The Wonderland

This past saturday I spent the day in a outdoor class taught by an ecologist and avid outdoorsman (Lyndsey's idea for a xmas gift, VERY COOL BABE). This guy (Mark Wheeler) has spent the last 30 years or so learning about and literally living in practically every square inch of the thousands of acres that make up the Joshua Tree National Monument.

He took our class of nine people deep into a part of the monument known as "the Wonderland of Rocks". I thought I had seen it all up there but boy was I wrong. We never once came across another human while out there deep in the Wonderland. Tons of rock and boulder scrambling made it a very exciting 8 hour adventure, especially combined with Mark's knowledge.

Below are some photos that will hopefully give you at least a glimmer of what I experienced. I can hardly wait to go back.

Hands Free

I saw this YouTube clip on another blog and I thought it was great. Plus I needed to add something to our blog so the first picture I saw was not my Dad in a mullet wig.

New Ad Campaign For Yucca Valley

"Come to Yucca Valley. Where everyone lets their hair down."

The superior air quality here in the hi-desert can cause The Crazy to come out in those conservative type folk.

(Sorry Dad..... Mom made me do this.)

Halloween

Chloe and Ryder had the best time on Halloween. I think this was actually the first Halloween experience for them. In the past, we usually go to our church's Harvest Festival and load up on candy there. A friend of Aaron's from work invited us to come to their house for a Halloween party so Chloe and Ryder went trick or treating with their kids. Chloe didn't need any coaching on how this was going to work. She ran up to the front door with all the other kids to get her treats. Ryder, on the other hand, stayed back with me. I told him that we were going to knock on that person's door, say 'trick or treat,' then they were going to give him candy. He replied, "But Mom! They are strangers! I can't take candy from strangers!" After getting the okay from me, there was no hesitation. For the next 48 hours, the kids were in a candy stupor and that was only from the candy eaten on Halloween night. Of course, I have no good pictures of the kids on Halloween. Surprise, surprise. I guess I should have alerted the photographer that he was supposed to be taking pictures. So here are a couple from our daytrip to Idyllwild with my folks.

We had a great time with Grannie and Papa and we can't wait to see them again! xoxoxo