Twentynine Palms & Joshua Tree

Friday afternoon we got to Josh & Irma's house on the Marine Base in Twentynine Palms, CA. We met them at an Italian restaurant on base for dinner, then headed to their house. They have 2 sweet little dogs Lala & Lili that the kids were so excited to play with. Lala was so full of energy that she wouldn't hold still for you to pet her. Lili on the other hand would run out look at us appear excited, then run away. Lili came from an abusive home so she is learning to retrust that people will be nice to her and not hurt her. Ammon decided that Lili was more his speed, so he played with her in a bedroom while Lala played catch in the hallway with us.

That night Lili slept with the kids upstairs. Rebecca really wanted to sleep with Lili, but it made me nervous, so we let her fall asleep with her, then we brought her down to our bed. When she woke up that morning (to Lala jumping on her) she started crying because she wanted to sleep upstairs with Lili.

Saturday we went for a walk on a 3 mile round trip path that the Marines run on. Every 1/4-1/2mile of a mile is a military vehicle. The kids (and dad) had a blast climbing on them and reading about them. Simeon took off running and crashed, scratching his leg and ankle up. With Simeon crashing and the heat, we didn't make it the entire loop. On the way back Ammon and Simeon ended up being in the middle of a group of Marines who were walking/running on path. When they started running again, Ammon tried as hard as he could to stay up with them. It was neat to see, because Ammon has been telling us for years that he wants to go into the military.

We all got a kick out of the "Tank Crossing" signs on base.

Saturday afternoon we went to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a super hot time to go, but so worth it. We would have loved to have spent more time here. Winter time would be a great time to really explore here. The boulders were HUGE! We ate lunch under a giant boulder because it was some of the only shade to be found.

The kids wanted to explore the area, so we all went on a hike. We stayed on the path for awhile , but then we started exploring all the rocks and made our own path.

The Joshua Trees were really neat. Some of them were huge. In some areas of the park it was like a forest of Joshua Trees. There were big rock mountains that looked like someone had been playing with rocks and placed them there.

It was alot of fun to visit with Josh & Irma and their dogs. Josh is being deployed in September and Irma is going to the Phillipines while he's gone for the year.