Lake of The Ozarks Mini Vacay

For the last 5 or 6 years Mike & I, Jessie & Chris and a couple of other friends have been making the trip every August to The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri to meet Mike's family for a long weekend of boating, golf, lots of sun & coolers of cold beer. We always have the best time and even though the drive down there is not the most fun we always decide it is well worth it. Here are some pics of trip to 'LOTO' last week.

the girls on the boat (Sarah, Becca, me, Lisa & Jessie)

me & Lisa try to stay afloat in Party Cove

Chris aka "filly" with Jessie, Becca, "UJ" and Chris "W" also stay afloat in Party Cove- koozies are a MUST when you party with the Walsh's!

our fearless captain "T-Bone"

(otherwise known as Mike's dad)

Mike caught the largest horse fly I'd ever seen! They were attacking us!

photo-ops after just making it to the dock before a monsoon rain hit

thanks Jessie & Lisa for the photos! :)

Des Moines Adventure & Pics

We had the most fantastically fun weekend with Jessie & Chris on our "Choose Your Own Adventure in Des Moines" Christmas gift! Jessie & Chris met and greeted us with cold beers at Prairie Meadows where we watched traditional horse racing with the hilarious promo event of camel & ostrich racing Friday night. We each chose our faves but had no idea who won because we were all laughing too hard. Our favorite horse was guess which name (see picture) even though she didn't win us any $!

Saturday we started out the morning with a bike ride to the biggest and most awesome farmer's market we'd ever see in downtown Des Moines where we enjoyed breakfast and a bloody mary bar- yum!

We stopped for a photo-op by Grey's Lake

Then we went golfing! How does my swing look?

Next we headed back to Jessie & Chris' apartment to relax and have a 'dip party' and 'good' beer (2 of our custom adventure choices for the weekend) it was one of my favorite parts! Jessie made 5 dips and provided plenty of fun different dippers.

Then we were off to a Barnstormer's game with a pregame warm-up at a close by sport's & gaming bar (Mike was in heaven!) We snuck down to 2nd row seats and it was such an exciting game- we now LOVE arena football and wish we had a local team! We then hit the downtown bars and experienced the Des Moines nightlife.

We ended our adventure on Sunday morning with a delicious breakfast at a popular local diner and headed home exhausted and happy and feeling so lucky to have such a wonderful sister & brother! Thanks Jessie & Chris!

Christmas in August!

We are so excited and looking forward to our 3rd & final Christmas gift experience for the year- this one from Chris & Jessie and happening this weekend! Their gift to us was our very own "Choose Your Own Adventure in Des Moines." Jessie created with Chris' help the cutest picture book of so many different things we could do in Des Moines complete with options for snacks and drinks, breakfast choices, etc.! We had to circle what we wanted and send it back to them to plan it all out for us (I know- what a great gift!) We decided upon an outdoor adventure for this coming weekend. It is all starting Friday night where we will meet Jessie & Chris at Prairie Meadows Race Track & Casino in Altoona to watch, get this, LIVE CAMEL & OSTRICH RACING!

Seriously, check out the posters- it is for real!

Then we'll head back to Des Moines for many more adventures- check back next week to see what we did! Thanks in advance to Jessie & Chris- it is going to be awesome!