O'Leary-Hauser Highlights and Adventures: Palm Desert

Our first family trip as a family of four - we figured it would be easier to stay relatively close to home in case things got too crazy. We drove to Palm Desert and stayed at the Westin Mission Hills Villas (in Rancho Mirage). Brady slept the entire way there (and home)! He doesn't do very well with naps at home - he's much better when we're "on the go."

We had a lot of fun - I think the most memorable thing for Garrett was the tram that drove visitors from the villas to the main hotel - we ate lunch, brunch, and dinner there so we had plenty of tram rides.

We went to the Air Museum where Garrett got to pretend to be a pilot. Mommy was the co-pilot and he said we were flying to South America. We also went to the Living Desert (zoo) and the Children's Museum.

The Living Desert had an interesting very complex train set-up and also a really great Discovery Center with a 2,000 member ant colony. And yes - that is a statue - Garrett is not riding a real warthog.

The Children's Museum rocked - very unique installations. I especially liked the VW the kids could paint and the dress up area with old school typewriters and other funky stuff for them to explore and play with. Garrett seemed to like the police motorcycle. I LOVE the pix of him in the dress and construction hat - with the fireman boots hidden under the dress. Classic.

All in all a fun family adventure.

The only snag was the sleeping - the boys were actually great. Garrett was just so excited to be in a new place that he ran loops through the condo - bedroom to the living room through the bathroom and back to the living room - for about 2 hours from 8-10 PM slamming all the doors and turning on and off all of the lights and ceiling fans. Whoever put the switches that low obviously does not have a 2 year old . . . .

Also - Brady rolled over for the first time on the trip. GO BRADY!