the Kingdom is complete.
Today we realized that the complimentary breakfast, which is good, got even better. They have an omelette station on one side that is usually busy but today Mom overheard someone ask for bacon and eggs AND that they also make pancakes with a chocolate chip addition if requested.
fruit loops, scrambled eggs and chocolate chip pancakes are a great start to the day.
After breakfast we drove off to the beach at Raccoon River. It is a nice park with ball diamonds, play structures and lots of green space. And being that we were there on a Wednesday morning we were practically alone.
dad loves taking pictures of people taking pictures.
The river was warm and the sand stretched out a good fifty feet into the water which made it nice and shallow, this made for a great place to swim and throw the football for the boys. After an hour Dad’s arm was actually tired and had to stop throwing to the little guy. And even with sunscreen we all got a bit too much sun and by after 4 hours we had to call it and pack up for the day.
The second best part of going to the beach is the cool down in a dark cool hotel room with ice water. But sadly for Dad the boys still wanted to go swim at the pool, Oy!
Dad and the oldest went out for a quick shopping trip when the boys were resting. It was successful in that we found all the things we were looking for and then we stopped at a local music store as the oldest wanted to look at the drumming stuff.
this place was sketchy outside, but full of old rockers inside.
And in the evening the kids and Dad went out for a walk to the Capitol Building to check it out and throw the football around.
who wants to play catch beside the parking garage on the way to the Capitol?
and we found out it is in fact real gold!
view from the Capitol down to the river.
On the way back from the Capitol and on the way to supper we came across the coolest thing! Dad squealed and the kids laughed, though they didn’t even know the Oscar Meyer bologna song.
weinermobile!!
this place was very hipster, but Dad pushed through.
After we all wished that we were eating fire roasted hotdogs in fresh buns we walked to Dumpling Darling and prepared for yummy. The littlest child was getting tired and was not that excited for “Dumb-lings” so we decided on a sampling of dumplings and made plans for him to eat something else later.
“they only have dumplings?”
these are the macaroni dumplings.
these beauts are the crab rangoon dumplings.
no dumplings were left behind.
And to wrap it all up across the street from Dumpling Darling was Molly’s Cupcakes, who we were happy to find out won Cup Cake Wars on the Food network a few years back! The boys loved the cupcake bar which had swings as seats. But we all loved the cupcakes.
they wanted to stay here for the rest of the night
from the top, Peach Cobbler, Oreo and the Ron Bennington.
cookie monster - filled with chocolate chip cookie batter.
smore - filled with chocolate ganache.
boston cream - filled with…cream.
and Dad’s choice the creme brule - filled with creme.
They were just amazing! We ate them with reckless abandon and regretted nothing. Such a fun place to visit and great cupcakes and treats to boot.
And to fill the supper hole in the little guys belly we found the best Italian food money can buy.
tired and happy for pizza pockets and pizza bites. ugh.
Well another day is in the books and we are exhausted. Tomorrow will be a day of using our minds as we explore Iowan culture.
