We jumped right into activities on our first day. I got in an early morning walk and bathed in the much-welcomed desert sunlight.
We rode our bikes over to Sherman’s Deli for breakfast. Here are the boys putting together their LEGO Advent Calendar pieces while we waited for our food.
A little while later we met Baris and Alexandra for a hike up the Lykken Trail in the local mountains. We didn’t have to go too far up before the views were stunning. We took a lot of photos.
The boys, especially Ezra, enjoyed scrambling up the rocks.
Here’s one of all three Moision boys.
We made it to the promised picnic tables at the top and had a snack.
After a rest, we made our way back down. The boys seemed to be much happier on the down slope. Here’s a picture from the bottom.
It was early afternoon and we were starting to worry that we weren’t prepared for the next day’s plan — a trip up the Palm Springs Tram to the top of the mountain, where there was snow. We hadn’t gotten snow pants for the boys, so we went on a bit of a wild goose chase looking for some. The first sporting goods store had a very small inventory left, but luckily we found what we needed at the second store.
By then it was dinner time and we met Baris and Alexandra for dinner in Palm Desert before heading to The Living Desert to see their Wild Lights holiday setup. The lights really were pretty spectacular.
And we saw this owl at their visitor’s center. It was creepy cool.
I don’t remember exactly what was happening in this shot, but clearly all three were having a good time! It was a great first day.
More pictures from the hike here and The Living Desert here.