rock climbing for babies

We stopped for a short walk in the Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree

Waking up early to get to the Joshua Tree National Park. 8 AM and temp outside is 84 degrees.

dinner with the kids & maxing happy hour

A proper sized margarita. Luckily it was a short stagger back to the room.

the water bomb trick
Yes Daddy did throw her quite high in the air

chilling out after a long day of swimming

July 4th

Very hot day and a very warm pool



This is a pomegranate tree growing in the grounds of the hotel.

we chilled out a bit more

It was SO HOT at this place that we had to spend most of the day in the warm pool, as it was cooler than being out of the pool. Temp peaked at 117 farenheit but averaged at 109-111 every day. It was amazing. You went to bed and it was 91, at some point it dropped in the night as it was 84 by 8am. The 8am-10 am period was just fantastic, perfectly warm with a little breeze and before the sun started to scorch the hair off your arms. Sophie learned the hard way that she had to walk to the pool in her crocs, take them off in the water and put them back on as soon as she stepped out of the pool again.

more pool/swim shots

So Scarlett had 13 swim lessons and proved that it was money well spent. It was amazing to watch her jump in again and again and swim around like a little fish. She needs to build up her confidence but she can hold her breath for quite a long time and managed to swim the length of one of the pools (20 odd feet?) if myself or Robb was swimming next to her. Sophie just chillaxed most of the time, either in her ring or with arm bands, or solo. Oddly we had a number of comments from people in the hotel, both at the pool and about in the grounds, at how well behaved our kids were?

some swimming shots

117 degrees, the pool was the only place Blondie wanted to be


the first swim of the holiday

we decided to go on VayKay

We took a short break around the July 4th weekend and drove 2 and half hours east of LA into an area called Palm Desert which is surrounded by the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and of course the Joshua Tree National Park. There is just one road to take you there, the I-10. We went to Palm Springs in November so we decided to stay in La Quinta this time, another 20 miles further east.

We stayed in a very lovely hotel resort called La Quinta Spa & Resort. The resort has lots of little 2 story casitas rather than one big building. There are a couple of big pools but most of the casitas have a pool to share between 4-6 rooms, so there are about 40 pools in the resort. Scarlett and Sophie spent more time swimming then sleeping. It is quite a fancy place with lots of tennis courts, a fitness center and a spa. We used the fitness center - spa/tennis next time maybe!

bit of baking

three cooks managed to bake 2 loaves of zucchini bread, and the end result was delicious.

visit to Los Angeles Zoo

It was foggy again in Santa Monica so we drove about an hour northeast to the LA Zoo where it was sunny and a very comfortable 84 degrees. The zoo itself was very pretty with big leafy jungly plants around and exotic looking flowers. We saw a few animals(lions/giraffes/chimps etc) due to very slow progress by the two little ones....but Sophie did learn a new word - 'monkeeee'.