Family Trip to Palm Springs, CA

Jon and I try to get out of Montrose every year for the week surrounding Alex's death. Montrose is such a small town that it is sometimes difficult to avoid driving past our one hospital, and I just don't need that this week.

Mum and Dad took Jon, Brynn and I to Disney World, FL the first year, Jon and I took Brynn up to Grand Junction last year, and we all went to CA this year. My sister Julie's in-laws own a home in Rancho Mirage (right next to Palm Springs) and so Julie and her family flew out from England to stay with her in-laws. Mum and Dad rented a house in the same neighborhood, and we were all together!

I was very worried about how Iann would do being in a new place, surrounded by lots of people all the time. One of the issues with FX is the ability to become overwhelmed really quickly, especially when the child is out of his normal routine. Thankfully, Iann did AWESOME!

He absolutely loves being in water of any type, and once he realized that the big whole in the back yard filled with water was a pool, that was all he wanted to do. I had to buy him water wings since he was totally fearless of jumping off the step and being underwater! Unfortunately my camera wasn't working for much of the trip so I have no pic's of the boys swimming.

Talking of swimming, Brynn was a little fish - sorry, he prefers turtle! He has been taking swim lessons all year and they were so worth it. He swam up and down the pool, went underwater, jumped in from the side and just did great. I think he was in the pool for about 5 hours one day ... Jon was great at sticking it out and being in there with the boys most of the time too. He is an awesome dad!

On the actual day of Alex's death we went to the Palm Springs Zoo. It was a great little place and the kids had fun. Jon indicated his desire to stay home the night before, but I talked him into it (think, "there is no way we aren't being together on this day, and I'm going to the zoo, so ...")

Brynn really liked the model railway, spending a fair amount of time following the train around the track. I could see his mind working, imagining what the people inside the train were doing, etc. Iann spent most of the day lolling in his stroller and I'm not sure if he really saw any of the animals, but he stayed happy :)

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was the great meals that we ate out in the evenings. Mum, Julie and I went to PF Chang's one evening; Julie and Lawrence took us out to a lovely Italian restaurant one night; and then Julie, Lawrence, Jon and I took Dad to PF Chang's since we loved it that much!

It was a wonderful week and we enjoyed sunny CA, while it was snowing all week in CO!!!!! Maybe Hawaii next year??