The Fisher Family!: Fisher Family Vacation! Our First Full Day in Palm Desert California!

We flew to Palm Desert (Southern California) the first week of March for a family vacation. Ben and I were very excited to go on a warm weather family vacation for an entire week, but were very nervous on how Tyler would react to such a change of environment. He hasn't slept anywhere (successfully) away from our house for a year and it's caused a lot of stress in traveling. Fortunately he adapted enough that we were all able to really enjoy our time together. He slept so well at night! Ben still had to drive him around mid day for a nap, but that's a win in our book.

We had such a fabulous time and I really wish we could've stayed longer! I'll be posting several blogs documenting this vacation and will write more about it with picture captains!

Here is the website of the resort we stayed at: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ctdsr-marriotts-shadow-ridge-i-the-villages/

If you are looking for somewhere to vacation with young kids I HIGHLY recommend this resort. It is worth every penny. There are 5 pools (two of which are VERY kid friendly) and a kid activity center full of free activities for the kiddos. Obviously there are many more perks, but I'll get to that in picture captains. Enjoy!

We rented out a large room to stay in. It was basically two rooms combined into one. In the master bedroom we had a bed, a huge bathtub and connecting bathroom. There was a living room, dining room and full kitchen. The adjoining room consisted of a bed (which Chelsea slept on), a pull out couch / bed (which Tyler slept on), another bathroom and small kitchenette area. We only used this room at night to bathe the kids and put them to bed since the main area was so large.

Tyler and Chelsea loved playing with the phones so much we had to unplug them!

We flew out early Sunday morning and arrived in CA mid day. It was misting rain (which is extremely rare) and in the 60's. We decided to use Sunday as a get settled in day. We stocked up on food, odds and ends and familiarized ourselves with the resort. Looking back we were very happy the weather was a little cooler the day we arrived so we wouldn't feel guilty running errands and took the time to settle in. The first few days of vacation were in the upper 60's / lower 70's and then heated up to the 80's by the end.

On Monday Morning we brought the kids to the Children's Museum. This was one of Ben's favorite things that we did on vacation. The kids were able to run free and explore!

While daddy was paying our entrance fee I brought the kiddos into the gift shop. Tyler immediately found the toy school buses and lined them all up. He likes structure and order. He really likes toy trucks :)

Run wild time!

I have no clue what this is called, but Chelsea really enjoyed it! Chelsea sat on a seat and daddy pulled her up high!

I loved all the hands on learning for the kids!

This was a really cool 'exhibit'. This is a car. A car that has been here for years. They let the kids paint the car freely! Every day they use different colors so when they break off chunks of pain it's like a rainbow :)

Aren't Tyler's little shoe protectors cute?!

OK, time to pull these shoe protectors off!

Me trying to work a loom! Wait, is this called a loom? Well, whatever it's called I was pretty impressed with myself doing something crafty!

A picture of the lower half of the childrens museum

Chelsea and I discovered some dress up clothes!

Tyler wanted in on the dress up action!

My little cutie :)

The kiddos could've played with this contraption for hours!

There was a little grocery store for the kids to play in! The kids really enjoyed doing the grocery shopping and even checked out each other's items!

Tyler in the pizzeria!

Chelsea really enjoyed the motorcycle!

It was time to leave the Children's Museum and Chelsea decided one last pose / picture was necessary!

One of my favorite things to do is to read outside. Reading is the one activity that truly calms me. I read about a book a week and really get immersed in my books. This is a picture that I took while 'taking a break' and reading on our patio for awhile Monday night. We were located right on the golf course and had a beautiful view.

See the mountains in the distance? Everywhere we looked we could see mountains. It was especially beautiful because of the (rare) cooler weather the week before we arrived the mountains were snow topped. Imagine sitting in a pool in 80 degrees and seeing snow topped mountains in the distance. It was breathtaking!