Every year we look forward to Christmas because it's always another adventure with the Woodbury family. I got more of the story this year on how it all started and why they always travel. Apparently, Taylor went off to his first year of college and came home to Salt Lake that Christmas. Not only did he agree to be bumped from his flight so he could get a free plane ticket (this made his mother cry because he cared more about the money than coming home to her when she was planning) but then he spent the next two weeks almost exclusively visiting old high school friends, sleeping in, and hanging out with other friends. So Taylor's dad got upset and swore they'd never spend another Christmas at home- and they haven't!
We love the reunions because everyone seems to be able to come and it's nice to be together in one place- usually a warm place too which I love.
So this year Palm Springs, California got chosen. When I googled Palm Springs to see what was there, the first website that popped up declared Palm Springs to be the "Golf Capitol of the World". And yes there were several days of golf outings for the boys, but it turned out there were lots of other fun things for everyone.
One of the best parts of the trip was just hanging out at the house together. Taylor commented after just the second day that Miles is a whole different baby. In fairness Taylor only sees him after 5:30pm and we were busy most weekends so that threw the poor baby off his schedule. It was nice for the two of them to be able to just sit on the couch and chill.
We drove down instead of flying which was wonderful (I still can't imagine trying to go through security with these 3 boys and all their gear) but didn't bring a crib. Miles was happy to sleep in our shower. Don't worry we put down lots of towels and blankets and it's not like he's even rolling over yet.
Really no worse for the wear.
The first day we were there Taylor and his dad went golfing and so his mom and I took the kids to the Living Desert Zoo. It was names appropriately and only had desert animals. The kids were fascinated by this outdoor electric train exhibit they had and it made me sad that we missed going to the Botanical Gardens trains in DC this year.
Because it's always warm there, the exhibit stays open year-round and so they just keep adding to it. It's gi-normous! Here's Ethan in a brown sweatshirt (if you can see him) way on the other side of the grand canyon.
The backdrop of the mountains was beautiful with all the animals. I always pictures giraffes on the plains of Africa but this works too.
The one animal I'd never seen before was a warthog. I'm sparing you a closer picture because let's just say Disney lied to us all when they drew cute Timone in The Lion King.
As always my kids were just as interested in climbing on things and playing as they were to see the animals. Overall the highlights were the trains and warthog and the lowlights were the carousel and butterfly house. I had high hopes for both of these, but alas, 3 seconds into the carousel ride when Isaac realized that his zebra was going up, he freaked and so I spent the rest of the ride trying to hold him onto it since we couldn't exactly get off the spinning ride. And the butterfly house should have been great except it wasn't sunny that day so literally every butterfly was hanging onto the ceiling net trying to stay warm.
But really? Does it look like my boys minded?
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