Family Vacation! (Part One)

Our family (I admit, mainly me!) had been looking for something to do as a vacation for quite some time.  It had to be short (getting Josh away from his work for an afternoon is hard enough, let alone longer than that!), close to home (in case livestock trouble hit, we could get home in a hurry) and (preferably) include an overnight stay.  I had looked into a trip to Hannibal to see the caves or a trip to Omaha to the zoo, but both of those trips were just a little bit more than I thought our kids would enjoy (that's a loooooooooooooong car ride for a very active 3 and 5 year old!) or remember. So between being picky about destination and the fact that we've been haying all spring and then harvesting since July, it was starting to look like we weren't going to get a trip in before the winter weather set in... BUT THEN (ba ba ba buuuuuuuuuum!) I saw Barnum and Bailey's circus coming to Des Moines advertised on television!  I consulted with Josh and YAHOOOOOO!!!! we had ourselves a little vacation planned!

Don't get me wrong; I love my home and I love what I do!  I can't think of a better or more rewarding job than teaching, loving and raising our kids, keeping up our home and being (or a least trying to be) a loving wife... the all around Proverbs 31 woman.  But all those jobs require me to stay at home all day, every day, except for church and grocery/errand day every 7-10 days or so. (I don't know about YOU, but running to Fareway for food and WalMart for household supplies just ain't my idea of a good time!) Every once in a while, I just have a hankering for some different scenery, you know!?  This weekend was "it" and "it" was perfect!!!!

On the agenda for Saturday: find a die-cast farm toy store in Des Moines, go to the circus, find Hobby Lobby and find our hotel.  Let the fun begin:

After a little coughing fit, we teased Caleb that maybe we should go home so he could get better.  What a sour face!!!  I don't think he liked the idea!

Sarah wasn't falling for it though.

First stop: the die cast toy store.  Josh had very briefly seen a commercial on television about this place and was very interested in stopping to look... "for fun".  This place was amazing!  Its a pretty small building, so its packed from one side to the other with almost every imaginable piece of farm machinery (and a few plane models) that has ever been made.  I say "almost" because we did stump him on two pieces we were looking for.  Remember I said we stopped and looked "for fun"?  Well we ended up finding an exact small toy model tractor that our operation uses regularly.  We ended up purchasing that.  We also ended up ordering a custom-made piece... but that will be story for another blog post when it arrives!

 

I have super kids!  They thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the toys and never once asked for anything!

 

And the big kid had alot of fun too!  I think he found quite a few items to put on his wish list!

We could have stayed much longer in the toy store, but our next stop was the circus...and the circus had a starting time so we had to keep moving...

 

Our ticket package included lunch: a hotdog, pop and popcorn.

 

Just waiting....

 

...for the show to begin!

 

The show started with a parade of all the acts we would see throughout the show.  Obviously these are the elephants!

 

One of the first acts was a lady who did acrobatics atop a rope.  The show had a lot of acrobatic stunts, so this was just the beginning of the amazing feats.

 

The first animal act was one with camels, horses and ponies - oh my! - doing various stunts.

 

 

Throughout the show, there was an ongoing skit about a kid who wanted to lead the circus and try the different acts.  The ringmaster would always come out and demand him off the ring... and of course he would always be back to do it again.  It was pretty amusing.  I'm guessing it was a father and son duo and they did a super job of entertaining with jokes and magic tricks!

 

I see two little people greatly enjoying their very own bag of popcorn!

 

Another act was gymnasts (is that what they are?!) jumping off a bendy board, doing stunts in the air and then landing back on the board.  Its amazing what people can do!

 

Dimitrio was the "Amazing Strong Man" of the show.  He did several stunts.  This picture shows him bending industrial strength rebar with his bare hands.

 

This was one of my favorites.  The two wheels on each end spun independently while the whole rig spun in a great big circle.  Anywhere from two to four people did tricks inside and out, kind of like walking a log. 

 

The kids got a souvenir of a hat that came with cotton candy.  They were thrilled with both!

 

Another acrobatic feat.  Pictures really don't do justice to the men and women who were doing the stunts!

 

LOVE IT!

 

And THEY loved their cotton candy!

 

Hat troubles!

 

Caleb waited all show to see the elephants!

 

 

 

The last major act was the steel cage ball with motorcycle riders in it.  Three riders rode around and around in the ball while a lady spun inside by a rope from the top!  Caleb really liked this one too! 

 I could go on and on about the circus!  I took lots and lots of pictures but it would be impossible to share them all.  Let's just say we had a grand time!

 

Next stop:  Hobby Lobby.  This was my choice of place to stop to check out their cross stitch stuff.  They had a lot to choose from, but I wasn't quite expecting the prices they were asking!  I left empty handed and disappointed... but good news: when I checked their online store when we got home, I discovered a 40% off coupon code when shopping online!  I still haven't decided if I'm going to get the project I was looking at, but if I do, I'll save $24 just for waiting to buy from home!

 

Next stop: the hotel.  We kept this a surprise from the kids.  They were confused when we pulled in, not knowing where we were at.  But once they figured it out, they were super excited!

 

After checking under the sheets, inside the pillow cases, etc. for bedbugs (can't be too sure, right!?), the kids got to check out the beds!  The beds were entertainment all by themselves:  they were so high that the kids really had to work at getting on them (which was made even harder because of their giggling), they were perfect for jumping on and the two beds were close together so they could jump back and forth!  They wouldn't be allowed to do this at home, but we were on vacation... right?!

 

I searched and searched... and searched and searched online for just the right hotel.  The one I chose won because first, it had a full hot breakfast included in the cost; two, it had a great pre-pay deal; and three, it had a pool!  And a hot tub!  We played in the pool for an hour and for most of that hour, we had it all to ourselves.  Pretty nice.

 

I'll take the thumbs up as a sign of approval!

 

Back at the room, we had the anxiously awaited for snack of popcorn (I think these kids could eat popcorn everyday if I let them!) and hot apple cider while watching television.

 

A surprise to all of us was pizza for supper!  My Facebook friends may remember me asking for recommendations on where to eat in Des Moines.  We had it all planned out, which meal and which restraunt we were going to enjoy... but then a last minute craving on part of Josh landed us a delivered pizza.  So while I didn't get my nice restaurant meal, the pizza was delicious and we all had a great time!   

 We had such a good time!  I have so many memories and pictures I could share, but, like I said earlier, it would be impossible to share them all. These trips won't come very often for our family, so I'm very grateful for the chance we had to spend the day together and treat our kids to some special events.  We have a super time together at home, but this was special and just so much fun!!!!

 

Stay tuned for Sunday, Part Two!