We started off with a spontaneous Memorial Day weekend trip to Saint Louis and it was a BLAST! That city is so fun. We did a ton of stuff including the Art Museum, the City Museum and the botanical gardens.
Most of you may not know this, but David and I have a married goal to eat ice cream in all 50 states. That is not a joke. Those of you who know me best will not be surprised. So here is me, eating ice cream in Missouri!
One weekend we went home with our friends Joy and Tyler to the great state of Nebraska. We started off here, visiting Tyler's family on their farm in Stromsburg, where we also checked out the Swedish festival. (I told you Midwesterners love their European heritage!)
I went back to Alabama for a few days for the wedding of Stuart and Rosie Spooner. It was SUCH a blast and such a breath of fresh air to get to see all my people.
I also got to go to my favorite place in the world. I even got to ski 3 days in a row! It doesn't quite feel like summer because I never went to the beach, but at least I got to sneak a little lake time in.
4th of July came and it pretty much consisted of eating these delicious guys for breakfast and watching some fireworks with some friends.
We may a last minute splurge decision to go see Gillian Welch and David Rawlings in concert. It. Was. Amazing. I'm not even going to try to explain how great it was. The venue was perfect. She is one of our long time favorites, so it was a bucket list concert for sure.
We went to the renowned Iowa State Fair. Maybe this one deserves a post of its own. It was pretty much everything I imagined it to be.
On August 10th we celebrated being married ONE WHOLE YEAR! It is crazy to think that it has already been that long. I have learned so much, but more than anything I've realized how much more I have to learn! We celebrated by going to dinner downtown and then eating the top layer of our wedding cake which my sweet mom shipped all the way from Sweet Home Alabama. It actually tasted really good - that Peggy McKinney knows what she's doing.
We also went to a hot air balloon festival at night when they were all lit up.
I also threw my first ever baby shower. What better friend to celebrate than this one! Joy has been such a blessing to me during my time in Des Moines. It was so fun to come together and get excited about her sweet boy who will be here in a few short weeks!
Of course the crafting part was my favorite! Okay maybe the baking. All of the preparation was so fun to me. I wish I could throw parties for my job.
For Labor Day we could think of NOTHING fun to do so we decided to drive to Kansas City, MO for the day. We ate some incredible BBQ, and explored a few different areas of town, including the plaza with a tower that looks just like the cathedral in Sevilla! It made me miss Spain.
While sitting in a coffee shop we realized that we were only 15 minutes from Kansas! I have been to Kansas before. On a charter bus. With 50 high schoolers. We drove across the whole state. There were no hills. We ate dinner in Kansas. And breakfast. There were lots of windmills. I had motion sickness. Needless to say, I don't really have a desire to go back and spend a lot of time there, so we took advantage of being so close and drove across the border! The neighborhoods were really pretty! And of course we ate ice cream. Then we stopped outside of a bank and took this selfie with the flag to prove that we actually went there. Excuse my double chin.
All in all it was a fun summer! We are surprised to still be in Iowa, since there were some changes in David's project that he got slated to stay and finish. But I think I am enjoying it now more than I have been! I have much to be thankful for. We'll see what adventures the fall brings!
