A Warm Weather Break

I do enough whining about cold weather that everyone who knows me is painfully aware of how I feel about living in Logan during the winter.  Therefore, spring break is an extremely important vacation opportunity for me, one that has to involve warm weather.  We started planning this trip last fall.  We decided on Indio, California because it's all but a guarantee that the weather will be amazing.  It would also put us in close proximity to Justin's Grandpa, giving him an opportunity to spend time with Vivian and Ivan.  We invited Justin's brother Christopher with his wife Brooke, and their daughter Caroline to join us.  We have been looking forward to this vacation for months.  That's kind of a big deal for us, since most of our vacations aren't planned far enough in advance to be looked forward to for that long.  This one is the exception.  We were counting down the months, weeks and finally days as it got closer.  We had drill the weekend before, and we had the misfortune of leaving from Orem last Sunday night after drill to drive to a hotel in Cedar City.  The weather was terrible.  For miles we crept along I-15 at 35mph while I wondered if we made the right choice leaving that night.  The roads were covered in snow, the wind gusts were (according to warning signs along the freeway) 70+ mph, and the snow was coming down so fast that my visibility was zilch.  The only thing I could see was the tail lights of the semi in front of me that I was following.  Five long hours later we arrived in Cedar City, grateful to be there and not in some snowdrift on the side of the freeway.  The kids slept the whole way there, and were up again at the crack of dawn.  None of that was how I had hoped to start our relaxing spring break.  However, the next day the drive was long, but went much better.  We didn't arrive in Indio until almost 6pm.  Christopher and Brooke had already spent the weekend in California.  But, they were unable to meet us at the timeshare for a few hours because Caroline was being seen at the urgent care for hives from an allergic reaction.  This is a  game that we have also played on vacation, and it's not a very fun game.  Thankfully, she was fine for the rest of the trip.

Our first day in Indio we spent most of the day just relaxing at the timeshare while Grandpa and his wife Linda visited with us.

For some reason she thought it would be a great idea to just hold herself up with the handles, so Justin figured out a way to make sure she could do it without drowning.  It apparently wasn't as much fun as she had envisioned since this position in the tube was abandoned pretty quickly.

Sitting still in the tube isn't really her idea of a good time.  It's more fun for her to be climbing all over her dad.

The weather was almost too good to be true.  It was in the high 80's and, the sky was cloudless.  We had lunch outside on the balcony, and while the girls napped we got a chance to sit and visit with Grandpa and Linda.  We took the kids to the playground for a little bit after their nap, and then Grandpa took us all to dinner before we had to say goodbye.  Hopefully it won't be so long before we see them again next time!

We spent the next day at Seaworld.  It took us a while to get there, and at one point I was certain that Justin had taken us there on the longest possible route, but I stand corrected.  We spent the next several hours with Christopher and Brooke, dragging our daughters from one end of the park to the other to take in the sights of a Beluga whale, orcas, dolphins, a pair of walruses (my personal favorite), flocks of penguins, sea lions, seals, sharks, turtles, and fish.

Vivian is fascinated with the turtles, and with this one the sentiment seemed to be mutual.

Checking out the sharks.

Drying their hands after washing up from feeding fish to the sea lions.  There is a video, but it's too big to upload here, so check facebook for that.

After a very full day of exploring the park we all loaded back into our cars and set off for Riverside for dinner with Justin's Aunt Melinda, and her husband Brian, and daughter Loren.  The dinner was great, and it's always nice to see them and get a chance to catch up a little bit.  When we left I think Vivian was asleep before the car even left the parking lot.  We got back to the timeshare, and I was getting the little ones changed and ready for bed, so I was the last one ready.  When I came in the bedroom for family evening prayers I found this:

It was the end of a very long day

So it ended up being just prayers with Justin and I that night.  

We slept with the blinds open while we were there, because it's so nice waking up to sunshine, especially when I live in a place where I have insulating curtains over all our windows.  It also means that we wake up early.

Sunshine isn't an effective alarm clock for everyone.

We still managed to have a slow start to the day, but Christopher and Brooke didn't seem to mind.  We spent another day just at the resort, hanging out at the pool and lazy river.  This isn't our usual vacation style, but we enjoyed the change of pace.

I wish that I had thought to take a picture while Caroline was still in the pool with her dad, but by the time it dawned on me to get out the camera she was with Brooke and I lounging around in the pool chairs. 

This was really Ivan's first time enjoying the outdoors, and he is a fan.

The next morning Christopher and Brooke had to return to Idaho for Christopher's drill weekend, and Justin and I set off for Joshua Tree National Park.  We decided to try and tackle a 3 mile hike to an oasis.  I was a bit concerned about the length since this was the first time that we were having Vivian hiking on her own without the backpack.  My worries were unfounded.  She loved it.  In fact I had to keep asking her not to run on the way there.  As we were nearing the oasis we got passed by a marine (easily identified as such because, although clearly off duty, he still insisted on wearing his tiny green PT shorts) who ran the entire thing up and back, apparently without twisting an ankle.  As he was passing us again on his way out Vivian remarked "well that guy is running Mom..."  I briefly wanted to stick out my foot and trip him just to prove to Vivian that it was a bad idea.

We need to find her a tiny camelback

Finally arriving at the oasis

Although she is a very good little hiker, Vivian's legs are still pretty short, so it took us quite a while to actually get there.  In fact, I'm not sure that we had really thought that part through.  Ivan was probably more relieved than anyone to arrive at the oasis and get a break from the baby carrier.

The oasis itself was not very big, so we didn't spend a ton of time there.  Justin and I are always talking about how some day we want to go to Morocco and take a camel trip out to an oasis in the desert.  This wasn't quite to the same scale as what we have in mind for that  trip, but for now it will have to do.

Justin was brimming over with pride, so he insisted on stopping to take pictures of her hiking back out.

Ivan and I preparing for departure.

On the hike back out there was a rather lengthy, steep incline where Justin had to carry Vivian, but most of the hike she did on her own.  It took us the better part of the day to complete, so next we decided to just move on to an area of the park where we could play around on some rocks.

Justin played with Vivian for a little while, and then came and took a turn with Ivan while I joined Vivian up on the rocks.  This picture makes me think that my days as favorite parent might be numbered with this one too.

As we were leaving we stopped to get a picture with this beautiful sunset.  I love desert sunsets.

Vivian was asleep the minute we got her in the car, and back asleep the second her head hit the pillow back at the resort.  We left early the next morning and decided to detour back through the park.  We stopped to take a few pictures along the way.

The wet weather has the desert flowers all in bloom.

Our traditional sign picture

Unfortunately we missed a key turn on our route back to the freeway, and we wound up driving a much slower route, but the emptiness of the desert is beautiful in it's own way, and we weren't sorry to spend the extra time away from the frantic traffic.  We made it back to Orem late that night, spent the night with my parents, attended church in their ward and arrived back in Logan Sunday evening.  The weather here seems to have taken a turn for the better in our absence.  While I would have liked another week, or two, or three in Indio, this definitely beats the temperatures of the past few months.