When we woke up on Monday the Legoland trip was out because Robert was very sick. We lolled around the hotel until we had to move and then made the decision to just drive to Josh that day and see if we want to continue the trip or not after one day of camping. We made it to Josh and put up the tent and Katerina started acting very un-Katerina like: she was very unhappy. We didnt know at the time, but she had an ear infection which I am sure you can imagine is not best handled by camping out in the desert in March.
After a day or two of this we ended up going to the emergency room at 2 in the morning, found out about the ear infection, and obtained antibiotics. I wont describe how fun it is to try to get a 2 year old to take the antibiotics: many of you know this first hand. We stuck it out for about 4 days total, and the boys and I had a couple decent day trips but Katerina was miserable, and Larissa had to get her through all that.
All in all a memorable trip, and here are some pics.
We brought our own wood, and here is Robert helping to load up the car.
We stayed the first two nights at the Black Rock campground, which is not far from the town of Yucca Valley. Those weird looking cacti are joshua trees.
The first couple days went by in a blur. Katerina was miserable, and we ended up going to the emergency room in the middle of the second night. I made a bed for the boys in the back of the van and left them sleeping in there (!!) while getting Katerina in to see the doctor. She was prescribed antibiotics and given vitamin T (children's tylenol), which resulted for the first time in real sleep once we got back to the tent.
The next day we moved campgrounds to Jumbo Rocks campground (map), which is in the beautiful heart of the park. You need to bring your own water, but the campsites are nestled among fantastic rock formations, and there are endless little nooks and crannies for kids to explore.
There is a wonderful short loop hike where these next couple pictures were taken. You can tell from Katerina's demeanor than she is not feeling all that froggy.
There are lots of these hollowed out sections and the kids enjoyed climbing around and hanging out in them.
This cactus is blooming. We had thought we would see lots of desert flora blooming, but apparently you need to come a little bit later than we did to see all the wildflowers.
The rock is actually like sandpaper: excellent for getting a good handhold, but extremely unforgiving if you feel like using your knees or elbows, or if you miss a hold and slip. You already know you are not supposed to use your knees, but it is wicked bad form among climbers.
Here is the view from atop on of the rock spires in Jumbo Rocks. It is like this for miles around: a playground for children and adults alike.
I tried to get the boys to pay attention to geology, hence this picture.
The next two pictures are more of the rare and beautiful desert flora in bloom.
The boys obtained their "junior ranger" badges. We try to do this everywhere we go and they really enjoy it.
On a couple of the days I took Robert and Erick to do some rock climbing. Erick was not so into it, but Robert seemed to really enjoy it. Here is the first top rope we set up at "trashcan rocks".
Erick preferred to watch.
This was our campsite in Jumbo Ricks. We pulled everything up and left a day ahead of schedule but everyone was pretty tired and Katerina still not recovered from the ear infection.
Here is a shot of the Joshua Trees taken on the way out of the park.
Full resolution images are available here: Picasa Web Album
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