oh my gosh - I'm 30!

First, here are some pics from a quick trip to the zoo we took a few weeks ago.


Jamie always thinks this picture is really funny. He starts laughing about from way far back, when you can hardly even see it. He says "be-bra top di-raff. Dat funny!"


And you read right, I am 30! I cannot believe it. We had a small birthday party for me while Chad's parents were here, more for Jamie's benefit than for mine. Of course, I let him blow out the candles.






Here are a few more miscellaneous photos:

One night I was scrapping and Jamie was hangin' out by me. Then I noticed he had put his little hammer in my tote next to mine. How cute!


These are some magnificent playdough fish that I made. The top one is Dory, and the bottom is Nemo's Dad. I would've made them the right colors, but alas, all the colors are mixed together now.

this is life...an update

Here's our little puppy dog, who likes to crawl around with toys in her mouth.




Abby can crawl sooo fast, especially if it's in pursuit of me. And she's walking around the furniture and stuff alot. A few times she has let go without realizing it and stands there by herself for a moment or two. And for some reason, Abby really likes to go round in circles, especially on the kitchen floor. Here is a video I got of her doing this:


Abby and Jamie like to play together, but they also like to fight too. Oh, how early it starts! Here's a video of when I told Jamie to read Abby a story in the tent. Of course, Abby can't sit still so he ended up reading most of it to himself. I was impressed about how much of the book he remembered. I didn't want him to see me, so I filmed it thru the tent window. The book is MyOhMyOh Dinosaurs. Jamie says dinosaur as "at-tore".


And speaking of Abby not sitting still, I'm pretty sure that will probably be a big problem on the airplane. And speaking of flying home, I have moved my flight to October 17th. The task of taking care of the kids without Chad for that long seemed just too daunting. Even though he'll be working 12 hour shifts, it would be better for him to come home late, than not at all, since dinner and bedtime are usually the hardest part of the day.

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