I took Friday off and traveled to West Des Moines for a long weekend away - no kids!
I met Trista, Jen and Kim in WDM about 1:00 (I was an hour late ... imagine that!) and the weekend got started! First we went for Mexican food at El Aguila Real then shopped at a nearby Goodwill. I think Kim had never been to one and wanted to buy a swim suit since she forgot hers. Kidding, she didn't want a swimsuit from GW! : )
After lunch we went back to the hotel to figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. We decided to go to a nearby mall for some exercise and shopping and for dinner and evening entertainment to go to the Grand Piano Bistro, where Dualing Pianos were scheduled for an 8:30 performance.
We enjoyed prime rib canapé for an appetizer and a wonderful pasta with a creamy pesto sauce, pine nuts, sausage, zucchini for dinner ... and we sampled quite a few new drinks - my favorite was the Orange Julius! It tasted like the real thing ... with a kick, of course!
After dinner we stayed for a couple hours to watch the Dualing Piano show. I had never been to one so I didn't know what to expect. For those who don't know what it is ... I will do my best to explain. There are two (thus, "dual"ing) piano players who take requests to play songs - ANY song! - and play it on their piano, as well as sing the song. They played Journey, Beastie Boys, Steve Miller Band ... everything! By far, the biggest hit of the evening was Jen's request, Sweet Caroline. Here is some video of her singing along with the rest of the bar:
We left GPB about 11 and headed to meet a friend of mine who lives in WDM - he and I worked together at Affina. Here is a pic of LaVerne and I! He brought along a friend who was uber creepy. He kept saying how hot we all were and couldn't belive we graduated high school in 1994. It was nice to hear all those things, but it'd be better coming from someone who wasn't a) drunk and b) creepy. We went to the Legends which is three bars in one - a sports bar on the first level, a dancing bar on the middle level and a open floor karioke-ish bar on the top level. It was a neat set up! I'd like to go back there if I am ever in W Des Moines.
After all the activites, we wanted Taco Bell (which later proved to be a bad choice for Jen and I!). We got back to the hotel and settled in for the night.
Saturday we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and went shopping at the Jordan Creek Mall for a few hours. I got some of my Christmas shopping started anyway! : ) Considering I don't usually start until December 20th, this is progress for this procrastinator!
After shopping we were pooped so we went back to the hotel and watched TV a while and Jen and I took a nap while Kim and Trista checked out the hotel bar. About 7:30 we left and had dinner at Charlie's and then headed over to the comedy club, The Funny Bone to see Roz G. I hadn't heard of her, but she was on Last Comic Standing 4th season and had some impressive credintials - and proved to be well deserved. She had two openers and they were also very funny! We were in the immediate front row - our table was touching the stage - so we were easy prey. Jen fell only slightly into it when one of the comedians started talking about internet dating ... but it wasn't bad.
After the show I asked Roz if we could have our photo taken with her and she replied, "Abso-f'ing-lutely!" So here we are with Roz G. She dubbed us the "pee-pee crew" since we all got up to pee during her performance. : )
After the comedy club we had another hankerin' for Taco Bell so we stopped by for a few tacos and went back to the hotel for night-night.
Sunday morning we lounged around, took our time getting ready and then headed out for one last hoo-rah for the trip - to Village Inn for breakfast. We all left about 11:15 and I got home about 2:15 this afternoon. I can't wait for our next visit .... we are planning for the gang to come visit me in KC!
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What did the family do while I was gone? Dayne spent all weekend with Lauren and Hunter spent all day Saturday at a Hunter Safety Course, so he can now legally kill animals I guess. Graden just pittered around the house I think ... and watched the Chiefs lose this afternoon. He leaves on Friday for his big fishing tournament in GA all next week. We are pretty excited to see how this will turn out for him ... I love seeing him involved in fishing again. It reminds me of how dedicated and driven he is to succeed.
Nothing too exciting planned for this week but I will try to post something for my readers!
Hugs,
Tiffany
Here is a video slideshow of all the pics from the trip!
Today was Hunter's first basketball game of the season. He played the entire game and made some good shots, good blocks and lots of rebounds! He scored 14 points in today's game.
Hunter is the biggest kid on the team so I am sure he will be the team member used for the tip off for each game.
Hunter made two of two free throws here! 
During a team time out.
