Palm Desert

So moving backwards here...this is the second half of the trip.  Are you following so far?  Ha!

Last week Morgan, Jack and I flew with Jenifer and Arianna to So Cal to spend the week out in Palm Desert.  108 degrees.  Hot.  But a great visit and some fun activities thrown in the mix.

On the drive out to the desert we saw a billboard for a local hotel that looked like a fun place to entertain the kids.   One of the pluses of visiting the desert in the summer is the cheap room rates.  Rancho Las Palmas is an awesome resort.  The rooms are recently remodeled and the swim area referred to as Splashtopia is geared toward families.  We got a room with easy access to the Splashtopia area which made coming and going easy.  There was a huge pool, lazy river, a couple long slides, a beach entry pool and a water park.  It may have been 108 degrees, but this was a great way to cool off.

And Jack went down his first slide. He barely made the height requirement, but he was fearless and went again and again.

The last night we went to the Palm Springs Aerial Tram.  I'm not sure why after living most of my life in Southern California I never managed to do this, but this was great.  First of all as we rose 8,500 feet we went from 100 degree weather to 70 degree.  Ahhh, natural air condition how I have missed you!!  The tram ride? Awesome-it rotates so you get spectacular 360 degree views.  At the top?  Amazing.  Talk about a contrast in terrains.  And again more views.

Backwards Week

Long neglected little blog...

Sleeping in our own beds, catching up around the house, and enjoying the last half of summer-that is what on the agenda this week.

Our summer so far has been busy.  I like busy, it keeps everybody from whining and gives me an excuse not to get everything on my to do list done.  But there is something to be said for having a lazy day or two.  And that is exactly what I have planned this week.  However, I'll catch you up on our busy-promising to share a little every day for the rest of the week.

I think I'll start backwards.

On Saturday, Morgan, Jack and I flew from So Cal to Sacramento (and might I add that Sacramento may just have the nicest airport I've ever been in!) and were picked up by Chris, Garrett and a soccer friend for a weekend tournament in Elk Grove.  We had just left the desert, so I was very much looking forward to a weekend in the low 90's!  But low 90's on an AstroTurf field is more like 100-sigh!

Once again, I'm the team photographer, so escaping under an umbrella from the heat was not an option.  But at least I wasn't running around, it was tough in that heat.

This was Garrett's first tournament of the season.  They came in third which sounds impressive, but it was a pretty small tournament.  They only had 3 goals scored on them and they scored 3 goals in four games.  So not a lot of excitement.  But Garrett did get 2 of the 3 goals so he was happy. 
We ended up in the consolation bracket against against the Ptown team.  Trust me, we were all scratching our heads that we had to wait around for a 4:30 game to play a team from our own city.

Jack has been coming to Garrett's soccer games since he was a couple weeks old. Of all the teams Garrett has been on, this is the first year there is a little boy the same age as Jack. Jack was thrilled (and we were thrilled that he would be entertained). This is a definite bonus to the team this year.

We did not get home until 7:00 on Sunday and let me tell you a bed has never looked so inviting.

Just a sneak

 

So many pictures...just giving a little taste of our vacation.  Piles of laundry await, so will share more later.