Winter Vacation

We started our journey to Florida by way of Des Moines. I don’t think I’ve ever spent that long in the car within the same month. We traveled through 10 states in the span of 2 weeks!! The boys are troopers and did 1,000 stickers in the car, read books and watched a couple hours of Bluey on each drive. We were able to stop in Indianapolis to have dinner with sweet friends we met in South Dakota and we stopped in Knoxville again to soak in as much time as possible with college friends while we were in the neighborhood. The boys and I honestly have so much fun on our road-trips. We always stop at Love's to grab hot dogs and coffee and sometimes we even stop at Target or Michael's to pick up stickers and crafts. One of our favorite stops this trip was the World's Largest Truck Stop on the edge of Iowa and Illinois. It is a great place for families to stop, but I was slightly nervous I was going to lose X or M. M had me a take a picture of him with every truck displayed there and X knocked over a tower of stuffed animals. People are so great and they all stopped to help. We of course collected a crushed penny from here and added it to the boys collections.


We spent the holidays in DSM and I realized just how much I have enjoyed being able to get outside when we got trapped by a snowstorm. When the weather warmed up even the slightest, we bundled up the boys including some cousins and had fun sledding and playing in the snow at the farm! It was frigid, but with EZ's snowbibs and my winter gear on, it was well worth it! M has the best time with his cousins and it is always bittersweet to leave.


We did our best to see our friends, and visit our favorite places. Meeting with friends is always such a cup filler. If you need some indoor places to visit this winter in DSM, here you go! EZ and I had a date night to celebrate his bday at Exile Brewing during their Snowglobe event. We were spoiled and actually had a second date night with friends at Smashpark to celebrate New Year's. Shoutout to our party planner for the night who suggested we get a hotel room and enjoy sleeping in without an extra early wake up call from the boys.

I was able to meet up with my besties at various coffee shops. Friedrichs and Freedom Blend are our local favorites! I love a good Chai from Friedrichs, the boys of course love their gf sweet breads, At Freedom blend I had a Cafe Miel and they have great breakfast options. I found out they will make you a burrito bowl without the tortilla! I also visited the Jordan Creek Mall playplace when the kiddos tagged along. M found the only bit of nature inside the mall and cozied up to finish his smoothie. He really wanted to climb the rocks on the fountain and I had to explain that they were just decoration, not really a place to explore.

 
Gammie gave M a punch card to the Children's Museum in Valley West, so after spending the morning repacking, I took the boys there with the in laws! This is always a great indoor space, but it is difficult to talk with other adults because the kids are so able to spread out. Its more of a sip your hot drink and listen to a podcast while you keep a close eye on the youngest child type of space. We always grab Blaze Pizza on our way out and Valley West Mall also has a play area for the kids. I will be so sad if we return to see a whole different mall, or the closing of the space as it is up for sale. Watching malls close is like watching the end of an era.

Our last stop of the trip was to play with our twin family of two sweet boys the same ages as mine. We explored Hop a Lot, also in the Valley West area which is new location. It was $10 a kid for 3 and over and $5 for two and under. Very reasonably priced for unlimited play. They boys had the best time and were so sad to leave their friends.


Next post will be all about sunshine and beaches!

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