Bittersweet

It's bittersweet. We'll soon be leaving this beautiful place we've grown to love and we'll be heading north towards Santa Barbara. We didn't expect to be leaving so soon, but plans have changed quickly and we must move on. With our unexpected news of moving today, we felt like we should make the most of our last full day in beautiful Anza Borrego. Josh spent the day hiking/climbing to the summit of Indian Head (the peak he attempted on his birthday last month), and I took the kids to bid farewell to our beloved Visitor's Center (a place we frequented during our days while Josh was working). So many things we had yet to discover here in the 600,000 acres of state park, but we will come back some day.

We're staying for a month at a beautiful horse ranch just 30 mins. north of Santa Barbara. This may be our last stop before we make our way back to the Midwest, so it'd better be good! Although we are sad to leave what's become familiar, we are ready for something new, again. We're looking forward to connecting with some friends who live in Santa Barbara, esp. since they love food like we do. My mouth is watering as I think about all of the delicious food we are about to be exposed to. I'm personally looking forward to visiting a few chain retailers again too. Here in Borrego Springs there are no stop lights, only a couple dozen street lights, one small grocery, a True Value and some local shops...that's about it. Watch out stores, here I come!

Next Thursday we will pick up my Mom from LA for a nice visit. I know she's going to love staying at the horse ranch with us, and most of all seeing her little grand babes - it's been 2 months too long for her. Koen and Eiley are really looking forward to seeing Grandma Chris, esp. after the wonderful time they had with Grandma Dawn a couple weeks ago. Grandmas are the best! Pictures to come tomorrow, as I'm writing from Josh's computer...mine has an Internet aversion right now.

--Tricia--

JILBERTOS

Finally, authentic and DELICIOUS fish tacos! Josh has been eating fish tacos where ever he can, and not until this great local eatery was he so impressed. At first sight, we thought, we'll probably never go there. Josh gave it 2 tries, and told me he had to take me there.

So Saturday we took a bike ride, deviously jumped the fence at the only playground we've found in town, played until we were hungry and then rode over to Jilbertos for some delicious mexican food. Baja fish tacos, breakfast burrito, bean burrito, chile rellenos, salsa bar, guacamole - YUM! Jilberto and his wife can throw it down! So glad we finally gave Jilberto's a try.

Is that one line or two?

The word is out...another little Ullrich will be on the way in the third quarter of this year. We are thrilled. We will probably be cutting our first year on the road short because of this development, but we won't allow that to lessen our sense of adventure. We hope to escape Illinois winters for many years to come.

So what does all this mean? We're still trying to figure that out...so pray for us if you think of it. We will most likely be back in Illinois somewhere between April and July. We'd like to plant some roots again and get settled before our family grows once more. I suppose we'll have more details to share as time passes, but for now...let the adventure continue!

The Ullrichs

What do you want to do on your birthday?

Josh celebrated his 30th birthday last week. I've been trying to get him to make a post, but the time just never seems right. So, I will make one for him. We spent time at the Borrego Springs Farmer's Market, eating fresh veggie burritos, picking out fresh avocado tamales for dinner, sampling loads of hummus & fruits, and stocking up for the week. California has such amazing produce. Borrego Springs has such amazing produce. After we had more bags that we could hook onto the stroller (which continually tipped over when left unattended), we listened to some live music and the kids ran and played in the grass on Christmas Circle (that's the circle the farmer's market is on).

Later that afternoon, when both children and I were sleeping, Josh took off for his birthday adventure. He's been wanting to climb this peak that we can see right outside our door every day now. Finally, it was time to tackle Indian Head! I woke up to find a note that he had gone and would be back by dinner time. We waited, looked at the mountain, but didn't see him (he'd be a tiny blue speck anyway). He called, he was winded from his quick descent down but said he'd be back in 20 min. Great!

