Palm Springs Part I - Joshua Tree

We had a great time in Palm Springs - too many great pictures for just one post!! Here we are in beautiful California ready to start our adventure!

The first day there we drove to Joshua Tree National Park. Although its name makes you think that the trees will be the highlight of the park, they do not even compare to the rocks! 

The rocks were just calling our names begging us to do a little climbing!

As you can see, Dan was a little more adventurous than me!

Noah and I chose to stay at the bottom of this one!

We stopped several times along the main road just to take in the views and take some pictures too!

The rocks are truly amazing - like this one below - how does that big rock on top not tip and fall?

Daddy and Noah taking in the views - too hard to capture the glory in pictures!

Mommy and Noah with a famous Joshua Tree

We also got the stroller out and walked around a little bit. Noah loved taking in all the views!

Definitely an experience that I will never forget! It was a great Sunday where we truly got to worship God's creation in all of its glory! As we walked and explored we couldn't help but call to mind scripture and songs about the Rock of Ages. These lyrics: "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand" become very literal and meaningful when you are in the middle of the desert with all of these rocks. So grateful to serve a God who can remind us of his unshakable power and trustworthiness in the middle of such a beautiful park!

After driving through the park, we went to the Joshua Tree Visitors Center.

 

By far, Noah's favorite part of our trip was getting his new friend Kickapoo! It is a kangaroo rat stuffed animal that he loves - it has a really long tail and is very soft! Why the kangaroo rat? It was by far the cutest - desert animals are not very cute - snakes, owls, lizards, etc. And why the name? Kickapoo is the name of a street in Palm Springs that Dan and Noah both thought was pretty funny!

 On the way back we stopped to try to get a picture of all of the wind turbines, but it is impossible! They go on and on - like a sea of wind turbines! You can get a little bit of an idea from our pictures, but nothing compares to seeing them in real life - very cool!

First Airplane Ride

Dan had a conference for work in Palm Springs, California so Noah and I decided to tag along and we extended our trip a little to make a vacation out of it. This was Noah's first time on an airplane and my first time packing to fly with a baby - and overall it was a raving success! It was freezing when we left Charlotte - Here is Noah all bundled up for the trip ahead!

He loved watching all the action at the airport!

He cried for about 5 minutes when the plane took off, but then he fell right to sleep and slept for almost 2 hours. The rest of the flight to Phoenix, he just played and was very content! We were very thankful for this answer to prayer! I really didn't want to be that person on a plane with a screaming baby for three and a half hours!

My arm got tired, so Dan had to take over nap time and even caught a little nap himself!

On the flight from Phoenix to Palm Springs, Noah was an angel! I think his favorite part was looking at the safety card in the seat back pocket!

Praise the Lord for a successful first flight with a baby!

Happy Halloween

For Noah's first Halloween, he was a giraffe....of course! I figure I better take advantage while I still get to pick his costume and he doesn't have an opinion!

 I just love the little tail!!!

Dan's parent were in town visiting, so we went out to eat. We were laughing at dinner because  Noah had his giraffe costume on, a giraffe pacifier in his mouth, and was playing with Sophie, his giraffe toy (mommy may have a giraffe problem!)

 

After dinner we came back and enjoyed passing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters! Maybe next year we will take Noah out to get some candy of his own!

7 Months Old

Noah is 7 months old today! I know I say this every month, but I really can't believe it! It feels like just yesterday they were setting my brand new baby on my chest after delivery! Anyways (sentimental moment over!), Noah is doing great! Despite having a rough few weeks with being sick and teething, he is right on the verge of crawling which is pretty exciting and terrifying all at the same time! He still loves to eat and he loves to play peek-a-boo! Noah has really enjoyed trying fruits - the only one he isn't a big fan on is avocado which is really sad for me because I love avocado and Mexican food! He also recently started to eat puffs which he also loves. It is really fun to watch Noah learning to pick things up and put them in his mouth, use his sippy cup, and get around more and more.

