Mojave Pictorial

And now for your bloggy pleasure, the Mojave Desert in pictorial presentation:

These are Joshua trees. They were named by Mormon settlers in the 1800s because they thought the trees looked like Joshua praying to God with his arms outstreached on the day the sun stood still.

I know. I don't see the resemblence, either. But the name stuck.

Joshuas aren't true trees, however, and grow long, sharp spikes instead of leaves. They are only found in the deserts of the southwest United States, and take a looooong time to grow. In fact, it is illegal to chop one down without a permit.

Here's my dad's house. This is the courtyard in the front.

See? They even have their name above the front door!
(Yes, Ballew was my maiden name)


And here are the crazy people who live here:

And now for something completely new: I've decided to play around with collages on Blogger. Let's see how it goes.

Anne's petunias were blooming profusely in the courtyard. So
was the jasmine.

This is perhaps my favorite picture from the weekend. He looks so grown-up!

Caleb loved the courtyard. LOVED it. And so did I. The whole fenced-in feature was the selling point for me. On Saturday, Anne blew up a little pool for him to play in.

Not sure what he's doing here, but it's cute. :)

Course, there were other things about Dad's house that Caleb loved. The dog door, for example.

And watching TV in our bedroom . . .

. . . and Toby. They were best buds from the start.

More crazy people. See the family resemblence?

I wasn't lying when I said the hills are brown.

Looking out from Hwy. 62 towards the "Low Desert." Hundreds, if not thousands, of windmills line the landscape.

Also from Hwy. 62. A view of San Jacinto. (Please don't ask me how I got these pictures).

Well there you have it, friends. My weekend in pictures. Sorry this ended up being so long! I didn't realize I had so many pics to share! Hope you're having a good Wednesday.