Day 3 - Omaha

Today is the day we are coming home. We went from Des Moines to Omaha with only 1 stop to get gas. We took a pit stop in Omaha to the children's museum. It was a little hard to find, since it was downtown with lots of one way roads. Once we did find it, parking was a night mare. Fortunately someone was pulling out of their space so we could go in. Once we got into the museum, it was a little spendy ($33 with the extra exhibit fee). We soon realized that this is much more like a giant play area than an actual museum. There are educational things too, but mostly it was time to play and have fun.

Macyn enjoyed writing on the wall (what kid doesn't?) and painting a picture using unique tools – like cars. She wasn't too thrilled with the virtual piano – I never got the chance to play chopsticks like on Big, but it was still fun. Near that area there is a giant gravity contraption with balls. You put the balls in tubes and then watch them as they go on  their way to different tubes and tracks. Macyn had a really fun time with this, but got upset when the air would blow her ball in the air and she couldn't reach it.

The next area had a play house, and her favorite- the grocery store where she could put groceries in her cart and pay for them at a pretend register. It was hard to get a cart that wasn't being used, which led to some whining and tears, but eventually we got her one and she was as happy as could be.

She also spent some time in the house, and squirting some water with the fire hoses. There was also a giant indoor play area, but Macyn wasn't having any of that. We then went up to the second floor where the newest exhibit was – the Wizard of Oz. It had the witches castle, a bubble table, tornadoes, a stage to dress up like the characters, heart beats for the tin man, a courage cave, a station to make a necklace, and of course, the Yellow Brick Road and ruby slippers! There was also a green screen where you could ride bikes and watch it on a screen so it looks like you are in a tornado!

Unfortunately, Macyn was starting to get tired and wasn't too enthused about things, so she spent most her time at the bubble table, making a necklace, and playing on the playground. I did get some photo ops of her doing other things, but she wasn't too happy. There was also a carousel on the 2nd floor – but she didn't want to ride that at all. Good thing, because it was an additional $2 to ride.

After that we hit up the small water fountain park outside where Macyn got drenched. We then changed her clothes and headed out to eat lunch at Chipotle. It was really good and I have been craving it since we have eaten there. After lunch we drove straight home with no stops. We were going to go fishing, but Macyn begged, "I want to stay home." I think she was vacation'd out!

Day 2 - Des Moines

We decided to hit up the Blank Park Zoo this morning. We thought the earlier we go, the less busy it will be and the less hot it would be. Once we entered the zoo there was a pretty display of flamingos. Shortly after that, it was time to go to the Australian outback. This exhibit was cool! They had a walking path, where the kangaroos and birds/ostrichs roam freely. Macyn was scared when an emu came at us, but she enjoyed seeing the kangaroos up close – especially the baby ones. It was definitely a new experience to be in a "free range zoo."

We also hit up the petting zoo where Macyn had fun feeding the goats and cows. There was also a big playground that we stopped to play on. She ask had to say, "buck buck" to the chickens :)

Other hits at the zoo was the sea lion exhibit. It was a giant tank where you could view them above the water and below. It was fun to see them swim. The giraffes were neat too – you could literally go right up to them. They even had a platforms so you can be eye-to-eye.

After the outdoor exhibits, we headed inside for the indoor ones. There was  cave and a rainforest. We hurried through this part because Macyn was starting to get crabby. After the indoor stuff, we told Macyn she could pick out anything in the gift store. She found a butterfly pillow, which was a decent $15. We tried to convince her to get a souvenir more unique to the zoo itself, but she was inseparable from the pillow.

Her "souvenirs"

After the zoo we headed back to the hotel, but not until we stopped for lunch at Popeyes. I wasn't too impressed, but it was good food. Once we got back, we swam a little bit and Macyn took a nap. After that we went shopping where I found a $5 swimsuit, ate at Fazolis (amazing, and had so many leftovers for another meal once we got home). After that, it was back to swimming again. All the swimming and business led for a tired girl at the end of the night. We had a king bed where she slept right in-between us. It was nice to cuddle, and she fell asleep really fast.

Adventureland!

Our photo they took of us as we walked in the gate

Today we drove up to Des Moines and hit up Adventureland with DH's old college roommate. We went on some rides together – the log ride, raging river, and the other rafting one. Macyn liked them all but her favorite was the bumper cars! She couldn't get enough of them! She also loved the teacups. Macyn wasn't a fan of the kiddie rides, as she screamed as soon as they started. She didn't even like the carousel. 

