Get Away

This past weekend, Lisa and I took a few days off to head down to God's Country (Iowa).

We took of Saturday morning and dropped Eddie off at mom and dad's (where he got lots of walks and lots of car rides) before driving down to State Center to visit the Burdorf's.

We got into town late Saturday afternoon and hung out and caught up for the night. It was a relatively uneventful night, minus Brody punching me in the family jewels (it got a good laugh from everyone, even me).

Sunday morning we got up and walked down to Aaron's ballpark and he showed me what's all changed in the last five years. He's down a great job with the West Marshall baseball program and the diamond looks great. After we got back to the house, Lisa and I got our stuff ready and drove to Des Moines where we had lunch at my favorite Des Moines Mexican restaurant before going out to Jordan Creek to kill some time. We could check into our room Sunday at 2, so we took off and arrived at Lake Panorama around 2:30.

This is our second stay at Lake Panorama and we love it. The hotel we stayed at is small, but every room looks out at the Lake and it was quiet since we were there on Sunday and Monday. Once we got checked in, we hit the pool for a while (I think we were the only people who stayed there Sunday) before eating at the restaurant. Sunday night we drove around (not much to do in the small little town) before chilling in the room and watching the sunset.

Monday we woke up to storms and it stayed rainy until about 10:30 (it was raining so hard we even toyed with the idea of coming home). Once the rain pushed away, we hit the Raccoon River trail for a little hike before stopping at a ma and pa shop for some lunch. Saturday afternoon we were in the pool again for a couple of hours and caught a lot of sun (i got burnt, not honeymoon in Mexico burnt, but burnt). Having ate at the restaurant in the hotel already, we decided that we would drive back into Des Moines for dinner and a movie. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (didn't realize how spending it was) before going to see the movie Inception. (Sidenote: Highly recommend inception. You think the entire movie and it is exhausting. I want to see it again because I know I missed a lot).

Here are some photos from the trip, I hope you enjoy.

Finally, i would be remiss if I didn't mention a passing of one of my favorite movie characters of all time, sweet Lou.