Part deux!

While in Palm Springs, we rode the Aerial Tram to the top, which was about 8000 feet up. The kids thought the tram ride was really cool. You looked down on the valley and everything was on such a miniature scale. Ethan had said it looked like little lego towns. We also went to the Palm Springs Air Museum. Our kids love going to air museums! They got to get inside several of the planes and look around. One of them was designed for kids, so they got to sit in the cockpit and pretend to fly. They even painted their names onto a plane! The kids were really interested in the guns! We stayed several days with Granny and Pa. It was really nice to get to visit with them too. Thanks Granny and Pa for the nice visit and for taking such good care of us.

Dan's favorite plane! Hmmm...could the picture have anything to do with that?! LOL

We drove through a large redwood tree. The tree is about 735 years old!

It is about 15 feet across.

We also stopped at the Trees of Mystery. We got to ride a Tram up to the top. When you reached the top to the lookout, you could see the ocean. The kids thought the big statues of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe were neat. The boys were under the ox playing and Dan asked them if they knew what they were reaching for and he asked them 'what makes boys different from girls?' and their hands shot back down like rockets and said EEWWWW!!! I guess you had to be there, but it was pretty funny! They quickly moved on to see Paul! Some of those trees are just amazing to see. Their size is just unbelievable!

I was curious how many feet across this tree was!

On the way down the path, it told the story of Paul Bunyan.

On our way home, we stayed in Lincoln City for a few days to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and my brother and sister. It rained all Thanksgiving day. Despite the rain, when I got up, I went down and ran the beach for 2 hours! I was hoping I'd come across another glass float, but no such luck this year! I apologize for not having any beach pictures to share with you, but I ended up getting the flu a second time around in just nine days and did not make it back down to the beach. I was going to take the kids down to play on the beach for awhile on Saturday, but when I woke up, there was no way I was going to be able to. Luckily Dan had taken the kids down the night before so they did get to spend a little time on the beach. I just wish I could have seen them enjoying it!

A Haylee-ism:

We had stopped in Ukiah for some lunch and to go to the store because the girls had broken their headphones. Dan had ran in for some repair parts and the kids and I are sitting in the burban waiting. I see this guy slowly walking in front of Wal-mart. He sort of looked like a homeless guy. He had long, medium brown hair that looked undone and a long beard. Just as I had seen this guy, Haylee pipes up in her super excited voice and says "Hayden, Hayden, look, look! It's Jesus!! Just then the guy turns up our aisle and is wearing a Walmart name tag! 'Jesus works at Walmart!'

My kids can really make you laugh sometimes! I really enjoy those moments. You could be feeling down at your lowest point sometimes and the things our kids say and do can put the smiles right back on! The joy of being a parent is the most amazing gift! It is probably one of the hardest jobs there is, but by far the most rewarding.