Mommy & Baby

This is one of my favorite pictures of us! I am not quite sure why I like this picture so much, perhaps it in the sun shining through, maybe it is the colors of the photo, something about this photo I just love! I just wanted to share it with all of you. I could have included it in one of the previous two posts, but it just wouldn't have done it justice, so instead, it gets its own post!

Rocks at Joshua Tree

One of my favorite things about Joshua Tree is the rock formations. "Who piled up all those rocks?" I read the answer, but it not nearly as entertaining as looking at them, climbing them and making guesses of what they look like. (The one on the bottom right looks like a bulldog to me, the one on the top middle is supposed to be "Skull Rock" you see what I mean?) While we were camping at Joshua Tree, we took a Hike/Walk on Saturday to admire these wonderful creations. Brendan had a great time in his front pack walking around, and Mercy & Jackson enjoyed the walk as well, of course, the boys enjoyed climbing the rocks to get higher, and higher... Here are my pictures of our rock climbing experience:

David, Tim & Scott (and Robyn) all decided to not take the trail back to the camp sight, but to go rock climbing and cut across all the rocks to get back to our site. Casey and I just took the trail and beat them back. Here are the boys accomplishing their goal! Poor Brendan got a little sunburned, and was extremely worn out after a long hot walk, it was nap time.

David, Tim & Scott (and Robyn) all decided to not take the trail back to the camp sight, but to go rock climbing and cut across all the rocks to get back to our site. Casey and I just took the trail and beat them back. Here are the boys accomplishing their goal! Poor Brendan got a little sunburned, and was extremely worn out after a long hot walk, it was nap time.

Camping at Joshua Tree

Last weekend we went camping at Joshua Tree with our friends, Robyn & David, Casey & Tim and Melissa & Troy. This was Brendan's second trip camping (although I forgot to take pictures of his first time) and it was a little bit stressful, not just for our family, but for everyone it seemed.

For us, we started by trying our best to be as organized as possible. Scott and I packed the car the night before, I have gotten pretty good and making everything fit in our tiny Hyundai Accent so that wasn't a big deal. We were sharing food with Tim and Casey, so Casey had already packed everything (since they went down Thursday night, this was a BIG help for me since I had just come back into town from Sacramento on Wednesday night). On Friday morning, with a full car, I took Scott to work, dropped off Brendan at Day care, and went into work early (after picking up ice from the grocery store). I got off of work a little early, picked up Brendan and then headed to Scott's school to pick him up, we were on our way!

Unfortunately, there is no cell phone service at all in Joshua Tree, not convenient at all for meeting a group there. The instructions of how to find the group were a bit confusing and we ended up driving around the park (the park is REALLY big) stopping at every posting sign in hopes of finding a note of where to find our group. We finally did find them and started setting up camp. Little by little we find things that we had forgotten to pack, like pillows for ourselves, and the rain cover to our tent. We didn't expect rain, but without the cover, it was just open mesh - and it was VERY cold at night! Luckily, Tim & Casey had an extra tarp that we were able to use instead.

Overall, we made it work, it was a great time spent with friends, even if it was a little cold at night. Brendan didn't do so well in the cold tent and ended up sleeping with me in my sleeping bag half-way through the night but we had a good time. Below are some more pictures of our trip.