Des Moines Weekend Recap

About a month and a half ago, my sister and I decided to take a shopping trip somewhere. We settled on Des Moines for the good shopping and good food (and ease of driving as opposed to Chicago).  This past weekend we hit the road and shopped 'til we dropped!  The bonus of going to Des Moines is that several of my good friends live there, so I got to do three of my favorite things in one weekend: shopping, spending time with my sister, and hanging out with friends.

Friday night Emily and I checked into our hotel, then went to Jordan Creek and crossed a lot of things off of our Christmas shopping list.  Around 7:30, we decided we could probably go eat so we put our name in at the Cheesecake Factory.  While waiting around for seats, we got a little goofy playing with Emily's Altoids wrapper AKA "Old-timey mustache."

Once we were seated, we couldn't wait to order some drinks (and for the bread basket to come out).  Then our awesome waitress gave some suggestions and we had a delicious meal.  Oh I love the Cheesecake factory...

We stopped by Trader Joe's earlier for a bottle of wine and spent the night enjoying coffee mugs of Cab Sauv and good conversation.  

Saturday morning, she talked me into working out, bless her heart!  It was my idea to bring work out clothes and then I totally wanted to bail when the morning got there.  But alas, we headed to the gym and got a great start to our morning.  Then we went to Valley West Mall so I could check out JCPenney for swimsuits (yay Cancun!) and walked around.  After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we made our required Trader Joe's stop and stocked up on deliciousness (have you tried the Cookie Butter?!) before parting ways.

After Emily went home, I headed over to Ashley's!  We spent the afternoon catching up and watching American Horror Story.  Then we met Nick and Emily R at an awesome Asian restaurant called Rolling Wok and enjoyed a rocking dinner...I can't wait to eat there again!  Tessa joined us that evening for a fun night with games and cookies.  It was so nice to see everyone!

Sunday morning, before I left, I took a picture of Ashley and me (and our tired eyes) to prove that I actually hung out with her, lol, since I totally failed to take any pictures on Saturday.

I got home in time to watch the Bears game with Ryan and found out my Redditgifts secret santa gift had arrived!  It was a wonderful gift that I actually had my SS get for Ryan, and he loved it.

I hope you had a great weekend.  On the docket for me: hanging with the Little this week, friend's dinner on Thursday, Christmas celebrations Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!  Happy Week Before Christmas!