Palm Springs with a bunch of Little Kids

We took a great family vacation to Palm Springs this spring.

Mom and Dad had fun and all the kids had fun.  

I know the line -

"There is no such thing as a vacation with young kids; just take family trips."  

While it is true that is was not pure relaxation all the time, 

we still felt like it was a great break and vacation for all of us.

It was a vacation and an adventure trip, all rolled into one.  

It did seem as if we were the only family in the canyon.

That was weird.  But, it still didn't feel anti-kid.  

Palm Springs with a bunch of little kids is a thing that really can work well.

We loved starting the morning with a walk to Koffi Coffee.  

We grabbed fantastic take out at the local Woody's Burgers.

We sat down to eat enchiladas at La Perlita Mexican food.  

The kids still talk about the salsa there.  Lappert's Ice Cream was a tasty 

and eccentric parlor.  

The owner plays chess with buddies in the front, 

and pauses the game to scope ice cream.

Some super good (and high priced) pizza was from Bill's Pizza

We also had a terrible breakfast, but I won't link them here.... 

(Elmer's, I should've known).

It was a super awesome experience for all of us at the Living Desert Garden & Zoo.

We loved it all.  

This garden park is in Palm Desert, towards the south end of the canyon.  

The drive through the neighborhoods to get to the park was pretty fun, 

checking out the mid-century modern styles.

And the Giraffe Feeding!  We didn't have to wait in a line or push through a crowd.
We just walked over and got invited to help feed.  That was sweet!

The plants were amazing, especially the cactus and agave.

We surprised the kids with the trip on the Aerial Tram up to the snow in San Jacinto park.

They were shocked that we got to have a snow adventure on our desert vacation.

This was a first for them and a big dream come true.

The snow was sparse and icy.  But, they didn't mind.  

It was incredible how cold it was up there, compared to the canyon floor.  Brrr....

I wore my flip flops.  That was a bad idea.

This snow guy was found by the kids, not made by them.  

We did manage a snowball fight, though.

The Air Museum of Flying was super cool for us.  

It's small and was a quick afternoon outing.

But, we all enjoyed it.    

Peyton was so cute pushing Kendall around.
Kendall was absolutely in love with the little umbrella stroller.
When I bought my ticket from the front desk,
the sweet old man told me to wait right there,
because he had a carriage for me.  I didn't know quite what I was waiting for.
Ah.  Yes.  Of course, a stroller.
(Would you believe we went on vacation with all the littles,
without even thinking to bring a stroller?)

We were happy at with our stay at 7 Springs Inn & Suites.  We got a two story suite.  

The kids got their own room, and so did we.

We all slept well here.  And enjoyed the daily swims, too.

We think Palm Springs is a great get away for parents and kids.

Some of What has been Happening

I haven't been on here for so long.  It wasn't planned.  Things just happened.  One of which was having no internet connection for 3 weeks.  Many of the other things are now forgotten by me.  We did a lot of normal stuff, just hanging out, being our family.

But, stuff happened, and somehow it meant that I didn't blog for 6 weeks.
Some of the happenings would be -

Um.  During this period my son turned 5 years old!  Peyton is such a cool five year old.  

And we had a great birthday celebration. 

His wish was to go to Golf Land for his birthday.  

We drove over to Sunnyvale, to my childhood neighborhood. 

My parents and siblings and the cousins met us there.

We went to Inside N Out for the birthday request of cheeseburgers afterward.  

Look at this crew!

It was a super fun day.

A few days later was his actual birthday and we had a simple family celebration at home.

Peyton really is such a sweet, crazy, fun guy.  

It would be hard not to love him!

his eyes are super sensitive to bright.  so, it is a hard thing to look at all.those.candles.

His dad's panicked enthusiasm is distracting.  he has to push his cheeks down to keep from laughing.

We also had Hummingbird Days up at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.
Scott was a volunteer guide for the weekend.
The event was super fun for the whole family & Scott loved being part of the guided walks.

We went on a little last minute planned vacation to Palm Springs.  So, that was awesome.

It was a perfect vacation.  (Even though it involved some whining children, some parents coercing children to stay quite in a hotel room and an awful breakfast at Elmer's.)

It turned out that Palm Springs wasn't really a typical family vacation spot.

We may have had only one parent/child spotting, while in Palm Springs.

Any other children seen appeared to be with Grandparents.

And yet, we found it to be a fabulous vacation spot for our family.

I'll post separately about our favorite spots for a kid-friendly vacation in Palm Canyon.

I "ran" in my first race - the "pinkest" race.

Here is our running team, only part of the gals in my family made it to the race.  
But all these gals crossed the finish line.  

We had a blast.  This is us post race.  The real deal.

I took the kids on a little farm tour school field trip at Wilder Ranch.  

We love this state park!  

I want to go back for their next event, April 27th, Sheep Shearing!

Also, during this time, the daddy was traveling overseas for a couple weeks for work.
He went to Amsterdam, South Africa, Kenya, Spain and Morocco!

Sevilla, Spain

Morocco

Morocco

Then my husband came home and it was sweet and we celebrated Easter.
(and didn't get any great pictures)

And now he has finally adjusted to our time zone.
That is something we are all glad about!

Pumpkin Patching

I need to post more pictures from our pumpkin patch visit.
Pumpkin patch pictures are one of the best things about Fall, right?
Plus, we've been apart from the daddy for too long.
He needs a reminder of what we look like.

Good times at Rodoni Farms, Santa Cruz.