Yvonne's Magic Carpet Ride!! Yvonne got to be the second try at a magic trick at Wild Lights at the Wildlife Park here. The first kid got scared and chickened out, so Yvonne jumped in. It was a bit scary as she had to hang her head over the edge of a chair. The magician slowly slid the other chairs out from under her and left just one chair. Very cool. She says it felt like she was laying on a cushion. We sure couldn't tell how it was rigged. Lila got a video, so stay tuned in a few days we should be able to post a video of it. The light show was lovely. They had all sorts of cool moving displays including Santa golfing a hole in one. They also had a small animal show where we got to see a porcupine, opossum, hedgehog, owl, and a small cat like a bobcat but can't remember the name.

Yesterday, we took the girls to the Children's Discovery Museum in Rancho Mirage. It was a really neat museum geared to young children and imagination type play stations. The kids' favourite things were the pizza parlor (where you made fabric pizzas), the rock climbing wall, the hoist yourself up in a chair thingy and the veterinarian clinic.

Joshua Tree National Park wins the award for the first major place to get a second entry in this blog. We had such a great day sharing this National Park with John, Lila and Marina. We spent the entire day driving and hiking the various areas of this park. It is about 35 miles long. We entered at the south end and climbed constantly all day. The terrain starts out dry and exactly what all us northerners would expect a desert to look like. Slowly,we got into rockier and rockier terrain. John won the guess that it was all made of Magma. We stopped and hiked through a huge batch of Cholla cacti (last picture). They are a cool cactus with long, silvery spikes on them. We even found one that had been killed off and only the inner skeleton was left standing. It was hollow and very hard with many small holes. Our favourite part of the day was the last hike at Hidden Valley. It is about 1 mile loop that takes you through all sorts of cool rock formations. It was a special day we will all remember.

Lemonade Anyone? Boxing Day Marina and Yvonne put together some fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice. The had enough customers to make $3. They had a fun time. It was Marina's first day back to herself, so we were all happy to see her up and about! While we were lounging in the sun, we had a hot air balloon pass overhead. It was so close, we could here the fire being turned on and off to control their flight.

Christmas was very nice being able to enjoy it with Dad, Mavis, John and Lila and all our assorted kids.

Grapefruit Anyone??? We spent the day with John, Lila and Marina at their resort in Indian Wells. It's just about 15 minutes away from us, so very convenient. They have amazing fruit trees in their courtyard, so we picked to our hearts' content. We now have two huge bags of fresh citrus. Yvonne has been enjoying squeezing fresh juice every day. I've been using fresh squeezed lemon and orange juice in recipes. SO LOVELY!

Lila and I went out for a walk while the guys took care of poor, sick Marina. We made our way through someone's back yard to walk on a golf course. Of course, we got chatting and taking pictures of the huge full moon rising. Next thing we knew, it got dark and we were turned around and lost. After a few miss-estimations, we stopped and asked someone how to get "home". They pointed us through some bushes that took us straight over to their resort. WHEW! Got a good walk in, that's for sure!

Indian Waters RV Park in Indio has been our home since last Friday. We're not sure where the days have gone, but here we are on Christmas Eve. The picture above is the view from our campsite through the trees at sunset. All the hills are a reddish colour that is beautiful agains the backdrop of green fruit trees. We have been excitedly picking grapefruits, oranges and lemons from the trees. We definitely will NOT have a case of scurvy anytime soon.

Second picture is Yvonne running away. We don't even know what she got mad about, but she packed her bags and took off. She made it as far away as the curb one street over. We had a giggle as both Jim and I did the same thing at 5 years old. It didn't take her long to come home and ask if she could stay overnight here.

Lake Cahuilla State Park is a lovely find we stumbled upon since we arrived to Palm Springs 2 days early. This is a spot about as far south from Palm Springs as you can get. We're up against the mountains behind us and a man made lake is in front of us. They stock it regularly, so there's people fishing on it all day. It's a beautiful spot and less than $10 a night, so a real deal. The weather has been a bit stormy. We are experiencing the tail end of the winter storms that are making the Mt. Shasta area a disaster. We managed to just get through the mountain pass before it got snowed under and I-5 was closed. The trip went well and we're happy to be moving to our resort park today where we will settle in for the next 2 weeks.

A 2 DAY RECORD to Redding, California. Well, Yvonne has progressed to grown-up travelling status. We did a 9 hour day yesterday which took us from Chilliwack, BC to Eugene, OR. We had dry weather for the northern half, but it started raining half way through the day. We spent the night at Wal-Mart, then got an early start in the morning. We made it through the Siskiyou Mountain Range between Oregon and California. This was a definite plus to finish up today. There's a string of winter storms coming into the Mt. Shasta area that will keep snowing all week. We managed to be travelling right when the first snow was starting (pictured above). We are so happy to be safely ensconced on the south side of the highest pass we had to travel on this trip. We plan to make it to the Palm Springs area by Wed, which is 2 days ahead of schedule. WOW, no more 3 - 4 hour travelling legs for us!
One very sad sight was Lake Shasta. In previous years, we have seen it full of water. At that time, the water was low. Today, the north side of the lake is totally empty and only mud bottom visible. They are in drastic need of water, so hopefully the week of snow will help.

Yvonne ready for the flower girl job!
Yvonne and her big sister, Alicia
Ondia as Maid of Honour with Yvonne
Shanelle and Paul, December 15, 2007.

The wedding was beautiful and appeared to go without a hitch. Shanelle was absolutely beaming and Paul was proud and both are very in love with eachother. Yvonne loved getting down to dancing at the reception. She hooked up with Shanelle and Ondia's cousin, Dallas and they danced the night away. Ondia did a beautiful job of a slide show featuring Shanelle and Paul growing up and dating. Dave made a glowing Father of the Bride speach. Yvonne managed to stay up until 11 PM dancing from 6 until then, pretty much non-stop. Needless to say, she passed out pretty much as soon as we got home. Congratulations, Paul and Shanelle

July versus December at Burnaby Lake. What a difference a few months makes. I just discovered that these two pictures are of virtually the identical spot. I'm standing on the dam at Cariboo Dam at the east end of Burnaby Lake. We are fortunate that the snow is now gone and we're back to clear roads and mild, rainy weather. If we were in a house, we would prefer a bit colder and dryer, but since we're in what feels like a cardboard shelter some days, we're glad for the rain as it brings higher temperatures.

Winter Wonderland!! WOW, have we gotten a LOT of snow in the last two days. Yvonne really enjoyed playing in the snow with the Streett boys today. We walked over to the Equestrian Centre for an open house. The kids got to build a snowman on the way. They each got to go on a pony ride at the open house. Yvonne just loves that.