Iowa Christmas fun

And what is Christmas without a road trip to visit family thrown in there??

Normally, we make the 6 hour trip to Storm Lake, IA (like we did last year), but this year my grandma moved a little further away to Estherville, IA to be in the same town as my uncle - so that made the drive a bit longer.  Instead of making the long drive up there Saturday morning and then turning around and heading back home on Sunday morning - we all met in Des Moines instead and it was so great - only 3 hours for everyone (except my dad because he drove up there and then drove my grandma all the way to Des Moines and then went all the way back before coming home to KC!).  

The car ride was a perfect length - for all of us!  I got all our Christmas cards addressed and stamps and then we watched Inside Out (which was sooo good!).

Of course - we didn't forget the beer!!

We stayed in a hotel that had only been open about 2 weeks and it was SOOOOO nice!  We all got 2 bedroom suites, which was great because each kid had a bedroom and we could shut the door and hang out after they went to bed.  Plus we had plenty of space to hang out and chat together!

And the best part?!?!?!?  A swimming POOL!  

When it's so cold outside in the middle of December - nothing better than a pool!

The area we stayed in was called Jordan Creek and it's amazing and all so new!  There was a mall right next to our hotel with a Scheel's.  So to kill some time before dinner, we walked around Scheels.  Which was...interesting...to say the least.  Ha.  Our kids were a little nuts.  Charlie lost his mind and wanted some toy that he saw...so we got to drag him out of the store.  Such is life!

Posing with the animals!

Playing some games together!

And then we were all sitting around talking after we ate dinner - so what do you think these two kiddos did?  Wrestle of course - they are seriously just crazy together!

If you cannot tell - Maddie knows how to hold her own with her big brother!

And FINALLY - time for gifts.  The kids were so excited!  Charlie got an awesome Cars 2 book with all these mini cars (which he loved!) and Maddie got some fun books!

After presents - it was time for bed and then an early wake up call from these two.  We went to the free hotel breakfast super early (in our PJs) and then of course, hit up the pool.  Then we went to visit Great Grandma, Great Uncle Denny and Aunt Sandy again before we headed back to Kansas City.

It was a great trip - except we left Michelangelo in the hotel room!!!  I didn't realize it until I was putting Charlie to bed on Sunday night - I freaked out and called the hotel first thing the next morning.  They said the housekeeper wasn't there yet, but they would call us back.  My dad was actually driving through Des Moines...so if they found it he was going to go pick it up and thankfully they found it and he picked up it up!  My dad was sent us a picture of the build a bear turtle riding along with him - the best Papa!!!

We had a great time with our Bruns side of the family and can't wait to see them all again soon :)