A Visitor and an Appendectomy

Last week, Alex's friend Eric came to visit from Boston.  Alex and Eric played disc golf, went to a baseball game and ate around town.  It was so nice to have him here!

    

There was a lot of disc golfing!

    

They ran into the pro disc golfer Michael Johansen.  He is a living legend!  Eric was over the moon.

   

   

Knights Baseball

  

Harper and I did a play doh open appendectomy set that I made at work.  I had left it in my hot car during the day so the doh got a little dried out and cracked.

      

We learned about the appendix and its anatomic location. 

   

   

   

   

Harper took apart the model after we were finished to see the bowel. 

   

One of the nights Eric was here, we walked Camp North End for dinner.

   

   

   

      

       

   

The kids and I bought edible flowers from the Farmers Market at Camp North End.  We used them to make a pretty spring cake.

    

Joshua Tree National Park

We had a wonderful, but quick trip out to California over the kids' spring break to see Joshua Tree National Park.  The kids had a ball climbing all the rocks and Harper even told us she loved hiking!  We stayed at an awesome rental house in Yucca Valley with gorgeous desert views and a hot tub.  We had sunny days with mild temperatures and a nice breeze which made for great hiking.  Can't wait to plan our next national park adventure! 

    

We had an early flight so we made it to California by 10am.  We had flown into Palm Springs, so it was only a 45 minute drive to Joshua Tree National Park.  After a quick lunch, we drove straight to the park to start exploring.  We did a couple short hikes (that turned into long hikes from all the rock climbing) and then headed to our rental house.  Harper thoroughly enjoyed all the rock climbing.

   

   

  

I took a million pictures of the scenery because it was so beautiful! 

    

I spy a Harper under that rock! 

  

   

     

  

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

We saw petroglyphs on these rocks.

   

   

   

   

Our house was amazing!  We made dinner here every night because we didn't want to leave!

   

   

   

  

We spent a lot of time in the hot tub.

  

   

   

    

I had my morning coffee out back near the fireplace.

   

   

   

   

   

   

    

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

   

   

We loved Skull Rock.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

    

   

   

   

    

    

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

  

   

   

   

    

Keys View had panoramic views of Coachella Valley and the San Andreas Fault.  It is Joshua Tree's highest viewpoint.

   

   

   

The babies were sleepy after hiking all day.

    

Not too sleepy for the hot tub, though!

   

    

The doors in our rental would slide all the way open so we could have fresh air and beautiful views.

    

We spent some time by the firepit.

   

   

  

We had a nice time stargazing as well.

  

   

   

   

   

    

Horned lizard!  We saw jack rabbits and chipmunks too!

     

   

   

   

   

   

I loved the Cholla Cactus Gardens hike.  The Cholla Cactus' nickname is "teddybear cactus", but they are definitely not soft or cuddly! 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Arch Rock looked like an elephant to me.

     

   

   

    

   

We dyed Easter eggs Saturday night for the bunny to hide.

   

   

   

   

   

The kids did a great job finding their Easter baskets.

   

The bunny hid the eggs and nibbled on the carrots!

   

   

   

   

We had an Easter egg hunt in the desert.  No children were hurt.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

The Palm Springs airport was the most beautiful airport I have ever been to.  It is mostly outside so you can enjoy the views.

    

There was even a playground for the kids to play on while we waited!