 And here is one more cute one from the tub tonight - Noah loves bath time! He has started splashing which he thinks is hilarious, but I might need to invest in a rain jacket for bath time pretty soon! 

 What a blessing it is to be entrusted with this sweet little guy!!

Gator Game

On Wednesday, we headed down to Columbia, SC to see my cousin Holly play volleyball against USC. It was a lot of fun to see family and introduce them to Noah. My aunt was so sweet to get Noah some official Gator Gear!

Here we are at the game! Noah was a trooper. He missed his late afternoon nap and stayed up way past his bedtime, but he was a pretty happy camper the whole game!

And here is the whole family after the game My dad, Noah, Dan, Me, My mom, Tommy, Holly, my niece Katie, Uncle Jules, Aunt Terri, John, Timmy, and Danny. Quite an impressive cheering section if you ask me!!

And here is our family with our favorite gator, Holly!

Noah also enjoyed getting some "kills" after the game. Even though this is definitely a net violation, it's a start! He loved it!! 

Great game Holly! We are pretty sad it's your senior year and that will probably be the last game that we get to see her play in! 

Topsail Beach

We just spent an amazing week at Topsail Beach with my family! It was so much fun to be with family and introduce Noah to the beach for the first time.

Saturday

We arrived Saturday and were excited to get Noah down to the beach right away. He loved the sand between his toes just like his parents!!

Sunday

We were eager Sunday to get out on the beach and get some sun! Noah really enjoyed being out there and taking in all the sights as well!

He was even able to catch a nap on the beach!

Below is the view from our beach house. Suzi and Greg got the place and it couldn't have been more perfect! There was plenty of space for everyone and it was right on the beach which made it easy to go back and forth from the house to the beach.

Monday

Unfortunately, Noah didn't sleep the best while we were away. I think between sleeping in the pack-n-play, being in the same room as us, and possibly cutting another tooth, he had a rough week! On Monday morning he was up at like 5 a.m. with no signs of going back to sleep. I begrudgingly decided to go sit out on the porch with him so that he didn't wake anyone else. Although I was exhausted from being up several times throughout the night as well, what a blessing to catch the sun coming up and this beautiful view!

We enjoyed playing some bocce ball on the beach and Noah also had a great time splashing his feet in the water!

Tuesday

We continued to enjoy our time at the beach on Tuesday - I just love Noah in these sunglasses, although he isn't the biggest fan!

Tuesday night, we played Pictionary. It was boys vs. girls and we had so much fun and A LOT of laughs!

The girls were blue and the boys were yellow - you can see that they were barely a quarter of the way around the board when we won. Needless to say, they kept trying to come up with ways that we cheated, but I promise we didn't!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Suzi and I wanted to get some pictures of the grandkids for my mom. She had bought them all Topsail Beach t-shirts, so we headed out in the morning before the sun was too hot. Suzi got a lot of great shots of Noah and the girls!

We also went for a walk on the pier. It was beautiful and very interesting to see so many people fishing! Here we are on the pier. Like I said, Noah isn't a big fan on the glasses hahah. If you look over my shoulder, you can see our house, it's the second on from the right.

On our walks, the girls and I decided we wanted to build a sand castle. We decided that a donut with sprinkles (shells) would be the best choice. Here they are with our finished product.

Thursday

We hung out at the beach again. When you know fall is right around the corner, you have to soak up every last bit of warm sunshine!!

In the evening, Suzi got out her good camera and we took some family photos. Here are a few sneak peaks.

Sisters (Suzi, Sarah & I)

Friday

Dan and I decided it would be best to pack it up and leave Friday night so that Noah would sleep all the way home. 5 Hours is a little over his limit for riding in the car. So we headed out to the beach early and then came in early to pack everything up and get on the road. Here we are as a family on our last day on the beach.

It was a wonderful week that we won't soon forget! Many thanks to Suzi and Greg for arranging everything and providing the house for us! We all took turns cooking and we ate like fabulous meals all week! So thankful for a week to rest and enjoy making memories with family!