Palm Springs Part III - The Living Desert

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE giraffes! On Tuesday, we headed to The Living Desert Zoo. I got to check something off the bucket list: Feeding Giraffes! Oh my goodness - it was amazing! Here are Noah and I feeding and petting the giraffes (sorry it's sideways - but you still get the idea!)

It was amazing to be so close and we hung out there for quite some time!

I even got to take a selfie with the giraffe!!

There were other animals at the zoo too. I'm not even sure what kind of animal this guy is, but he had the biggest horns I have ever seen on an animal!

If you look closely, you can see a cheetah laying in the middle of the picture.

Noah wasn't too impressed by the animals, but he did love this warthog statue!

There were also Kudus in with the giraffes. They are really cool looking animals - love the antlers!

I think Dan was a little jealous of how cool it was for me to feed the giraffes, so at the end of our trip, we headed back for him and Noah to feed the giraffes too! This time, there was even a baby giraffe! Noah loves feeding him!

Definitely a day that I will never forget!!

Palm Springs Part II - San Jacinto Mountains

On Monday, we headed for The San Jacinto Mountains. San Jacinto Peak is the 6th highest mountain peak in the U.S. and we were taking a tram to the top (What were we thinking?!?) The tram is the world's largest rotating tram car. Yes...I said rotating! As you go up the mountain, the floor of the tram rotates two times around allowing you to get a 360 view of the mountains and the view! It was amazing and terrifying all at the same time!

See the tower in the next picture? These towers are NOT your friend! The worst part of the whole trip up (other than how terrifyingly high you are) was every time that you passed one of these towers, the tram car would rock back and forth. 

 Once again, the pictures don't really do it justice. But we were really high - 8,516 feet high to be exact!

Here we are at the top - a little dark and a lot freezing, but you get the idea!

I don't know why, but I just thought this tree was the coolest thing!

More beautiful views!

We were able to snap a few pictures at the top, but it really was freezing up there, so we didn't want to keep Noah out too long! This one of Noah and I is one of my favorites from our trip!

We hung out in the lodge for a little while and then heading back down as the sun was setting and the  moon was coming out. 

Another beautiful day in California!

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!