Secret Agent Josephine

We took a road trip out to Palm Springs this past Friday. Bug and I needed some adventure and my mom and my nieces needed a day off from school. Well, my mom isn’t in school but she needed some time off from her full time job of playing Farmville all day. I swear she needs an intervention with that game.

Our first stop was the Cabazon Dinosaurs. I’d never been before so this was a real treat for me. However the wind that almost whipped my head off was not a real treat. I guess a mighty wind is better to deal with than 120 degrees of heat though.

The girls climbed around on the dinosaur claws and then we went inside the giftstore/museum to pet some freaky robot dinosaurs that growled and snarled at us. If the management wanted to, they could really make that tour scary. Add some mood lighting and haunted music and I’d be scared right out of my skin. Thankfully, it’s mostly geared to education with some gospel preaching on the side.

I really like how this museum tour is interactive with dinosaur bones to dig and colored rocks to sluice. The kids had a blast. I think it was worth the five dollar admission even with the wind that tied our hair up in knots.

I think the funnest part is staging crazy photos where the dinosaurs look real. Run Little Bug! Run!

Spring in the desert is always beautiful.

Of course we had to climb up inside the giant t-rex and sit in his mouth for a while. That was pretty fun.

By the time we were done with the dinosaurs we were famished so we drove into town and found a nice spot for a picnic.

Nothing like a yummy avocado sandwich! Except I put sprouts on my sandwich (no one else did) and I came down with food poisoning the next day. So even though this picnic was delightful I’m not remembering it that fondly now that I’ve lost ten pounds violently. But hey I fit my skinny jeans now!

The weather in Palm Springs was beautiful. I’m sure it’s because they have that great big mountain to block all the wind. When we were on the other side of the mountain we were cold and wind blown but as soon as we turned the corner into town there were people all over walking around in shorts and tank tops. Funny how that works.

But that wasn’t the end of our road trip. We had to stop by my favorite favorite thrift store on the way out of town. I had some baby-sitting money burning in my pocket and we had a lot of fun spending it on silly hats and vintage clothes.

Then I went home and got really really sick! I guess things have to balance out and we had too much fun or something. The good news is I’m all better! Phew!

We had such a nice Valentine’s Day. We’re not really into chocolate and roses in this family. We don’t even go for jewelry or electronics but we do have one tradition that I love love love. And that is that the girls get to pick out their own flowers from the flower stand that I used to work at so long ago. I love that little flower stand.

Bug knew exactly what she wanted. She bee-lined it for the sunflowers and completely ignored any of my suggestions. She didn’t want pink roses or any fancy lilies that smell good. She wanted a yellow sunflower, a pink gerber daisy and some green button mums. Nothing else would do. (The picture on the right is of her holding a bouquet for her Grandma Pat who we visited the next day.)

Maybe she had been planning out that bouquet for months as we stroller by this particular flower stand quite frequently. I’m always telling her that we can’t buy flowers today but we will on Valentine’s Day so she has been looking forward to this for a very long time.

Valentine’s Day did not disappoint. It is so fun to pick out your own flowers! I’d trade a thousand boring grocery store pre-made bouquets for my own simple handpicked bundle of hydrangeas, peach roses, ranunculus and lavender sprigs. But I think what really made our day was the silly red sequined plastic heart that Toby bought Bug for a $1.75. That silly heart made her so happy.

I thought that was the end of our Valentine festivities but Toby suggested a little family outing after we finished up with the flowers. Flowers and an adventure? Bring it on! We quickly put our flowers in a watering can on our patio and then piled into the van for a little trip to the beach. Not just any beach though. We were off to the beach of BIG WAVES!

Maybe you’ve heard of The Wedge. It’s a pretty famous surf spot where the waves come in and then bounce off the jetty over top the waves that are still coming in. That probably doesn’t make sense but just imagine two waves crossing each other and the mayhem of water and power that that can create. It can get pretty exciting, especially after a storm. People die there all the time surfing in the dangerous conditions.

It turned out that the waves weren’t very big on Valentine’s Day but it was still a fun place to spend some family time. Bug could have cared less about the waves. She just wanted to climb all over the jetty rocks and play in the sand. We could have dropped her off in a sandbox in Anaheim and she probably would have been just as happy. But that’s okay. Family time together is always good no matter where it is and hey, I got to watch the body boarders and skim-boarders. That was fun for me.