Weekend with Mom and Dad

My parents came to visit me in Des Moines on this 4th of July weekend. My brother had to work, so he wasn't able to come along, but we still had a great time. They arrived around 11:30 on Saturday, so first thing on the agenda was some lunch. Well, I knew my parents liked Chinese, and there is this place downtown with Chinese pizza that a few friends from work had recommended. This guy bought a building and planned on opening a pizzeria only to find that the place was decorated with oriental trimmings. So, rather than redoing everything, he started a line of Chinese pizzas. The crab rangoon pizza is quite delicious. mmmmm. Thanks to my friends that suggested it and to my parents for going with me.

The Science Center of Iowa has been on my list of things to check out while I'm here in Des Moines, so we went there after lunch. From where we parked our car we were able to walk to lunch and then straight to the Science Center. Made me think of the Edgerton Science Center in Aurora, NE, which is a pretty fun place. We had a good time walking through and seeing some different things. Here's my mom in the cave in the Earth area of the center, and then is a photo of my dad on the TV in the meteorology area.

I also decided I wanted to be in some random photos cause that's what I do. I told my mom and dad that it's not a day with Jessica Boschen if you don't take some random photos. :-)

Along that idea, I decided just for fun that we should check out the children's play area. Look at what we found.... even convinced mom to stick her face in it for a photo. hahaha

I decided to take them up to Ankeny to show them Saylorville Lake. My mom pointed out that this is the kind of thing that we used to do all the time when my brother and I were younger. We'd go to different lakes and parks just to walk around and see things. When I was living with cousin Kari, I would go spend some time on the trails down by Sayloville Lake. We checked out the visitor center because it had always been closed during the time of day that I would go walk around there.

Then, we headed to Polk City to cross the bridge that runs about in the middle of Saylorville Lake. This way they were both able to see how big the lake is. Then, we ended up in Johnston, IA, where I took them to Van Dee's Ice Cream Parlor. Kari and Jeremy had taken me here once with the girls. It was their favorite place to get ice cream (and for good reason).

Saturday night, we went to the A.H. Blank Golf Course right by the zoo to play some miniature golf, which was fun. Dad and I played, and Mom kept score and watched. A cool thing about this course was the water features. Had to fish my golf ball out only once. haha

Sunday was a cloudy and cooler day, which worked out great for going to the zoo. As we walked in, aI said this will probably take us a couple of hours. We went to the zoo about 10:20am and left around 12:15pm... Boy am I good hahaha. So, I gave Mom and Dad the grand tour, telling them anything I knew about the animals we have and showed them my classroom for camp. At one point my mom said, "Don't skip over information that you think might be obvious or anything. I'm enjoying listening to everything you have to say." Earlier, I had said, "This is the test to see how much I actually know about all the animals at the zoo." Her reply was, "You could probably just be making it up, and we'd be none the wiser." Everything I said was true, mind you. Think I impressed them a bit with all the fun facts I knew. Every now and then, I'd see if they knew what I was going to say because I had posted some facts on various blog posts. For example, my mom remembered why the giraffe has a purple tongue. Do you? ;-)

My mom made me get on the frog to take a picture. She started this random photo... not my idea, for real :-) Looks like I taught her well. hahaha Of course, I couldn't refuse even as some people walked by thinking whatever they want haha.

Dad said his favorite part was being so close to the giraffes. He'd never been quite so close to a giraffe before and having it look him right in the eye.

On Friday, I had asked my boss if it would be okay to take my family to see the educational animals. She said totally fine if I found someone from the department to go with us, and as we were about ready to trek through the jungle in the Discovery Center, I saw Cristina, and she asked if we had been that way yet. She gave us the tour. Amboro, the blue and gold macaw, even did his tricks for us.

This is a retired hedgehog.

Finished up our morning at the zoo by going through the Discovery Center, which is always fun. Here's my parents walking across the swinging bridge.

I also made sure we got a group photo by asking Penny in Admissions to take the photo for me.

Another eating establishment on my list of places to go was Jethro's BBQ, also recommended by some friends from work. If you've ever heard of the TV show Man vs. Food, that guy was here taking this ginormous sandwich challenge. I think it said it will be airing sometime in October. We did not order it, but we saw someone at a table nearby with it. Wow!

Here's some of the food we had... spinach and artichoke dip, BBQ sandwiches, waffle fries, and hot coleslaw (not pictured)

Next, we headed to the Des Moines Art Center. Another thing on my To Do list. Before heading inside, we found this rose garden out back, which was pretty cool.

 

Then, we embarked on the cultural experience indoors. No photos allowed, and there were people around every corner making sure no one was. Fun little trip, though. Saw some cool stuff.

We headed to West Des Moines to do some shopping. Spent some time at the Jordan Creek mall, and then made a few other stops at nearby strip malls. I saw the sign for Trader Joe's, which rang a bell for me. Nancy Eagen, the mother of my good friend Kyle, had once told me I needed to check one of these out. She thought I would enjoy it, after hearing me say how much I like the Whole Foods Market in Omaha. So, I went and did enjoy it. Bought some groceries, and then walked down to an interseting looking store Kirklands, which was a really cool store with some decor. 

We ate Papa John's pizza for supper Sunday night, and then woke up Monday morning, and stopped at the Burlington Coat Factory on Merle Hay Road before my parents headed back home. I had a really great weekend with both of them, and I'm glad that they came. Wouldn't have been quite as much fun doing all those things by myself this weekend. It was also fun to show them where I've been working and talking about it in person.

After they left, I decided to soak up some sun on this beautiful Fourth of July. I headed to the beach at Gray's Lake and hung out for a couple of hours and did some reading for fun. Great weekend in the life of Jessica Boschen. Hope everyone else had a Happy Fourth of July!