Winter Games

I realize that it has been a few weeks since we last updated!  We haven't done anything too terribly exciting but here is a quick run down of what we've been up to the month of January:
*I went to lunch with mom, Beryl and Kathy at Zombie Burger in the East Village.  Mom and I shared a crazy burger topped with macaroni and cheese and that had fried macaroni and cheese for the bun.  Totally wild and totally terrible for you :p

After filling up on this crazy burger,we checked out a tag sale in Des Moines where I go some Scrabble tiles to spell out Anderson.  I finally got the letter blocks I've been wanting for over a year!  Well, I sort of got what I wanted :p  

*Kyle and I met up with some friends at Denny Arthurs which is always a wild time!

*We went to a Des Moines Buccaneers game.  They lost the game but we had a great time!

*We headed up to Okoboji for the Winter Games.  This was the first time I had gone to the winter games and even though the weather was unseasonably warm, it was fun!  Usually all the events are held on the ice but they weren't recommending being out on the ice this year because it wasn't very thick and hadn't been frozen for very long.  We got into town on Friday and went to the chili cook-off.  There were 42 vendors there competing for the best chili.  You bought a mug and went from booth to booth taste testing chili.  I couldn't even try every kind; I was full after the first row!  After you were finished tasting you got to vote for your favorite.  We all really liked the chili that had sauerkraut in it.  I know it sounds crazy but it was really good!  We'll definitely try that out next time we make chili.

Along with the chili cook-off, we had to stop at Miles' for a skooner!

We stayed at Bridges Bay where there is an indoor water park.  Friday night we spent some time relaxing in the hot tub, floating around the lazy river and going down the water slides.  The slides go around outside of the building but are the enclosed slides so we didn't freeze :)  I think Kyle and I went down the slide about 6 times...we felt like little kids!

Saturday we got up and had breakfast at our favorite Spirit Lake breakfast spot, Family Diner.  We got one of their amazing cinnamon rolls to start the day.  The snow ball drop happened right outside the restaurant so we were sure to make it over to that.  Four trucks with cherry pickers park and guys go up and dump out "snow balls", or ping pong balls, that have numbers on them.  You want to grab as many ping pong balls as you can because you can win prizes based on what number you have.  I didn't win anything but Carol won a dozen cookies from Hey, Good Cookies!  We also made a quick pit stop at Sportsmans and I just had to take a picture of this...

Then we entered the family bowling tournament.  We didn't win but it was fun to do some bowling!  

After bowling we roasted marshmallows for s'mores in the Mau Marina parking lot then headed to the Burning of the Greens.  People pile up their dry Christmas trees and they're used for a huge bonfire.  They had a great fireworks show too!  We met up with Meagan, Ryan and Cooper for a little bit while we were there.

On our way home from Boji on Sunday, we stopped in Ames to have dinner with Brad for his birthday at Hickory Park-yum!!  

Kyle started his new job on Monday.  So far he has just been sitting with someone to observe and train.  He thinks he'll start up on his own next Monday!  Now we have to decide who we're going to cheer for during the Superbowl game this Sunday! Until then!