Update on Emily and Coachella Valley Preserve

SO we should start with some good news today! Emily just had her two and a half year old testing done and she has made great leaps again. She is now at her actual age in language and social skills and her adjusted age for gross motor skills, compensatory skills and vision. Please recall that at best, they thought she would catch up in these skills by age four and not likely until several years into school.

She is still lagging behind in fine motor skills (how much is vision, we just don't know), but this will matter for learning to write later on, self-care (as she is showing no signs of potty training) and cognition. BUT, even these are only six months delayed at this point.

SO, in my mind, she is testing at her actual age or adjusted age in everything! Praise the Lord! He is continuing His work on her and I believe He will not stop until He has completed it. I am so glad we can claim those promises and expect them to be done! Why? Because they are made by the God of the universe...and we know He has the power to follow through. :)

This week, we took off to the Coachella Valley Preserve with the intent of doing a 'hike'. When you live in the desert, these are the places you go...where there is green. BTW, I want you to know that we are not in denial of the desert having it's own beauty, it is just that it isn't our kind of beauty and that is why we don't appreciate it. We are doing our best to be content but please pray with us that we will let us live back in the green lush beauty of our northern home someday soon! :)

These palm trees are just HUGE!!

The down-side to having weekdays off?  Nothing is open.  The up-side?  You don't have to share any place with anyone else.

This was the entrance to our path...

You know how I say Em does awesome when she is familiar with things?  This is a sample of her being unfamiliar with her surroundings.  She could see the palm fronds but didn't know what they were and she was terrified.  She wouldn't move a step unless I was holding her, so M headed back to the car to get the backpacks.

K collects and carries rocks wherever we go.

A much calmer way to explore new things. even if it was short-lived.

Once we had the backpacks, the pace picked up significantly!

Oh, this preserve houses two types of lizard found no where else in the world and oddly enough, we got to see them both!  This one is called horn-rimmed (I think).  If you look closely, his scales look like spikes sticking out.  I think he looks like a dragon.

We went out in the sun and hiked on the sand for quite a while in search of a pond, but Em kept asking us to go back (it was very hot) so we did and then she wanted to walk on her own...with a death grip on my hand.

This was the other lizard...something about his toes makes him rare.  :)

I thought the girls were being kind of babies about the heat until we got back and this was the temp in the shade.

So, yes, the fault runs right through here...forgive me for not taking a pic, I am not sure how that happened, but it would have just looked like a steep hill.

Here, I went online and found it for you...


From the USGS: This view taken from along Thousand Palms Road is looking west toward the Indio Hills in the Coachella Valley Preserve. Mt. San Jacinto is in the distance. The fault scarp of the Mission Creek Fault (a strand in the San Andreas Fault zone) forms the steep eastern face of the Indio Hills and serves as a wind trap that supports one of the last remaining dune fields in the Coachella Valley. The dune field is a preserve for endangered wildlife, including the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard.


Well, I hope that was informative!  :)  We have had a very busy and crazy week so we are all tired but vacation is coming soon and I can't wait!  God Bless!!