one more airplane ride

While the party photos are in the lab (remember when we had film, and it actually went to a lab?), I thought I'd fess up - we packed the babies up and took them on a plane again. Is anyone surprised? I thought not. This time to celebrate the Fourth in California. And this time we traveled in a pack - a seventeen-person (six babies included) pack. And it was legit. I was going to just do one giant colossal photo dump. But then I found a bazillion photos. So we're breaking it up. Let's get started.

The entire Cheney family (minus our Sister Whit) went to San Diego. Our little family left a day early and hit up Cabrillo National Monument (lurve! a baby lighthouse!), which is just a few minutes from the airport. We loved this little spot. It gives you a beautiful view of the bay, and a giant tanker was passing by, which Jess was pretty excited about. 

Note the itty bitty boat down here at the bottom.

The baby light house - Old Point Loma - is one of the original first eight lighthouses on the west coast (no longer in use as the fog generally obscured its light and they built a new one elsewhere). I loved this little guy because the inside is restored. 

This was the kids room (one of two bedrooms).
I believe three kids shared this room - two girls and a boy.
There was another small bed behind this changing screen on the left.

This is the master bedroom. Not bad for being sandwiched around a lighthouse.
Note that the window is directly on the floor.

I've always wanted to see how a family would live packed in around the winding staircase of a lighthouse. And this family was really packed in, given the tiny size of the lighthouse in the first place. 

Next, we set out for Joshua Tree National Park, which is just a few treacherous hours away. And let me mention here - we forgot our GPS. And neither of us have smart phones. We were old schoolin' it folks. You know - a map. We also used a life line and called a brother for more precise directions. What Jess didn't tell me was he was taking us to the south end of the park. We were staying north of the north end. The rest of this day is mostly a ghastly blur.

It was 115 degrees in Joshua Tree - I'm pretty sure that's all I need to say about that. But actually wait. There's more. 

Looks so inviting, no?

Just wanna snuggle right up to this national park.

I usually visit a national park and think, gosh, I could definitely spend more time here. Not Joshua Tree. No no no. I have a theory - I think that the swath of cactus riddled, giant turd rock, dry dirt pock marked land wasn't designated national park land because of its particular beauty or because of its contribution to nature. I think it was designated national park land because NO ONE ELSE WANTS IT. 

We spent some time climbing rocks as well. And when I say "some time," I mean literal minutes as we couldn't handle much more and one or all of us would be running for the Gatorade in the car after seconds. Belle found this "slot canyon." Jess and I were a wee bit too large for it (although Jess squeezed in), but I helped Belle up. We called her back before she hit the end, which Jess discovered later was a sheer cliff. Super parenting skills going on here.

That smile on my face is there to hide the tears.
Or was it sweat? Hard to tell at this point.

Also, the flies. Oh my gosh the flies. Lou apparently thinks that each fly carries with it a death threat, and she would shriek in fear any time one came near her. Real live deathly fear. It was so sad. This photo of her with the blanket on her head? 

She stayed like that for fifteen minutes. She was hiding from the flies. Bless her baby heart.

Joshua Tree is one of those places where you're like, "I'm glad I've seen it. I hope to never see it again." If you read this blog post, consider your visit done. Just seriously. And you're welcome.

From Joshua Tree, we headed back to San Diego to meet up with the family. Stay tuned! :)