All the rides we went on

DH and his friend did go on some roller coasters while Macyn and I explored the park on our own. We ended up going to the circus, which included an illusionist, acrobats, and daredevils. 

The only downfall was how hot is was. I think the heat index was around 105º.  After the park we ate some Papa Johns (we ate at places we wouldn't normally eat), and headed back to the hotel. 

Our hotel had a waterpark, which Macyn refused to go down the little kid watersides, or down the big ones with us. Not sure what her deal was, but we all had fun swimming! It was a good way to cool off after a hot day at the amusement park. Oh, and did I mention it was my birthday today? The big old 2-7. Late 20's, here I come!

(Note: I never took any pictures of the waterpark at the hotel - be sure to check out their website to see all the fun stuff!)

Country Weddin'

Cousin Kayla is getting married! We decided to make the 5 hour trek to Mount Ayr , and make a vacation out of it. Macyn traveled pretty well (except when she was mad and spilled chocolate milk all over herself). We only made 2 stops in 5 hours, which is good considering this was our first long trip with her being completely potty trained. We arrived in town about 1 hour before the wedding, so we quickly got ready and headed out. It was extremely hot – 102º heat index. Fortunately, the wedding was short and sweet and we could head to some air conditioning. 

The wedding was held at Ramsey farms, in front of a pond. It was a country theme, as the bride and bridesmaids wore cowboy boots. They also served pie instead of cake, and it was a great time! It was fun to go to a non-traditional wedding for a change. Macyn kept calling Kayla, "princess Kayla." Macyn danced the night away and crashed once we got back to the hotel. We somehow ended up with 3 queen beds, and Macyn had to try out each one before cuddling in for the night next to me.

Macyn with cousin Kayla

Cousins!

Disney on Ice

Since Disney on Ice was nearby, and Macyn is obsessed with Mikey and Minnie, we decided to purchase some tickets and have some fun! I bought the tickets about three weeks ago. There were 5 different price points for tickets, and I went with the second-to-cheapest tickets. We were on the 3rd row on the floor. I was amazed at how good of seats they were!

Anyways, Macyn woke up this morning and remembered we were going to "Mickey and Minnie on Ice." She picked out her dress at about 8:00 and said, "I'm pretty, Mommy!" She even put her boots on the right feet and she was ready to go.

We arrived at the events center about 1/2 hour before showtime. This gave us enough time to walk around and check out all the overly priced souvenirs. We did buy her a little Minnie Mouse for $12 - one of the most reasonable priced items, considering a snow cone in a souvenir cup was $15. Prices went up from there, so I thought the $12 wasn't so bad!

I was a little worried about how this would go since we haven't ever sat through an event this long and I was worried how many times she would have to go to the bathroom. She only had to go two times so I can't complain. A funny part of the night was when we sat down and she got to take her Minnie Mouse we bought out of the package. She instantly noticed Minnie was wearing bloomers under her dress and she exclaimed, "Minnie has underwear!" ;)

The show started with Mickey and Minnie coming out first, along with some monkeys. They scared Macyn a little bit, but she rebounded pretty quickly and before you knew it she was dancing, clapping, and laughing. She absolutely loved it! My favorites parts were the Little Mermaid and the Lion King. Here are some pictures from the event:

After the show we ate a quick supper, did a little shopping and came home. Macyn was completely spent and went to bed at 8:15. It was such fun time - so glad she sat through the entire show with no crying!

Minneapolis Weekend

DH and I decided to take a trip to Minneapolis for a short weekend trip and to hit up a Twins game. In the back of our minds, we knew the Vikings were home the same night as well. We thought about scalping tickets, but on our way up to the cities, we found some on Craigslist at 10:00 AM. The guy told us to meet him at a liquor store to pick them up at 1:00. Lets see here, our first ever Craigslist purchase and its going to go down in a liquor store?! We were a little bit leery but at least it was still light out, and if it looked too shady we were going to just skip. Fortunately, this was a HUGE liquor store in Apple Valley. It was seriously the nicest one we have been in. So since the vikings tickets panned out, we were on our way to hit up BOTH games! Here are some pictures from the Twins game.

