Palm Springs Vacation

The kids were excited and ready to go.

First stop was lunch Friday afternoon. I have to admit, in the 11 years that we have lived here, I've only been to In and Out twice. And this was my second trip. It's an okay place to eat. I just don't get all the hype about it. It's just a burger. And a very thin burger at that. Plus they put that nasty Thousand Island dressing on it that I have to make sure to remember to tell them not to or I end up with a yucky burger.

The kids were SO excited about the hotel. And the girls thought the shell shaped towel was the coolest thing ever. I guess we don't stay in hotels with them too often. I have to admit it was really cute to see them so excited. I was excited about the adjoining rooms. Not only did it give us more space, but we then had two bathrooms, which is really handy with six people. 

The first night there we went to downtown Palm Springs and walked around all the cute shops there. We found a little toy shop and let the kids all pick a little $5.00 toy out. Then we stopped at Ruby's diner for dinner. 

Daddy reading comic books to the boys before bedtime. Too precious!

Lots of pictures of food here. Feels like we spent a great deal of time eating. Yum! Nice to have "complimentary" breakfast each morning. And by complimentary, I mean we really paid for it with the "daily hotel fee", but whatever. 

Then we spent a little time poolside. Palm Springs is definitely hot in the summer (it was around 105-110 the whole time we were there) so pool time was quite necessary. I did love that they had covered areas everywhere you went and misters to walk under. Plus they keep it nicely air conditioned inside, so it was pretty bearable. The town definitely comes more alive in the evening time though. Ya know…when it's a cool 95 degrees at 10 pm. Haha….

Got a little reading time in. Like 5 pages maybe, with 3 interuptions by Leah who couldn't get her goggles situated the way she liked them. So I gave up and joined the kids in the water. 

Carter was having SO much fun jumping in the pool for me to catch him. We must have done this 50 times. He got more and more brave until he had me go so far out that I really could barely catch him in time. 

The hotel we stayed at was a groupon deal I found online. It was a great price, even with two rooms, but what was so cool was that it happened to be founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. There were pictures of them ALL over the hotel, along with shots of their kids and all their celebrity friends who use to come stay at this hotel with them. It was pretty cool to think Lucy walked all around this hotel. One of my most favorite celebrities ever. Even now when I'm having a rough day or just need to forget about everything, I turn on an episode and can't help but be happy watching it.

By Saturday afternoon we had already worn out the kids and they crashed as soon as we got in the car to go get lunch.

After lunch that day, we headed over to the Air Museum. It was really cool to walk around and see all the old war planes. They had a fun kids area that we couldn't hardly pull the kids away from. Plus we got to tour a B-17 bomber plane and sit in on a flight simulation. We were there for a little over two hours and it still wasn't enough time to see everything. 

This is a real Nazi Swastika flag from WWII. It was so cool and kind of eerie at the same time.

Plus we got a nice lesson all about the bombing of Pearl Harbor that forced the USA into the war. Pretty cool to see actual fragments of Japanese planes and to learn and be reminded about that terrible day where so many thousands of people died in a surprise attack by Japan.

This was just a movie poster I thought was cool because it was signed by Tom Hanks. Haha…

And no vacation is complete without a little pedicure time for mommy. Paul was super sweet to watch the kids in the play area at the mall while I indulged and pampered my feet.

Although he did find a kiosk that was selling an original 1986 Super Mario Brothers game and decided he had to have it….for the kids of course. It's a little buggy, but we got it working pretty well and the kids have already had fun playing it.

Man does it bring back some crazy memories. 

Carter woke up Sunday morning at about 7 am. Was wide awake and playing. Then about 8 am, he crawled in our bed and literally fell back to sleep for another hour and a half. I'm not sure I've ever seen him do that. He was definitely one tired little guy.

Before we left the hotel, I gave the girls some manicures.

And yes, Carter insisted on having his toes painted too. Paul still grumbles about it, but has learned to accept it. We made an agreement that we just paint toes, not fingers and that we try to use "boy" colors. He has requested that I buy him some blue nail polish.

Then before heading home we stopped at the local Art Museum. It was pretty awesome. I was amazed at all the cool art they had in such a "small" obscure town. I guess it's pretty touristy though and brings a lot of people in. We could have spent way more time here too, but Carter was melting down fast. You can tell he's not very happy even in this picture and it was the first one we took at the museum.

The glass sculptures were my favorite. This was a glass waterfall.

And a horse made entirely out of driftwood.

Grass painted on wood blocks.

This was probably my favorite. This is entirely made out of glass and was created from a mold. It was so cool. I wanted to touch it.

More glass pieces.

And then there was an entire exhibit of art from the Maya period.

And someone left their trash right in the middle of the art gallery. Haha…probably the dumbest piece of "art" but I guess it made for a good conversation piece.

This bonnet is made out of pearled corsage pins. I wonder how many times this artist got poked creating this.

It was incredible.

A woven tapestry of smoke.

And this was made out of primarily hide and staples.

And we can see Carter is having more melting down moments.

Ashlyn was quite fascinated by everything though. They even had an area of original Van Gogh and Monet pieces but we weren't allowed to take pictures of them.

And then a couple of more glass art pieces outside on the way out of the museum.

Everyone, except Ashlyn, fell asleep for most of the ride home, so it was quite peaceful and gave Paul and I time to chat.

Overall, it was a fabulous trip even though I had to remind myself a few times that Carter is just 3 and to not treat him like the bigger kids. But he was pretty good for the most part and we had a wonderful little family vacation. Hoping to start having more of them in the future. Even if it's just once a year. There are so many places in CA alone that we haven't visited or seen. I'm excited that the kids are now getting old enough to where it is more enjoyable (and easy) to take trips with them. Here's to making great memories.