Coming home!

Although we had a wonderful trip and enjoyed every minute of spending time w/family, we were ever so happy to come home! We saw an amazing sunrise as we left Palm Springs (on the little puddle jumper plane)...got to LAX and ended up delayed so we got sent to Chicago! We werent rushed this time...with a 2 1/2 hour layover...so we walked around and saw the "people mover" and ate dinner watching other planes come in. The view leaving Chicago was breath taking! Saw the Grand Canyon and snow covered mountains! Patrick got to watch another movie and Zach passed out again. ;)

The Living Desert

The Living Desert was awesome! There was a HUGE model train display!! We saw lots of desert animals from North America and Africa...including the 'happy zebra'! And the boys finished the afternoon with a drum session with Grama Bonnie!

Apple pickin' and Date Shakes

We were a DAY LATE for apple pickin'...so Auntie Donna quietly took the boys across the parking lot to pick a couple since they had been looking forward to it for so long and heartbroken when they thought they missed out. ;) We called it "preserving the apples" because if WE didnt pick THOSE apples, they would have just rotted and fell off the tree! So wouldnt that be considered teaching a GOOD thing?? haha We ate apples all the way home...they must taste better when you pick them right off the tree yourself!
And as you can see, we crammed so much into just a few days, the boys took advantage of riding in the car anytime they could! They really did well being so off track with the time change tho.
Dates grow on the palm trees in California so "date shakes" were the most popular snack for us! ...I think I had 3!! YUM!!! You could see ladders and bags at the tops of the trees from where the pickers would collect the dates!!

Windmills and dinasours!

Stopping by these dinasours was hillarious!!! OH NO! They're chasing us!!! ;) hahaha



We went to the windmills and had some good laughs on the "bumpy" way over! ;) Stopped at this really cool auto shop on the way back where this "spider bug" was!

The San Andreas Fault & Flamingos

We had SEVERAL day trips!!! One was to the San Andreas (did I spell that right?!) fault...really cool. Had a little picnic and meet 2 Indians who ran the little visitor center and before we knew it, ended up on top of this mountain that looked like some kind of cool Indian spiritual thing!
We also went to the famous Marriott to see the flamingos...and met a parrott named "Cowboy" in the lobby!

more of gram

Zach is our snuggler...and our clown. Patrick and I seem to have the same expressions, huh?? It's obvious we are related! haha ;)

Visiting Gram

The boys and I had a wonderful time visiting with Gram. They read books to her, we played "pin the tail on the donkey", she did her famous "magic finger trick" and I did her hair. She is definately not the "Grama" I last saw, but some things will never change about her...:)

Our California trip!

WOW! What a trip! It was very emotional in all aspects...from flying into unknown territory (literally) with the boys on our first "REAL BIG trip", to seeing Gram after all this time and not knowing how she'd be from visit to visit...etc. It was the first time for the boys to fly and they loved it! (Thank goodness!) We got to Richmond (thanks to D and Christopher) in plenty of time and I thought all was well until we got on the runway and they said we'd be sitting there for about 50 minutes....WHAT!?!?!? Turned out to be not the whole 50...we BARELY got to Chicago in time and had to RUN from one side of the airport to the other. DO YOU REALIZE HOW FREAKIN' BIG THAT AIRPORT IS WHEN YOU'RE DRAGGING 2 BOYS, 3 BACKPACKS AND A PURSE!??! I was sweatin' bullets and we made it to the plane with about THREE minutes to spare. It was a huge plane and we had the 3 seats in the middle. They had radios in the seats and a movie to watch, so the 3 or so hours went by fairly quickly. From Chicago, we flew to LAX and had plenty of time to eat and wait for the last plane which took us right to Palm Springs . Donna picked us up around 8:30 and by the time we got to her house, we all crashed into bed. ;) ...Woke up to a beautiful morning and took the dogs for a walk and enjoyed the scenery. It was different to see such huge mountains and not be green! Everything was flat and brown! Once we got back to the house and had some lunch, Patrick decided to try out the hammock in the backyard for a quick power nap. ;) Now we were just waiting on Grama Bonnie to get there!

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! As you can see, Patrick was Darth Vader, Zach a clown (which fits him perfectly!) and I was an "old teenager" according to Patrick. ;) The boys could have trick or treated ALL night! This was one of the best years so far...it was fun to watch them run up to the doors together and ring the bell...Patrick was really good about watching after his little brother and I was SO proud they used manners to actually say "trick or treat" and "thank you!" That drives me CRAZY when you get kids who just hold their bags open! ...That deserves a TRICK in my book, if I wasnt afraid to get egged or have my punkin smashed! haha ;)