Palm Springs!

Our first day in Palm Springs we went on a hike in a place called Palm Canyon. It's a breathtaking area, with such unique scenery.

Beautiful waterfall in here, but the rock was very slick. Oliver kept wanting to slide down it.

Nice face Linc!

This is a replica of a Native American hut from the Agua Caliente tribe.

I love this place, it feels like we've stepped back into some prehistoric time, watch out for dinosaurs kind of feel.

Josh found this underwater millipede of sum sort, the boys were fascinated.

Kristin doing her witch impersonation, just for the record this is not a typical thing for her, she's a sweetheart.

When we got back from the hike, we ate at a little cafe by the condo, they have this huge selection of amazingly fancy deserts. Linc chose this piece of cake that was bigger than his head. If you can't have cake for lunch on vacation, is it really a vacation?

Josh even took me out for a belated anniversary dinner. Having our anniversary in the midst of the crazy month of December sometimes makes it difficult to actually celebrate. Some years we forget entirely. So we decided from now on we will be celebrating it in March.

We ate at a place called Roy's, they serve Hawaiian food, very fancy. We had such a nice time just being able to visit, and enjoy the amazing atmosphere. They decorated our table for the occasion, gave us a beautifully decorated dessert that said Happy Anniversary, and took a Polaroid that they put into a frame for us. Pretty impressive.

Our adventurous hike up the Bob Hope trail. It was probably a bit much for them, but aside from a bit of whining from Linc, I was so impressed with how well they both did. It was a pretty steep incline and about 4 miles altogether. I love this shot of them at the top.

Josh had some fun with the macro setting on our camera.

He got some amazing pictures of the beautiful desert plants. Amazing that such beautiful things can survive such harsh conditions. It was actually pretty green, must have been a rainy winter.

This is the view from where the kids and Josh camped out, while grandpa and I hiked the last bit all the way to the top. You can actually see our condo from here, and Sherry took some pictures of us at the top all the way from the condo.

Linc needed a lot of encouragement to keep going. He is a bit heavy for me, but I was determined for him to make it to the top and feel that sense of accomplishment you can only feel when you put a lot of effort into something and then can enjoy the beautiful fruits of your labor at the end. Luckily I didn't have to carry him for too much of the hike, and Josh and I took turns carrying the big guy.

Oliver cruised back down, pretending to be Sonic the hedge hog the whole way. That Sonic is one tough guy.

This is Tres and I at the very top, it was such a fun hike. Crazy hot hot for March, but that's Palm Springs for you. We all went out for some frozen yogurt on the way home.

Sherry and I treated ourselves to some pedicures. I'm sure after that hike my feet were horrific, but it felt amazing, and my toes still look great, and it's been a month since we got back. We love this little place, we've been going here, since my first trip out here right after Linc was born. It's a fun girls out type of tradition. We couldn't talk Kristin into joining us, she says she won't let anyone touch her feet.
Dinner at a local favorite for Chinese quizine. The boys even ate with their chop sticks. The restaraunt even had a little stream with a bridge. Oliver is holding his beloved "futtie", it's a silky blanket he sleeps with. He actually ended up leaving it right by this bridge, and we didn't notice until he asked for it that night. Jeff was such a hero to go back and get it for him, Oliver was very grateful. The mean mom that I am, told him he'd have to wait until tomorrow. Jeff saved the night for Ollie!

After dinner we all went to the Thurday night street fare. Josh and I used to love taking Linc to these when we lived there. They have the most amazing roasted nuts, and a crepe lady who was legendary. She is the reason I have my cravings for crepes with Nutella and bananas every now and again.

I love this picture of grandpa and Ollie, such cute guys!

There was a really talented spray paint artist that every one was gathered around to watch.

I even found this jewelry place that I'm so in love with. They do such unique pieces using a huge variety of things, like coffee beans, leather, and other natural things. I got this adorable leather flower bracelet, I'm totally not a huge jewelry person, so it's fun when I find something that I really like and will actually wear.

This is really our most favorite thing about visiting the condo in Palm Springs, the pool.

The kids spend so much time just enjoying the nice swimming weather. It's just nice to be able to get up every morning and spend a couple hours swimming before we all get ready for the day.

Oliver kept wanting to be a surfer. Actually he wanted to be "surfer buddy". He's been so funny lately, always wanting to be some character, or animal of some sort. He loves those really horrible Buddy dog movies, so his latest thing is to be a buddy specific to whatever activity he's really interested in at that moment. It's really funny, but also a bit aggravating, we keep telling him that sometimes we just miss Ollie.

Great job surfer buddy!

Linc did a super job with his swimming, but I still am looking forward to some swimming lessons for him this summer, just for peace of mind.

Two good looking guys in the hot tub!

Saturday we planned on going to a huge swap meet in Palm Desert. When we mentioned it at Disneyland, Ananda totally wanted in on the action. They decided to drive up and spend the day with us. Since our kids and us can't get enough of them, we were thrilled to get to see them again. Sherry always takes some family shots in this same spot every time we visit. I thought she got a couple pretty cute ones.

They have these amazing swap meets every weekend in Palm Springs. We really wanted to go and pick up a few things, but mostly just go for fun. I love going and seeing all the different things you never new you needed. We used to go all of the time when we lived here, but mostly just to look. One of my favorite things are all the amazing flowers, people come and get all their fresh floral needs for the week, how neat to be able to have fresh flower arrangements all over your house, and switch them out every week, depending on your mood. Love it!

Oliver was thrilled with his frozen lemonade and hot dog.

Lincoln was thrilled with his real shark tooth necklace!

Doesn't it look fun, I love coming to these, there are just millions of interesting things to see.

Unfortunately L.A. traffic can be a nightmare, so Matt and Ananda didn't get to spend to much time at the swap meet and arrived pretty traffic beaten, but once they got some drinks and food, they were ready for some swap meet craziness.

After the swap meet we all headed back to our condo for some much needed rest and relaxation by the pool. Josh creating an enormous tidal wave that took out some unsuspecting bystanders, I love how much fun he has with the boys.

I've missed this gal, it was so great catching up. Nan picked up her great hat at the swap meet, mine is a $5 Wal-Mart special.

The pure joy of soaking his mom with tons of cold water!

Love these guys!

Matt and Ollie chillin in the hot tub.

Sherry and Tres took the boys miniature golfing so that we could go on one last date night with Matt and Ananda. It felt so nice being able to go out and enjoy amazing food and conversation with such dear friends. Conversation flows, the sushi was amazing, we even had a fire in the middle of our table. Palm Springs is such a fun place to people watch, we sat outside in the quaint touristy downtown watching all the retro cars pass by, it was just a perfectly delightful evening. We then went and got some Ben&Jerry's where we took the above prize winner!
Then we went home and soaked our feet in the hot tub and talked for hours.

We had such a great time getting to know Matt better and I can never get my fill of Ananda. Matt and Josh have a bizarre amount of stuff in common, and it was so fun for Josh to have someone he could really relate and connect with. We wish they lived next door.

Lincoln very excited about a hole in one!

All I can say is that sometimes a vacation is everything and more, this one was just that. We had such an amazing, exciting, relaxing, rejuvinating time. It was hard having to return to normal life. Good bye Palm Springs, hopefully we'll be back again soon! Now for the 10 hour drive home. Yuck!