And here are some pictures from the Vikings game. We ended up walking from Target Field to the dome since it was only about a mile and it took us about 20 minutes to walk.

After the game it was time to finally hit up our hotel. We were super tired, so we were super excited to find out how nice our hotel actually was. We stayed at the Double Tree by Hilton and the best part is, they give you warm chocolate chip cookies upon check in! We were pleasantly surprised to find a super comfy king sized bed, a sleeper sofa, 40" flat screen TV, a chair, desk, and a single brew coffee machine.

The next day we hit up IKEA and bought Macyn her birthday present and Christmas present. Its nice to get some shopping done when stores aren't so crazy! This trip was kind of unique for use. We are usually big planners and this was a last minute thought. We decided to go to the Twins game on Tuesday (game was Saturday) and we booked our hotel Wednesday night. The hotel was kind of hard to find because there was SO much stuff going on in the cities that weekend - Twins, Vikings, Lynx, State Fair, Renaissance festival. So I wanted to stay under $100 for sure for hotels, and most of them were completely full. The only ones I found was the Super 8 by the MOA and the Hilton one we stayed at. The rooms ended up being the same price at both places, so we opted for the Hilton instead.

We also bought our right field line tickets off the Twins website for $39 each. We got our 20 yard line lower level tickets to the Vikings game for $25 each. (Face value was $122!) I guess sometimes it does pay to procrastinate a little. If we would have planned all this much earlier, it would have been a lot more expensive. All in all, it was a great weekend, but if I were to do it all again, I would opt for going to one game Saturday and one game Sunday. All the games in one day was almost too much. Maybe next year!

Vacation Day 3

We kicked off Vacation day 3 by going mini golfing with DH, my cousin, sister, and both my sister's boyfriends. It was a pretty fun course that even included water hazards. My sister forgot to read the rules and when she tried to hit it out of the water, she got me pretty wet! Oh well, that's what makes vacations memorable :) I came in 3rd place I think, behind DH and my cousin. Well ahead of my sister's boyfriend's score of 13 behind me :)After shooting a round, we came back and got ready to head to Wanderlust Rafting. We were supposed to go on Class IV & V rapids, but the river was extremely high (highest levels in 8 years) and had emergency crews on the river rescuing rafters that had gone into the water. Experienced guides have also been tipping over boats so they thought it would be a good idea to bump us all down a class. They already had 3 people die on the river (not whitewater rafting - tubing with no life jackets or helmets). We were pretty bummed, but in the end the rapids were extremely exciting and fun! They highly suggested we all get wetsuits, but we decided to be tough about it and head down the 36 degree water without one.In our boat was me, my sister's BF, DH, my sister, and her boyfriend. At one point our guide had dared us to jump in the water - so we all did of course. Let me tell you, that is some fast moving water and extremely hard to get back into the raft! We told our guide we were adrenaline junkies so he steered us into the biggest rapids he could find. Here is a video - its pretty funny when sister's boyfriend gets smoked by the rapids!

All in all it was an awesome day to go rafting. Good thing I don't live in CO or else I would go all the time and be broke! Once we got back it was time for Josh and my date night. We dressed up and went out (it was our 3 year anniversary outing). We went to Austins in old downtown Fort Collins and had some amazing food!I didn't get a picture of our appetizer, but I got a Strawberry martini, Josh had some kind of steak, I had walleye with honey dijon glaze with macadamia nuts, and a cream puff ice cream dessert with hot fudge. YUM! The walleye was probably one of the best I have ever had. Take that, Minervas! The atmosphere was perfect, and the staff was super - dressed in long sleeved white shirts and aprons. And not to mention our waiter was nice to look at ;)After a night on the town, we headed back to where we were staying and relaxed in the hot tub with a few drinks. Boy did that feel good after a day of rafting!

