Vacation

It always takes me awhile to re-enter life after a trip to Palm Desert. I even do laundry down there so that I don't have it hanging over me upon returning. But still, even with clean clothes, things just seem to sit in piles that continue to grow. Nothing is put away, pictures aren't uploaded, the house needs a thorough cleaning...instead I just watch it accumulate and get overwhelmed. This time seems to be worse because I'm heading back out of town for a girl's trip this weekend so I want to make sure everything is organized for Jeremy while he's the single parent.

Despite the list of things to do, we had an amazing trip to Palm Desert. We arrived on a sunny Tuesday morning and our first stop with Nana & Bumpa was of course In & Out Burger. We quickly turned around and left the next morning for Disneyland.

The kids were such troopers and had a blast at the Happiest Place on Earth. I loved watching it through their eyes. The first day we didn't arrive at the park until around 11am - it was a mob scene. Did I mention we were there during Spring Break. Probably won't be doing that again! We were so lucky to have Nana & Bumpa there with us to help split up duties taking one kid here and one kid there and also having line standers :) That was Hank's job and he's so good at it! Ragen wanted to try everything and he was really brave. He desperately wanted to go on Indiana Jones but wasn't tall enough which was so sad because Indy is his obsession right now. He loved the Big Thunder Rail Road but wasn't a fan of the Matterhorn. Although the next morning he said he wanted to try it again but we never did because the lines were insane. Maggie was happy to go on every ride she was tall enough for. We were worried last summer because she wouldn't try ANY rides but luckily she finally changed her mind. Her favorite was "pink Dumbo" which she rode several times. Ragen also loved the Star Tours ride as well as the Jedi Training Academy show where they pull people from the audience. He didn't want to get picked until he was 6, he told us. We went on the Finding Nemo ride which was new since the last time we were there. Luckily we stumbled upon a relatively short line for this ride so we jumped at it. It was a great ride that the kids loved. I had a heavy heart most of the ride as they were playing the music from the ending credits of the movie as you boarded and waited to start. This was the music that was so appropriate and touching at Ben Towne's memorial service.

Ragen loved being pushed around in the stroller - he apparently has it figured out. Why walk when you can ride? He even napped in it. However Maggie (the intended stroller user) never wanted to sit in it which meant alot of carrying just to keep things moving. By the time we made it back to the hotel around 8pm, she was konked out on my shoulder. Jeremy and I were so dog-tired by the time we got up the next morning to do it all again!

Day 2 found us at the Minnie & Friends Breakfast inside the park. We loved it! We'd done Goofy's Kitchen before but definitely prefered Minnie's. It was funny, Maggie let Minnie walk right up and hug her and we did the whole picture thing. From then on, no character could even stand near her, let alone take a pic with her. We had visits from Minnie, Chip & Dale, Tigger, Eeyore, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, Max (Goofy's son), the Genie, Captain Hook, and Rafiki from the Lion King (unfortunately we never got our pictures with him). We managed to fit in the rides in Fantasyland that we hadn't had time for on day 1 nice and early. Then we ventured over to California Adventure which was a first for us all. They had some fun rides for the kids and the Toy Story Mania ride was totally worth the wait. However, the rest of it was really geared more at adults and by this time, Jeremy's parents had left so we had nobody to stay with the kids while we did big kid rides. Ragen & I did manage to go on Soarin' Over California which was pretty amazing. We'll have to go back there another time when the kids are a bit older and we have more time. Luckily by the end of the day, Maggie had decided she wanted to visit with Tigger & Pooh and we barely made it before they left for the night.

Once we were back in the desert, we managed to fit in tons of pool time and lots of golf. Both kids loved going across the street to hit balls during the day and also going out on the "real life golf court" (as Ragen called it) after dinner. Ragen was doing an incredible job swimming by the time we left and Maggie was swimming all the way to the deep end in her Aerial ring all by herself.

Easter found us waking up in the morning to see what the Easter Bunny had brought. Fun baskets for both the kids awaited. Then we went to the Palm Valley Clubhouse for an egg hunt and both kids had a blast. Maggie's age group had their eggs just laying all over the grass. She was the first one off the line and took off across the tennis courts to grab her eggs. Ragen's group had them a little more hidden. They had golden eggs which were filled with special prizes and he managed to grab 2 of them. Looking back I probably should have made him put one back for someone else to enjoy. Oops! After brunch with Nana & Bumpa, we went over to visit the Collins family for swimming. Chad & Ronni are the kids' godparents and we loved seeing Bailey & Carter. All 4 kids are getting so big!

We also fit in some pool time with the Garrett family and the Lentz family which was great fun. Lots of kid craziness but they all loved it. For our one parents-night-out, we had dinner with Chad and Ronni at Armando's which was a treat! Everytime we're together, we settle in just like it was old times when we lived 2 doors away at our condos.

Mark & Melissa visited a few days before we headed home. They brought Melissa's kids, Tiana & Elijah for us to meet so we had a full house but lots of fun. The big kids played in the pool for a long time and Ragen tried hard to keep up. He was having a blast monopolizing Uncle Mark's time. We were lucky to spend some time with them as they had just taken the red-eye home from 2 weeks in Hawaii and they were so tired!

It was a very busy trip this year and we had a few days of iffy weather which made it seem to fly by so much faster. We are so thankful to Nana & Bumpa for being such amazing gracious hosts when we invade their space! The kids loved every minute of being spoiled in California and so did we. :)