Me and the grandson at the Living Desert

I was going through hubby's photos because my laptop is just giving me fits!  I constantly lose my Internet connection to the point I am ready to throw it out of the nearest window!  Grrrrrrrrrr!  So, I'm using his new one and I found the photos he took when we went to the Living Desert with our grandson.  Ben loves going there to see the trains, which we did on this day.  We also took him to the kid play area, "Gecko Gulch".  There is a slide made to look like a saguaro there and this was after he went down it by himself for the first time.  He was just so excited!  I took him over to the "making mud pie" area, but he didn't want to do that.  He did enjoy crawling around through the various tunnels there and after this, I took him over to the carousel. Finally, after we were done with the Living Desert, we took him to the new Old Spaghetti Factory in town and he ate the broccoli off my chicken alfredo and ate my ice cream!  It was a fun day and he slept for two hours after we got him home!  Yes, that's a huge kingsnake crawling thing for the kids, but we didn't see ANY kids on it!  They might need to rethink that one!

Hello girls!

What a difference a day makes!  Saturday was warm and just a bit breezy when I went up to visit the horses. The girls, Scout and Cali, were waiting in their corral.  They have a Peruvian Paso mare next to them and she and Scout frequently "talk" over the corral fence.  Scout is quite attached to her.  Yesterday was cold and very windy, so I stayed home and did laundry and cleaned the kitchen. It's my first day of spring break. All of the horses are fine and they are all shedding!

Riders on the Pacific Crest Trail

I pass a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail on my way to the horse ranch up in the mountains and today I noticed a lot of horse trailers at the local restaurant up there at the corner of Highway 74 and 371.  I wondered what was going on and on my way down I saw horses coming to the trailers on their way back from a ride on the trail.  Some of the horses were very eager to get back to their trailer and home!  I'm glad I got to see them!

morning clouds

This was the view yesterday morning as I went for my walk.  I am back walking my 15-20 minutes in the morning, even with my sore knee.  I just kind of drag it along with me...I'm taking a liquid glucosomine (sp?) supplement and it seems to be helping. It's not as terribly sore as it was and once I get walking, the joint seems to move a lot smoother.  Anyway, aren't the clouds gorgeous?  I never know what I'll see in the mornings during my walk.  One morning I ran into a group of 6 ravens who showed off their aerial skills for me.  Another morning, I saw a group of 6 huge jackrabbits!  They nearly scared the breath out of me!  But yesterday, it was quiet around the desert.  I only saw 2 ravens and a couple of cottontails.

Joshua Tree rock climbers

I could never be a rock climber.  First, I'm terrified of heights.  My hands get all sweaty just thinking about it.  Second, now that I have a sore knee...forget it!  But I love to see the rock climbers at Joshua Tree National Park and I always look for them when we visit the park.  Here are a few from last weekend.  What about you...are you a rock climber?

Miniature trains

The Living Desert Reserve here in Palm Desert has one of the most impressive and extensive collection of miniature trains.  The local miniature train club maintains the trains there and you can see small towns, farms, Indian villages and there is even a fire station.  It also includes a model of Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon, as well as a waterfall, complete with a tiny grizzly bear who is fishing for salmon!  It really is impressive and sometime I'll go back without the grandson (it's hard to take photos AND keep one eye on him!!!) and take photos of the entire thing.  It is a fairly large exhibit and there are always kids looking at the little trains.  Their detail is amazing! If you have a kid (or adult) interested in miniature trains, this is the place to take them!

Living Desert and grandson

We got to babysit the grandson yesterday and we took him to the Living Desert Reserve to see the trains.  He made a beeline toward them and spent some time studying them.  He also waved to them.  These are miniature trains and I'll post more photos of them later this week.  See Granddad and the little stroller?  HA!  I asked him to push it most of the afternoon because I was concentrating on handling my camera with my sore knee.  We did take him on the carousel again (his second time) and this time, he wanted to ride the lion and he had a blast!  Then, we went off to see the Mexican wolves (they were OUT and very visible!), then to the duck pond and back to the trains for one last farewell.  Next, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for pasta and ice cream!  Finally, he fell asleep in the car on the way to his house and he slept for ... TWO HOURS!  Phew!  So did Granddad and I!!!