Vacation - Day 2

After a rough night of going to bed late, Macyn getting up 5 times, and then waking up at 4:30 for the day, we decided to hit up Estes Park and go hiking. It was about a 45 min drive to Estes, and about another hour or so up to the moutain - about 11,000 feet!
On the way to Estes Park we drove past this massive white hotel called the Stanley Hotel and I instantly recognized it from the Travel Channel. I remembered this particular hotel because 1) It was in Colorado 2) Its ridiculously huge 3) Impossible to forget 4) Its haunted! Yep, it sure is! It was featured on the Travel Channel as one of the most haunted places. Upon further research, the hotel is indeed haunted, but it was also the inspiration for Stephen King to write The Shining after he had stayed there. More research showed that some scenes from the movie Dumb & Dumber were also filmed there. I wish we would have stopped to get a picture, but the internet stock photo will have to do.
Shortly after we saw the hotel, we entered Rock Mountain National Park where we proceeded to drive up to an elevation of 11,000 feet. We stopped early because of all the switchbacks and my DH's crazy driving I was finally starting to feel carsick. The air up there is super thin and really hard the breath. The crazy thing was, that we saw tons of people riding bikes and even some skiers in the mountains! I don't know how they do it. It had an amazing view and were able to snap some photos.
There was tons of snow up there and fun to see in the middle of June. The big pole DH is standing next to is a marker for how deep the snow is. How insane is that?! They use those so they know where the roads are.
Once we caught our breath's back, we went to Bear Lake to do some hiking. It was a pretty easy hike that was full of snow. I should have definitely wore some snow boots! Once we were finished hiking around the lake, we decided to hike up to Alberta Falls. Macyn was doing so well this trip, but started to get hungry and crabby half way up. It also started to rain. A hungry baby + down pouring rain = one stressed mama! We gave her some mum mum crackers to keep her occupied until we got to the top of the falls, where I finally gave her a bottle. We also decided to stick her bare feet into the snow thinking we would get a funny face - no way Jose! Just laughs from Macyn!

After that we stopped downtown Estes on our way home and did a little shopping. We found a cool candle holder thing made out of Aspen wood - a great souvenir from Colorado. Shortly after we got back to Ft. Collins it was time for supper - PIZZA!Beau Jo's pizza. Delicious. Scrumptious. All of the above. Soooooooo good. The restaurant was in old downtown and had outside seating. We decided to sit inside in the air conditioning. Now back to the pizza - its huge! The crust is sooo good and you eat it with honey. It has kind of a sweet sauce and lots of cheese and toppings. The picture isn't our pizza we ordered, but we had Beef, Bacon, Pepperoni, Mozarella, and a side of garlic sauce. We also got an appetizer of cheese sticks.

After that we stopped again at Walrus where my sister and I got a pint of ice cream. After that, back to the place where we were staying - and getting into the hot tub. Boy did that feel good on achy muscles! What is tomorrow going to bring? Whitewater Rafting....to be continued.

Vacation - Day 1

A week ago today, we arrived in Colorado on our first family vacation. We weren't quite sure what to expect taking a 7 month old on a 10+ hour trip. Before we had even left on the trip (at 3:00 AM) we already had a challenge: packing the car.We had made a list of things to pack which ended up being 5.5 pages long. Macyn had her own suitcase, DH and I each had 1, plus all Macyn's food, supplies, diapers, tub, pool, high chair, stroller, portable crib, etc. DH & I both had bets going that this would not all fit. Thanks to DH's awesome Tetris packing skillz, we survived! We also had a cooler in the front of the car with more food and drinks. Now that the car was packed, it was time for bed (about 10:15) and set the alarm from 2:40 AM.

The first few hours went really well, since Macyn slept most the time. We did run into some severe storms with heavy rain and a spectacular lightning show. Once we hit Lincoln, NE they started to let up and made traveling a little less stressful.
We had to make pit stops here and there to change peanut's diaper and feed her. Sometimes we stopped just to let her play, and had to stop for a big poopy pants! So one of our stops was the Tourist Trap Tee Pee. We had a nice little picnic and got a nice photo op by this stallion statue thingy. There was a massive tourist building so we stopped where this crazy lady followed us around, giving us tons and tons of brochures and booklets. Most were useless, but it gave me something to look at in the car (and ideas of things to see for later).A few short hours later we had arrived in Colorado! We pretty much chillaxed once we got there, unpacked a few things, and went to Walrus Ice Cream in old downtown. Sooooooo good. We spent about $30 total on ice cream while we were in Colorado alone (multiple visits to Walrus) That's a lot to be spent on ice cream, but hey, we are on vacation! And it was well worth it!

So pretty much our first day was just traveling, relaxing, ice cream eating, and sleeping (or lack there of - Macyn was up 5 times the 1st night)! But overall a great day.

More vacation adventures to come....