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!

Weekend Recap - Fall and Thrifting

The weekend actually started with a scary movie night with Jess and Ashley!  It was a lot of fun getting together with girl friends and staying in for a change.  We only got around to two movies of the three because we didn't think we'd be mentally prepared for the third one, Insidious. :) We watched Candyman and The Strangers.  Ashley and I remembered thinking Candyman was really terrifying as kids, but not so much anymore.  It was super bloody though, I didn't remember that...my poor sensitive stomach, lol.  The Strangers was definitely still creepy as ever!  My aunt was also in town and watched The Stangers with us.  When the movie was over, we say around for a little bit talking about real life ghost stories and weird stuff, it was good.


In the morning, I woke up at 5:15 to get ready for our McGregor/Prairie Du Chein trip.  Early, I know, but totally worth it.  Wouldn't want to cut our day of antiquing short!  Long story short, the guys went fishing while us ladies shopped :) I scored some great deals which I'll share at the end.


On Sunday, Ryan and I hit up the apple orchard and liquor store.  Liquor is much cheaper in Wisconsin!  We ate lunch at this classic burger stand, Pete's, and then shopped a little more in McGregor.  We watched the Green Bay game with Ryan's mom at this bar that made fantastic bloody mary's.

Eagle sitting on top of a dead deer at the pumpkin patch.

Pete's burger

With my mother-in-law, Go Bears!

CHEAP liquor!!

Ok, so I mentioned I did some shopping right?  I took pictures of everything we bought that weekend, I'll put the prices so you can be jealous of the deals I found :)

Pyrex, with the lid, talked down to $9

Dip mixes, only $1 each

Nordicware bar pan with lid, $12

Dress pants,$3.95, camel scarf $4,
Sunglasses $7.95, bracelet $5

From left to right, all of these are handles:
$13.50, $19.99, $20.99

New Glarus Sampler pack, you can only get this
beer in Wisconsin, $15.99

PUMPKINS!!! $5 TOTAL! (obviously my best score)

Local winery wine $10, Cheese curds $4.50, Honeycrisp apples $7