All about the birthday mountain adventure: getting to the peak of Indian Head is going to take a lot more time than initially thought (he made it 1/3 of the way); lots of encounters with big horn sheep (there's a pic of the one he came up the hill and made eye contact with); it's incredibly quiet; on the jog back (on flat, desert sand) encounters with 2 pack of coyotes was enough to make you run harder and faster with your makeshift spear, just in case they decided they wanted to munch on a human.

What a great birthday! We celebrated his hike with avocado tamales and root beer floats around the campfire!

This first picture (peaks to the right) is where he hiked to. The second picture is the Indian Head peak where he intended to hike to! The rest are views on the way up.

Adventurous Spirit Renewed

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

We've moved on...left our lovely little spot at Sam's Family Spa (that was our home since November) and headed south. Drove about 2.5 hours south - we're between the Pacific Ocean and the Salton Sea and 40 miles or so from the Mexico border. And it is BEAUTIFUL here. Just driving into the state park yesterday gave us such a renewed sense of adventure. So many places to hike, so much to see.

Two things this place is known for are the wildflowers, which will start blooming in February and the night time sky. Borrego Springs, the city that is surrounded by the 600,000 acre state park, was named the 2nd International Dark Sky Community. It is one of the top 10 stargazing locations in the nation. They are serious about protecting their nigh time sky here! The crazy rains we have had in southern California have been great fuel for the wildflower season as well. I can't wait to get pictures of these flowers, if only I had an SLR!

We're currently at the state park campground, literally a 2 minute walking distance from mountains. This is amazing! Koen, Eiley & I checked out the area by the visitor center today (they were closed) which I can't wait to see inside, it's built underground. I'll leave you with some final pics. Some of these are from our last few days in Desert Hot Springs, and some are from today at Anza Borrego.

Home Sweet Home

We survived the holiday traveling and are now back in our own home enjoying 70 degree weather and sunny, blue skies. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and there were so many good moments shared. Thank you to everyone who housed us for a bit of time, thank you to those who babysat so we could go out, and thank you to to everyone who helped make our visit back home go smoothly (rides, borrowed cars, food, etc.). We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

Josh caught a cold the day before we left so he's trying to get rid of that so we can enjoy some hiking this weekend. Yesterday after we returned home from a long morning of travel we enjoyed a nice long soak in the hot mineral pools and a fun playtime in the kids pool. We're staying at Sam's Family Spa for at least another week. I know in previous posts I was not so thrilled with this area we're currently staying in, but I DO love the hot pools and the duck pond and the sunshine!

New Life

Welcome Baby Alec James Motherwell. I cannot wait to meet you next week. To know I have a newborn nephew and not be able to hold him is like torture! I love you little sweetheart!!!

Countdown

The countdown begins, we have 12 days until we're back home to visit with friends and family for the holidays. How exciting! Something tells me the 3 weeks will go by rather quickly, and before we know it, it will be time to find warmer weather again. I guess that just means we will have to cherish each moment.

The moment I'm most excited about is my first chance to meet my new sweet little nephew, Alec James. He was born this morning and the news is that labor and delivery was smooth. Praise God! I have only seen one little tiny picture of this angel, and I'm bursting at the seams to see more. I can't wait to get this little guy in my arms in 12 days!!!

We've decided to stay here in lovely Desert Hot Springs until we head back for the holidays. We've made friends here, and that has really enhanced our time here. One of our friends, Dick, is an older gentleman who's from the Quad Cities - has a place in Davenport in fact. We've enjoyed many soaks in the hot pools chatting with him. We had been shopping at Trader Joe's until we took Dick's advice and checked out Clark's - an awesome huge health food store. Thanks Dick! We've also met a great family from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. They've got 3 children, ages 3, 7, 11. Very like minded couple, its so nice to share a passion for eating fresh, local and organic food. Kevin, the dad, used to rock climb a lot as well, so he and Josh hit it off right away.

