We had a very safe & no unplanned events. The vehicle worked awesome the whole time & we’re all happy to be here without much plan for a few days. Vince
has a hot dog roast planned for tonight for the boys he’s been playing with. Last night Zach took the girls for a motorbike ride & then took the boys out hunting for rabbits – but I’ve done this for entirely too long today – I’m done! 🙂

Saturday, March 8th – Back to McNeal.


Do you think we could fit anymore in?
Yes, this is the back of a suburban, and to think we thought we’d fit into a van. This doesn’t even show the kids & the stuff they had – you know blankets, water bottles, things to do in the car :)!!!

We drove from Palm Springs to McNeal on Saturday, our biggest driving day. The kids did awesome! 30 miles out of Pheonix we got stuck in traffic, so we got off the freeway & got McD’s (yuck! but what was between us & the park without traffic) and went to a really cool park. At the park, we pulled out the remains of the box of push-ups that Bumma bought for the kids.

Palm Springs & swimming:


Jane brought Donkey, from Shrek, for Vince.


Pure contentment – could she use any more floaties?!
By the end of the week Jane had taught her to swim & she didn’t use floaties, but to start the week she didn’t even want her hair or face to get wet!


Vince brushed up his diving – very nicely done!

Wednesday was Disneyland, then back to Palm Springs

Tuesday, March 4th – We left the hotel at 5am and went to Long Beach, CA to see the Queen Mary. Then drove to San Clemente, spent time at the Beach & walked the San Clemente Pier at sunset & ate pizza at an outdoor pizza placeacross the street. Here are more beach pictures. The kids had such a blast running from the waves.


Christine & mom in front of the Queen Mary. Mom inside the rear of the Queen Mary, we snuck (sp?, this looks funny) in a back gate & peeked into this one area.


Bathing Beauties


Boys digging in the sand


running from the waves – if I could figure out how to do video you’d hear their shrieking 🙂

On Monday, March 3rd (already a week ago) we went for a walk along the side of the highway on curvy sidewalks – it was truly a visual & mental overload that there are really places like this.

This was our view when walking from the resort in Palm Springs. Yes, those are snow capped mountains in the background. I’m having a hard time remembering we’re in winter, it is just like our summer. While on this walk, The kids could all climb orange trees, pick the oranges & then eat them!

CJ climbed a tree to pick an orange!


Vince was able to get a grapefruit & this was on a sidewalk, along a highway!!!


Back up to the Sonora Desert Museum (Sat, March 1st), here are some more pictures.


The kids were so excited to touch a snake, it’s a gopher snake to be specific.


What was much neater to look at… 🙂 – There was a hummingbird place. It was enclosed & the hummingbirds would fly around you – we thought we’d be run into many times. This hummingbird was sitting on it’s nest, I was so excited I could zoom in so close. It was 5 or 6 feet away, so I wasn’t bothering it. If you put your thumb & first finger in a circle shape with about an inch opening that is about the size around of the nest – it was so small!

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