Carli, the Snowboarder

Eric took Carli up to the mountain yesterday to snowboard for the first time.  It was beautiful and Carli had a great time.

Pearl Turns 5

Difficult to believe that Pearl turns 5 tomorrow.  Tonight we had family over.  Pearl was a bit overwhelmed by our family's generosity!  Tomorrow we have a kids' party with Pearl's friends.  I believe it will be a bit wilder than tonight!

For some reason, I cannot add pictures tonight, so I will try again tomorrow!

Carli's Perspective on Joshua Tree

"We had a great time climbing the mountain. Dad and I decided to climb a number of big rocks. The view was incredible when you got to the top. My shoes were grippy (thankfully) as well as the rocks so it was not that hard. Mom and Pearl sat at the bottom watching us tackle the rocks. There was a strong breeze that could of surely knocked us over but we held our ground. I took a lot of amazing and stunning pictures over the hike which you will see on the blog in a short amount of time. Each person in our family had a job to keep Pearl going. I was the photographer, Pearl was the leader and model in most of the pictures, dad was the producer, and mom was the director. The hike was 1 mile and not to long, but Pearl had a tough time at the end, but we bribed her with a cookie. After the park we decided to head back to the hotel. Mom and dad went to the gym, while Pearl and I went to the hot tub, then cooled off in the pool. We had dinner at a very good restaurant named LuLu. I had a hamburger and french-fries, and Pearl got a margarita pizza. Then, for dessert we had triple layer chocolate cake, and vanilla ice cream."

A Few More PS Pics

 Hotel Lobby

 Orange Tree right outside our hotel room.  We ate oranges every day!

 Frank Sinatra's home

 Elvis Honeymoon hideaway

Christmas in Palm Springs

We were lucky enough to spend the week of Christmas in Palm Springs.  We had never been there and were looking forward to the sun and warmth (compared to our grey Pacific Northwest skies).  Our hotel was magical and swanky with an incredible pool area and was the playground for Frank Sinatra and his rat pack back in the days.  I have a ton of pictures and will need to cull through them and send them out in separate posts.  Here's what we did:

Day 1: We got acquainted with Palm Springs and read all the famous stars on the sidewalks.  We also were amazed by the 34 foot statue of Marilyn Monroe. Seward Johnson of Johnson & Johnson is the artist and it is remarkably realistic (except for the sheer size).  It is in Palm Springs through June 2013.  We also had some pool time, of course!

Day 2:  We went on a self-guided mid century architecture tour.  We saw some pretty cool buildings, both residential and commercial, including Frank Sinatra's house and Elvis' honeymoon hideaway.  Pool, again, too!

Day 3:  (Christmas Day)  We drove through Rancho Mirage and Old Town LaQuinta.  Not much was open due to the holiday so we had plenty of pool time on this day, too.

Day 4:  We went to Joshua Tree National Park.  This park is stunningly beautiful and almost surreal in the way the rocks are organized.  There are all kinds of rocks...gritty and smooth.  Carli and Eric had a great time climbing a few of them.

Day 5:  On this day we went spent the first half of the day at the pool and then went to the Palm Springs Art Museum.  It had same amazing contemporary art, glass art and two outdoor gardens.  We then went to a new hip restaurant called Workshop.  It reminded us of the many cool restaurants in Portland.  One thing Palm Springs is definitely lacking is good restaurants.  This restaurant was probably the closest thing.  After dinner we went to Village Fest which is this open air market in downtown PS.  They close off the street to traffic and there are artisans, farmers markets and everything in between.

Day 6:  Pool time ALL day long.  It was great and even close to decadent given that we had the pool boys deliver us drinks and lunch!  It was the perfect way to end our vacation.