New Year's in SoCal

We'd be the first to admit it, but we're pretty blessed. After spending time in Utah for Christmas, we got the chance to celebrate the beginning of 2009 in Southern California. It sure beat hanging out here in Olympia where it snowed and snowed and snowed.

The first day we were there we got picked up from LAX, and were swept away to the Reagan Reagan Library, which is really a museum, and included the real life Air Force One that was in service for 28 years, beginning in 1973. But. . .we didn't get any pics of that.

The second day (or was it the third. . .I was on vacation and could have cared less about time) we went to The Living Desert & Botanical Park, which I'd highly recommend for anyone visiting Palm Desert.
The Butterfly House was cool, but it also had all kinds of wild plants & animals from anywhere in the world that has deserts.
Anyone recognize this guy? He's what gave this sleeping med its name.
They had a small petting zoo, which mostly consisted of goats. Abee was pretty hilarious in there. She was very happy being around the goats, and didn't mind sitting right next to them, but there was no way we were going to get her to touch one. She simply refused. We wonder if it could have had something to do with her experience outlined in the second paragraph of this.

You'd think we spent some time on the Serengeti. Nope. Just Palm Desert.

Abee was a trooper, and enjoyed picking at all the bushes along the way. She even added a few more animal noises to her repertoire.

Then after seeing Marley & Me, which is a fairly good flick (the book is way better), we ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Riverside. Love that pasta!

Livin' it up with Gramps.

Hangin' out around the Mission Inn.

Melanie worked for quite a while on a banner for their church. It turned out great, and Mel even got a few props from the pastor during the service.

Grams (or Grams Great, from Abee's perspective) treated us to a great Sunday dinner before heading off to the airport.

If you haven't caught the weather today, it's been raining cats & dogs here in western Washington. All the rivers within 100 miles of here are at flood stage, I-5 is closed just south of us, and I-90 is closed over the passes. Our rain gauge has collected over 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Last year floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage around here, so pray that doesn't happen again. Thankfully, our house is halfway up Tumwater Hill, so we're fine. But a lot of our friends are a little more nervous. Right now our power is flickering, so I better be done with this post. . .