Time away in the desert...

The beginning of the month found us in the desert...

...at a favorite spot of  ours near Palm Springs.  This little get-away deserves a post of its own!  This was a vacation almost a year in the making...one that included all the kids and grands.

We started off from home in the wee hours of the morning and all met up at the airport in Bellingham, where we hunkered down to wait for our flight.  All eighteen of us! 

Courtesy of  Allegiant Air...we found ourselves in sunny and hot Palm Springs a few short hours later.

Though we had hoped to have four adjacent units, that is not how it worked out.  But we soon knew the pathway to each of the suites.

The grands discovered that they could wait below to have Grammy 'fill their order' from her second floor balcony.

What a great place...

...for kids of all ages.

We all spent hours in the lazy river...and some of us even managed to read a few books!

Cousin time!  Every day.

Jeremy and Kris took the five oldest grands to Knott's Berry Farm one day (where they had a hoot!).  We took the other five to the Living Desert Zoo.

Our first stop was at the lorikeet 'pavilion' (they are a bird belonging to the parrot family and are native to Australia).  The kiddos all had nectar to feed the lorikeets while I was just 'along for the ride'.  My plan was to take photos of the kids feeding the parrots.  For some reason the lorikeets never noticed that I came empty-handed and landed all over me.  I freaked out!  I really like birds...but not up close and personal.

As you can tell, most had no problem with having birds roosting on their arms, shoulder or head.  Lucy and I were just looking for a quick escape!

Watching giraffes from behind the fence was more my style.

The kiddos were so impressed with the cacti...something they had not seen before. The boys were hoping against hope to find a rattlesnake.  What boys!  The rattlesnakes behind glass in the reptile building were not what they had in mind.

One day we took Ranen, Ryder and Maggie to the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve with intentions of hiking through the oasis on the San Andreas fault.

Though the hike never turned out quite as we planned, they thought the ride there and back was fun enough!

A few weeks before we arrived, a massive storm hit the area washing out all the trails in the preserve and covering the highway leading there with a layer of mud.  The trails through the oasis were still closed...

...but a few trails trails through the high desert were open so we headed there.  Maggie had a hard time seeing any sights along the way...as she was too busy keeping her eye out for rattlesnakes!

Though we weren't able to hike along the fault line...the grands got to see one of the largest groves of desert fan palms in California.

It was a good week of time spent with family.  One night we had a scavenger hunt/pizza night with all the grands while the moms and dads went out for dinner on their own. Oh what fun! For the most part, each family looked after their own meals.

And on the final night together...we all went out for dinner to Jackalope Ranch. While our table was being set up, we had a hostess take a group photo.  For the record. As we were in November 2018!

Our dinner that night was also our family celebration of Heidi's 40th birthday.  We shared memories around the table. There are many Heidi stories. :)   She shared her birthday dessert with us all.   It was a good way to end our vacation in the desert!

They all left for home the next morning...and we stayed on a few more days.

We made for the hills one day....




...and hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail.  From there, we carried on to Idyllwild.  We passed through miles and miles of burned out terrain before we reached the little tourist town, which was hit hard by the California wildfires this summer.

We returned to the Gastrognome restaurant where we had lunch with good friends a few years ago.  Sitting on the patio in November was a treat!  Usually it is cool in the little mountain town by this time of the year.

We happened to be in the USA on election day.  We heard views on American politics that are a little different than those we hear back home.  Though we don't understand the half of it, we pray for wisdom for those in leadership...in both Canada and the USA.

Soon we were on our way back home...with memories of sunsets and palm trees and a great time together as a family!

And that was how November began for us.  To be continued...