The Run-Down on Palm Springs and Picture link

Palm Springs was FUN! We left San Diego just after 1:00pm on Friday, picking up Foster from school early. All 3 kids conked out early on in the drive so it was nice and quiet. We arrived at our hotel just after 3:30 and checked in. We met up with some cyber-friends and settled into our room which was in a perfect location just next to the pool. Unfortunately that afternoon and evening, Palm Springs was hit by some pretty strong wind. We did go into the pool but with the wind, it was quite chilly. Dinner (family-style with all the families there) was fun as well. We ended the day with me sleeping in one bed with Seth and Laura sleeping in the other bed with Logan because they couldn’t seem to NOT bug each other in the same bed. Foster slept on a cot. I didn’t sleep well that night as I would wake up every time Seth rolled over panicked that he’d fall out of the bed – which I might add was very NOT low to the ground and the floor was tile. I think I caught him no less than a dozen times during the night “thisclose” to the edge of the bed.

Saturday morning brought us to breakfast in the hotel lobby. We then decided to forgo some of the activities and we went to the Palm Springs Ariel Tramway. We took the kids to the top where it was a chilly 38 degrees. Seth (AKA: Mr. No Body Fat) got chilled within a few minutes of being outside. We did have fun letting the kids crawl over the rocks and explore the area. We knew we wouldn’t make it back to the hotel in time for lunch so we ate “at the top of the mountain”. Damn, they are expensive up there but the view is breath-taking ---- literally. I felt it a bit harder to catch my breath being so far up but felt much better when we took the tram back down. We got back to the hotel just in time for “Family Tie-Dying” – that was super-fun. We “tie-dyed” shirts and socks. It was fun to know that we can do that and NOT be responsible for cleaning up the mess afterwards. We then spent some time in the pool and got to relax for about 10 minutes.

On Saturday evening two large “cruise” buses arrived at the hotel to take everyone to a private house a few miles away. Well, “house” doesn’t do justice. It was an estate. The couple (Tom Bombadier and John Fowler) who own the house hosted an amazing event for the families that evening. They actually rolled out the “red carpet” (you can see it in the pictures) for us when we arrived. They set up tables upon tables on the tennis courts. Around the perimeter were the food stations and they thought of everything – including an OPEN BAR. They had all kid-friendly food – mini pizzas, chicken fingers, hot dogs and burgers. They had a “Make your own Sundae bar” and a “Candy Bar” where they had all these huge glass jars filled to the top with various candies and you got to fill as many bags as you wanted with whatever candy you wanted to take with you. The President of Family Pride gave a speech and they had a fund-raiser and the hosts were going to donate $25,000.00 if all the rest of us donated that much. Within 15 minutes of fund-raising (filling out promise cards) they raised close to $70,000.00!!!! Excellent. Then they handed out glow sticks to all the kids and showed a private screening of “Shrek II”. Foster, Logan and Seth did really well and we all enjoyed the movie. Then the buses came back and shuttled us all back to the hotel where we crashed – but best part yet, Logan and Seth slept in the same bed! Yay!

Sunday morning we went to the hotel lobby again to have breakfast and then a dip in the pool and then Laura packed the room while I tried to entice the kids to go for a walk – they did. We were supposed to meet back up with some of our cyber-buds but time ran out as we had to check-out by noon. We made even better time back to San Diego, less than 2 hours, and again, all 3 kids slept most of the way. We arrived home just in time to put in 3 loads of laundry.

Fun trip – we can’t wait to do it again next year!!!!!

Enjoy the pictures here:

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