First Weekend In July

Adventureland

The weekends I love best are the weekends we are out and about enjoying our wonderful city and surrounding communities. This was one of those weekends (as are most of our weekends in summertime). Naturally, we went to a couple of our favorite places, while I tried one new local establishment. I love supporting local businesses. I love it even more when I can give an excellent review of them. We didn't have much time to rest, as we chose to spend our weekend with family (and it was so worth it!).

Saturday morning the oldest mini had a play date and Hubs had to work. This left plenty of time for the two youngest minis and myself to have a coffee date at Caribou before heading to the Des Moines Children's Museum to volunteer for a few hours. 

They insist on taking their shoes off at the Museum when it isn't crowded. 

We met Hubs for a late lunch after picking up the oldest mini from his friend's house. We had a much needed drink and our favorite go-to Mexican food.

I had just enough time to rest before going out for the night. I was minding my own business on the couch when Hubs plopped down next to me. This prompted Elizabeth to come over and check out "a white string in dad's beard." Spoiler: not a white string or a cat hair (as was guessed by the middle mini Harrison), but a white hair. She still kept trying to pull it out.

Winterset Cidery has been on my 'must try list' since it opened last season. I was never sure if it was family friendly, so I was waiting for a free night to go. My sister and I had a sister night and indulged in all of the ciders, food truck goodies, and music that featured fireworks at the end. We had a great night! 

There was nothing that I didn't like about this place: the ciders were great (sweet, but all natural, as no extra sugars are added), the food hit the spot, there was plenty of sitting area and room to move around, free popcorn, AND it was completely family friendly. If you ever have a Saturday night free, head to Music at the Cidery. If it's nice outdoors, the music will be outdoors, so be sure to pack a blanket and/or lawn chairs and yard games for the kids to keep them busy. I noticed a few people even packed a mini-cooler for their kids to have snacks and their own drinks all evening. I love the country, family friendly feel of this place.

Up In Smoke food truck was at the Cidery for the first couple of hours. Being a BBQ food truck, there wasn't much available as far as vegetarian food was concerned. However, I happily ate fries and cheesy potatoes and even tried a few bites of the pulled pork nachos (I mostly ate the beans with my bites). I can recommend all of it. So yummy!

My sister and I opted to do flights of ciders so we could try them all.

While it wasn't a late night, those flights of cider got to me. We woke up early for a family fun day with cousins and aunts at Adventureland. I chugged coconut water and a Coke to help with my head and stomach. After eating a hamburger for the first time in over a year, I felt much better (until the next day when it hit my vegetarian stomach hard) and was ready to go for our long day at The Land (a nickname my 10 year old gave Adventureland).

One of my nephews has quite a few food allergies (as does my oldest). I was thrilled to see this shop, but even more thrilled as to how fabulous the grille was in Adventure Bay. We had a question about the bread they used on their sandwiches and the employees pulled out an allergy information sheet. When we couldn't find what we needed on that, they brought out the box that had all of the nutritional and ingredient info on it. They happily let my sister in law read it and decide if it was safe for my nephew. Not only was my nephew able to eat the bread (that was just a big bonus honestly), but I was so impressed with their service and knowledge of food allergies. The employees went above what was expected of them for sure.

You know what not's great? Jumping on a ride with your kids when you're hungover. Just saying so none of my mommy friends have to go through it too.

So we never make it past the Dole Whip in Adventure Bay. For the first time ever we made it to the Mainstreet Creamery for ice cream. 

Any time your weekend can end with a note that says: "I love my mom so muth" (yes, that's muth, not much) I highly recommend it. It's quite possibly the best way to end a weekend that left me tired and sunburned.