So you are probably thinking we went to Hawaii, Europe or Australia but the fact is, we went to Des Moines! Yes, Des Moines was the vacation of a lifetime for Sophia. She has been wanting to go to Disney World since those silly commercials came on where they show home videos of parents surprising their kids with a Disney World commercial. She could be out of the room and if she hears those commercials she comes running yelling "Disney World, Disney World. I want to go to Disney World." So naturally seeing the Adventureland commercials, she was slightly interested. When we told her we were going to Adventureland, she was as excited as she was seeing those Disney World commercials.
Last Thursday, Joe worked until 3:00 and then we heading out to the big ol' city of Des Moines. Thursday night we were set to have dinner with friends at Jethro's (a Man vs. Food restaurant) and then go swimming at the hotel. Sophia couldn't contain herself! She was so excited. We got back to the hotel around 9 pm and she got to swim with Joe for about 30 minutes. We went back up to the hotel room and got ready for the next day full of fun!
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| Sophia getting ready to jump in the pool. |
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| Claire at the pool. |
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| Sophia jumping in. |
Friday came fast with not enough sleep in a hotel bed. Sophia was excited to get moving. We had breakfast and put our sunscreen on only to realize that it was going to be cloudy all day with a chance of rain. The whole week we planned on no rain!! WHAT happened!? We went ahead and checked out and drove the 3 minutes to get there.
We parked and walked right in! Right in the gates was the carousel. I am not going to lie when I say that I was a little choked up by Sophia's joy just walking through the gates much less going on the carousel the first time.
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| Sophia on the carousel. |
After the carousel, she went on the airplane ride. From that, one of two things could happen: Sophia would hate the ride and be scared and we wouldn't have anything to do the rest of the day OR she would love it and want to ride every ride under the sun. Luckily it was the second of those. She loved it and wanted to ride ALL the rides. We had to tell her no on a few of them.
Sophia's favorite ride although it may not look like it!!
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| She figured out that she could make it go up and down. |
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| Riding in the semi with Daddy. |
She even tried some of the more adult rides.
It started sprinkling around so we rested while watching a show about rain forest animals. She enjoyed seeing all the animals up close. Luckily the rain stayed away except for a few sprinkles. We did some shopping and saw some Adventureland characters before we left.
We headed out of the park around 5:00 and started making the trek to a friend's house to stay for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday we went to the Blank Park Zoo. Sophia loved seeing all the animals. Her favorite animals were the monkeys and giraffes. She actually got to feed the giraffe.
We went to eat that night at a restaurant called The Tavern with our friends Megan and Ryan and their son Graham as well as Ryan's mom, sister and sister's boyfriend. It was great pizza and a fun time. Then we went to MaggieMoos for a Cold Stone type ice cream. Delish!
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| Joe and Ryan their their semi-matching clothes |
Sunday we went to the Jordan Creek Mall for some shopping. Sophia is quite small and we have a hard time finding jeans and pants that fit her. I have some coupons and there were some good deals with it being the tax free weekend. We did get a few things for both girls. We also ran into a show that was going on for Chow Gymnastics where Shawn Johnson trained.
After a long weekend, I am happy to be home. I am sad to say that this is my last week home with my girls before school starts again. I am not real ready to go back yet, but it is coming whether I like it or not. Tomorrow and Thursday, both Sophia and Claire are going to the sitter for a few hours.
Hope this finds everyone well...until next time...
