Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Day 2 - Palm Springs Vacation

What a way to wake up in the morning - Sunshine, Sunshine, Sunshine!  It was fabulous and exceeded our expectations.  We grabbed coffee and drinks and sat outside and just enjoyed it. Dan made everyone a great breakfast to enjoy.
There were hats at the house we were renting and the kids thought it was super cool to wear them that morning so we had a little hat party at 9am. 



Right after breakfast the kids were were ready to hit the pool and since it was heated we let them even that early in the morning.  We were staying on a golf course and my dad sees some people getting ready to tee off behind us and decided that he just had to talk to them.  He proceeded to jump over the fence and threw one leg over the top and slid across on his belly and jumped down.  Not a smart move - again the stucco attacks!  He definitely knew better coming back over and wasn't about to make that mistake again, we did get a few pictures of his wall jumping escapade. 


Landon and Dan playing football in the pool.
Since it was the first full day for my parents they wanted to hang out for awhile. The guys, my dad, Dan, and Landon did get a round of golf in that day though.  They couldn't wait to get going.  Me and my mom hung out with the kids at the house and the pool for awhile.  They wanted to swim, swim, swim.  They had a little snack picnic together outside.  And I took the opportunity to attempt to catch some rays and relax.

After awhile I was getting antsy to get out of the house and go do or see something.  We found a flea market that was only a couple of miles away to walk around.  We ate lunch there and just walked around and did a little bit of shopping.  This was definitely not a place that the kids were excited to be at or enjoyed.  There were only a few booths that had kids toys or anything that interested them.  There was a ton of booths for casual clothing for the older generation and swimsuits and beach towels and random things.  We attempted to get the kids to take naps when we got back the house, but the only one who actually took one was Riley. We went out to eat that night at a place called the Jackelope Ranch.  Our plan was to hit their happy hour and we had looked at the menu before hand.  The place was really cool from the outside and the kids thought it was great.  We got there around 5 or 5:30pm and Happy Hour ended at 6pm.  Unfortunately there is a specific section of the restaurant you have to sit in to get the happy hour menu and it was packed full both inside and outside.  I figured that the menu options would still be the same and asked that we get seated wherever, I was wrong!  The menu was different and much more expensive for the inside seating.  The other problem was it was very fancy and quiet and all the adults looked at each with a look of terror with 4 little kids who are not used to eating out that much and sitting nicely and quietly.  The kids actually did amazing that night.  My dad at one point got up and went to the restroom and when he came back of course then one of the kids had to go.  We thought it was hilarious and said - Well, you know where the bathrooms are so you can go head and take them and he did.  When he returned to the table of course another kiddo had to go to the restroom and we sent them with my dad as well - it was too funny to see him return to the table just waiting to see which kid was going to jump up next.  Dinner was nice, expensive and sorry that Jeff and Tonah had missed it.  We were getting in a hurry towards the end knowing we had to drop part of our crew off and me and my dad had to get to the airport to pick up the rest of our vacation crew.  Outside the restaurant it was surrounded by orange trees.  Dan jumped up and grabbed each kiddo an orange.



After the orange picking we rushed back and dropped everyone off and darted to the airport.  I was the navigator again and as we were getting close to the airport I pulled up the internet and started looking at the incoming flights to Palm Springs.  I noticed that the airline my brother was flying in on was not scheduled to come in for another hour, but yet it was "On Time".  I kept thinking ...hmmm, this doesn't really seem right when my mom said they were coming in now.  I finally called my mom and asked if she was sure on the arrival time because I was showing it an hour later.  I was right, they weren't due in for another hour and she had us rushing off to the airport, of course everyone back at the house thought it was funny.  We figured we go into the airport and grab a beer and wait, no big deal.  We walk into the tiny airport and the bar is closed - seriously!  We didn't figure we would have much time to drive somewhere, grab a beer and get back so we sat and waited.  I taught my dad to play angry birds on my phone which was hilarious and then we did some people watching which was even funnier making up stories about people waiting for their loved ones.  My brother, Tonah, and Greyson did finally arrive and we were so happy to see them.  They said Greyson did great on both flights and slept.  We grabbed their luggage and back to the house we went.  So finally everyone in our vacation party was in Palm Springs.  We decided after the delay with part of crew that we would hold off one more day for Disneyland and go on Tuesday and planned on hitting The Living Desert Zoo the next day.
We got back to the house and the new crew was pretty tired from all their traveling from the day.  My crew was already in bed so me and my mom decided to grab a few beers and hit the hot tub - awww - a great way to end the day!
I'm ready for some hot tub time!
Me and my mom enjoy some time together.