Joshua tree - finally

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but Chad's parents got here last Thursday and just left yesterday. So here is the Joshua tree story:

A picture of each of us and we head out for our road trip:




About an hour into our trip and not being able to figure out why Abby was fussing, we turned her around and put her in the middle so that she could see where we were going, and watch the DVD player too. It made her very happy!


Descending into Palm Desert (next to Palm Springs):

This is supposed to be paradise? Not only was it somewhat ugly, but it was 104 degrees when we got there! I guess it's nice if you're a golfer or you stay at one of the nice resorts, otherwise it was kinda blah!

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express that we got on Priceline, but even with me naming my own price, I don't think it was that good of deal for how dirty the hotel was. Owell, Jamie liked it, and Abby did good sleeping in her tent, except for that she was completely drenched each time she woke up (was it sweat or pee?, we don't know). The next morning we got on the road about 10:00 am, and it took us about an hour to get to Joshua Tree National Park.

coming up on the windmill farm...see all those white sticks?


konked out...


Big climber, little climber...






Here's a joshua tree, this is the only place in the world they grow.

Here's what the end of their branches look like...
Here's where a dam was once built here (see the concrete wall)...
See the old waterlines on the rocks? Isn't it amazing that there used to be water in this dessert and that the Indians used to feed their cattle here?

the empty waterbed...

The best part was up at the lookout point where you could look out into the valley. The body of water in the distance is Salton Sea, a salt lake 220 ft below sea level in the Colorado Desert.
Stretching the legs...
the San Andreas fault (the bumpy part):

Does it need to be so impossible to take a pic of mom and kids?

Naptime again...

Video from lookout point:


This is the transition zone between the Mojave and the Colorado Desert, the Joshua trees are very sparse now.

And now we are just out of the transition zone, where a bunch of these weird cacti grow in the Colorado desert. It was a big shock to get out of the car again, as it was about 15 degrees hotter here than it had been in the Mojave desert.


very dangerous, which is why they have fences, but of course Chad went over the fence to take the previous picture!


Here is a Ocitillo plant, which blooms in the fall rather than the spring. When we saw this plant in the badlands on Memorial Day weekend, it was completely brown, with no red buds on the ends.


Cottonwood Springs, a Fan Palm Oases, where an underground spring allows these Palm trees and other plant life to grow here in the desert.



One interesting thing that we learned, is that alot of smog comes in thru the mountain passes from Los Angeles and pollutes the valley and especially Joshua Tree National Park. Because of it's high elevation, the park is about 15-20 degrees cooler than the valley, so the smog settles there. The air quality on the day we were there was deemed "Low". It's too bad really. Here are some pictures I took of the windmills, similar shots, at two different times of the day: one at 10:30 in the morning, and again at 5:00 pm the same day.

10:30 am

5:00 pm


10:30 am

5:00 pm


10:30 am

5:00 pm

The way Jamie sees it week of 9/16

So, I know I didn't get a quote for everyday this week, but my head has been kind of in a fog lately because the kids have been getting up at night. On Monday night, Jamie came into our room every 1/2 hour between 2 am and 4 am. Each time I would take him back to his bed and tuck him in but he just kept coming back. I even tried disciplining him, but that didn't seem to sink in at 3 o'clock in the morning. Finally, the last time he came in, I just told him to get out of our room and go back to bed. It worked! I guess he figured if I wasn't gonna get up with him anymore, there was no point. Then the next night, and almost every night since, Abby has woke up twice a night, instead of just at 4 or 5 am. I think that she's teething, which actually makes me a little happy, since I was getting worried about the fact that she still only had 4 teeth. And that's the long story about why I couldn't remember hardly any quotes this week, and that's why I'm writing them down now, as soon as I hear them. I've updated the column with more quotes so far this week.

9/16
"ba-bout mommy, 'nakes nin-there", after telling him to be careful of snakes in the bushes. (We were at Joshua tree National Park today - more on that in a posting soon)

9/17
[me]"Where's your chicken bones?"
[Jamie]"Daddy eat dem"
In fact, Daddy had taken all our chicken bones and licked them clean, and he had a huge pile of them on his plate, as usual.


9/18 or 9/19 or just about any day now...
"What? What? What? What? What?"...enough to drive me crazy!

9/20
"top(stop) talking guys , Jamie jus' drink toda (soda)!", said while Chad and I were talking with his parents at the restaurant last night"

play-place

Last week I took Jamie and Abby to the Science Center one day. We stayed mostly in this one room that they have for kids under 6, and the kids played for about 3 hours. I didn't know how to explain what the science center was to Jamie so I just called it the "play-place".

Outside by the fountain, where we ate lunch.
Abby was happy to just play with the balls.
The shopping center.

Music!


The miniature houses.






Jamie's musical abilities...


Abby fit in there?


The little houses...

Mission Bay

A few weeks ago we walked along the Mission Bay boardwalk to a playground. Chad had his skateboard and I had my scooter. It was alot of fun!




What's Jamie pointing at?
"Dadda ride frog!"

Time to trade...







Abby swinging, and Jamie showing the bump on his head, which he got while walking on the boardwalk, he seemed to stumble for no apparent reason, which why I asked him what he tripped on.

Leg lifts, mommy flower

After church we set Abby down in the grass, because last time I did so, she lifted her leg(s) up in the air and it was so cute! So this time we were armed with the camera. She never put both legs in the air this time, but she did keep her right leg up in the air, out of the grass, for at least 5 minutes. Wow! She must have bomber core muscles (but we all knew that, cuz she's been doing sit-ups in her carseat since she was like 6 weeks old!).

Notice how far up her leg is!

Hmm, a leaf...
I wonder what it tastes like?
After removal of leaf...

Here also is a video of Abby in the grass.


This video is of Jamie picking me a flower. He loves to pick flowers for me and his face just lights up so much, it is so precious. I think it all started when he was at the store once with Dad helping him to pick out a bouquet of flowers for me. Great job Chad - teaching your son to be a gentleman!