Seriously folks, Des Moines, Ia had two straight weeks of rainy, cloudy weather. We didn't have too many options (and I don't want to use up our good middle of winter, indoor options this early) for the weekend, but we managed with family dance parties in the living room (I vote we move so we can have an entire music/dance room!), a muddy hike at Ledges State Park, errands, and dinner at a new-to-the-kids restaurant. On Sunday we chilled. Big time. It was a lazy, football kind of day while the rain poured outside.
The minis caught Hubs and I dancing in the living room. This turned into a swing dancing lesson that was full of giggles and eye rolling.
We hadn't been up to Ledges State Park for a year. We were really missing our favorite park, so we decided to take advantage of the few dry hours we had on Saturday. We were shocked to see that they had paved part of the top ridge trail, the lower part of the canyon was flooded, and happy to find the canyon road still closed so we could walk along it (one of our new favorite things since the road has been closed due to a sink hole).
We anticipated wet and muddy trails so we came prepared in boots and extra clothes in the car when we were done.
Soooo happy to be out and hiking!
Those views!
We collected "fall goodies" on our hikes.
We failed to think about the flooding of the Des Moines River and how that would impact the lower canyon. It was a bit of a shock to step off of the trail and clearing and be met with flood waters.
We had to hop back on the trail and find a different way into a high point of the canyon. This was the slippery-est part of our hike.
I got a bit nostalgic on this trail. The minis have been doing this particular trail at Ledges for over 5 years now. A trail that once took us two hours to semi-complete took us less than 20 minutes to do! We went from hours to minutes. How much things can change in a short amount of time.
From a nature-y afternoon at Ledges to shopping at Walmart for Halloween supplies. It was actually a fairly quick trip for the amount of things we had to get. Of course, the minis talked me into new slippers and we picked up new snow boots to keep me from shopping around. By the time we were done shopping we were all starving. We had planned on making tortillini at home for dinner, but time got away from us. After much discussion about what everyone was in the mood for, we decided on a new-to-the-minis, local restaurant Chuck's. It was a great decision! We were all happy with our meals and had a nice dinner out.
Pastas, salads, bread, meatballs, and more! Yum! I tried their eggplant parmigiana and it was fantastic.
Sunday's are for resting. Especially when it's raining out. Thanks to the oldest mini's insistence on watching football (thus, me paying for Hulu Live so we can see them all), most of our Sunday's this fall have been spent relaxing at home. I can't say I dislike it. It's been nice to slow down, take time to do things that have needed done (and that I'm excellent at neglecting).
This is how Harrison puts away the dishes on the shelves he can't reach and this is how Max watches football. Both special.
And this is how we embarrass Max.
Plus, I've had time to food prep for the week. Daycare did squash tasting, so I prepared several varieties of squash, homemade food for the week, granola bars, and other snacks. It's been really nice being prepared for our busy weekdays.
