera loved it. She kept telling us she didn't wan't to do pizza's (snowplow). She wanted to do french fries so she could go fast. Her and her cousin were the cutest little three year olds on the slopes.



Things were busy at the bottom of the hill, so Papa went went up with the big girls on their first chair lift. All the sweet video from that is courtesy superskiPapa. What an awesome grandpa to ski with his grandkids when he would rather be skiing 92 mph (is that the right speed record, Dad?) with his ski buddy Joel. Thanks, Dad!

All in all an awesome day.

Diablo Gymastics

Do you remember the last parent participation class I attended with Kiera? Let's just say, this one went much better.

Kiera loves this gymnastics class. Circus theme are so exciting. THIS is my girl. No more performance denial.