It's interesting to observe how children grow more confident in things as they practice them. Eiley is a little climber, she'll find anything she can to make a step stool to get to where ever she wants to be. Very humorous! Koen rides his bike every day (he still has training wheels on). I've watched him hardly be able to pedal up a slight incline to standing and pedaling uphill and then coming down and going off ramps. In the swimming pools he's holding his breath and going under water with his eyes open. When we arrived here a month ago, he was not able to hold his breath and go under water, he was not much of a bike rider...now he's a different child. It's fun to stand back and watch the change.

I could write more, but I'll stop and post some pictures instead. Can't wait to see you all in a few weeks.

Just Sitting Here

As I sit here to type this, I'm feeling so many emotions. Missing friends and family. Thinking about Thanksgiving and wishing we could be with family or friends to enjoy the day together. I'm wondering why we're set up here in a place know for resort/retirement communities. We're at a "Family Spa Resort" where most of the people I see are elderly and retired. There are 6 great pools here, some 1970s metal slides that are not much fun in the hot sun, a nice duck pond with lovely little creatures, a great view of San Jacinto Mts., but it's just not the right place. We're here until Dec. 2nd, I think, and I'm trying to make the most of it. I just don't love it here. I know it's not about where you're at, it's more about who you're with. But I feel like this time it is about where you're at.

You want to know what else gets me? They don't recycle around here. We save our recycling, bag it up, and take it with us on the weekends in search of recycling containers. So far we've taken everything to Joshua Tree National Park, at least they get it right. So now that we're not heading into Joshua Tree this weekend, it just feels so wrong to throw away recyclables. As wrong as putting your left shoe on your right foot. What's up with this? Should we get a pull behind trailer just so we can cart our recycling around with us until we find somewhere that provides this service?

Desert Hot Springs, feels more like Desert Funk Springs to me. The "Hot Mineral Water" draw just doesn't do it for me. They say this area has some of the best rated drinking water because of the natural mineral aquifer, well I'm sorry but my skin feels awful and dry, I can't imagine putting this water down my throat...my throat might dry out from this water.

Can you tell I'm cranky today? I don't mean to be a grump, I just needed to get a few things off my shoulders today. Ok, now I'm moving on. I am thankful that my family and I are healthy. I am thankful that the sun is shining and has been for many, many days. I am thankful that both my children are napping at the same time, in the same room. I am thankful for the peace and quite.

Here are some pictures from our duck pond on site.

Just another sunny day!

Since we left Rockford in mid-September...I think we've seen 2-3 cloudy days on our adventure. I am thrilled to be where the sun shines every day. It makes a difference, it really does. There are many things we appreciate about the midwest, but grey skies are not on that list.

We've been in Desert Hot Springs, CA now for a little over 1 week. We left the town of Joshua Tree because the place we were at was so dang dusty. Now I know we're in the desert, so I'm not complaining about the desert like conditions...but since I live in this RIG and I still like to keep my home somewhat clean...and since we can pretty much go anywhere....we had to move. Now we have a sweet secluded spot at a family spa (called that because of the natural hot spring pools).

Our daily routine here looks like this:

1) Wake up, eat breakfast together.

2) Josh goes to work, Tricia & Kids go for a walk to see the ducks/geese/fish/swans/birds in the pond here on the grounds.

3) Tricia & Kids back for snack, craft, story time, etc.

4) Naptime.

5) Josh back, snack time, then we're off to the pools.

6) Swim, soak, swim, soak - regular outdoor pool, small wading pool for kids, 4 hot spring pools.

7) Back home, showered up, dinner then kids bedtime.

On the weekend we've made it to Joshua Tree for some climbing and to hit their weekend farmer's market. Last weekend I came back with fresh dates (best I've ever tasted), fresh grapefruit and oranges, and lots of other goodies.

My Mom comes for a visit this weekend and to hang with me while Josh goes away on business for 2 days. It will be nice to see someone we know again!