Best and Worst of the Weekend – 120 Minutes of Monster Trucks

The weekend was pretty good, and some ups and downs, more ups though than anything else, which is always a plus.

Friday I got off of work and had a tasty beverage and some buckhunter and picture find before heading home and getting the Brayden to go out for Boys Night out.  After getting him in a cleaned up and ready to go, we headed out to go for supper.  He wanted to go where I went and got Tator Tots New Years Eve.  The Highlife!  I obliged.  On the way there Grandpa called and talked to Bray about where he was going and Bray asked if he was going and was going to watch on TV.  When I parked at the Highlife and got him out, I locked the door, I looked over and he was already at the door.  He got to the bar and helped him up, the bartender came over and Brayden without waiting a second told him, “Can I have a cheeseburger and a sprite?”  The kid at the whole burger, and I told him if he ate his whole burger he could play a video game.  He chose Silver Strike, only bowled a 32 but then it was on to MONSTER TRUCKS!

Last year at Monster Jam there were only 5 trucks and 2 at Free Style blew engines.  This year they had 8 and one was Sun-ava Digger.  A little grave digger off shoot, there was also El Toro Loco, a truck with horns and a brand new Hot Wheels truck.  These things were a lot louder than I remember last year.  Brayden had his ear phones so he was ok; I covered my ears a few times.  But we had a blast.  The best was sitting there with him during the races and we’d each pick who we thought would win, and then El Toro Loco in free style got a little crazy and wiped out and broke a horn.  At one point Bray looked at me and said “Dad – THIS IS AWESOME!”  It was all worth it then.  Saturday Grandpa called too and asked Brayden how it was and they talked about it a bit.

We also had an embarrassing moment in the bathroom but that’s that…can’t go any further.

Saturday not much went on till the afternoon.  The oldest kids and I went to Jordan Creek Mall to play.  Well Brayden played more than Addy.  She wanted to play Angry Birds.  We were there about 30-40 minutes and I guess a fellow tweep was there 5 people down.  After that time the kids did the “I’m hungry dad…I’m Thristy dad” so we walked around a bit and got a snack and walked a bit some more till Lil Miss Social (Addyson) saw a friend from class in a store and HAD to go say hi.  Went in and I saw another tweep there but I didn’t say hi, because Brayden was pulling off all bracelets and ear rings from the racks.  Also on the way Addy was stopped in her tracks window shopping.  She wants a new dress and she stopped dead in her tracks and just looked at the dress.  I’m screwed when she’s a teenager. 

On the way home we stopped and got pizza and a couple movies for Sat night, and then Brayden drilled his head walking into 2 doors too.  Kids wanted to see “How to train a Dragon” and I got “500 Days of Summer” after being told from tweeps it’s was worth seeing.  Both movies cost me $0.47.  Nice deal there at Family Video.  I thought 500 Days was pretty good.  It’s a different flick which I think makes it better than what mostly Hollywood is putting out.  And the New Girl chick is easy on the eyes too.  Minka Kelly at the end is nice too! 

Saturday Night the worst of the weekend came.  Brayden got sick.  There’s nothing like cleaning up puke in the middle of the night.  Changing sheets, doing laundry, cleaning the kid up.  After about an hour I laid with him and a puke bucket the rest of the night, until….Ryleigh woke up and wouldn’t go back to sleep.  So I left Bray and his bucket and went to the hit the recliner with Ryleigh for the next 3-4 hours.  Let me tell you my back felt GREAT Sunday morning. 

Sunday was a lazy day with Bray recovering.  Bray spent most the day in his room playing and napping.  Ryleigh the same way, napping, eating and playing (kids have it easy!).  Addy and I went out in the afternoon for a walk down by Sec Taylor and the river about near dusk.  She took her scooter and I walked by her and we went about 1.5 miles.  We talked about the river and the bridges and the moon and the geese by the river.  It was a fun little time with her.  We stopped by Mullets for a drink afterwards too.  She had a Shirley temple and I a GrainBelt.  Ended the weekend with a little Xbox and a new iphone game, thanks Jen, addicted now.

Over all it was a really pretty good weekend, a dad weekend mostly.   

Best and Worst of the Weekend

So the weekend was a quick one, again.  Actually not to bad either.  Got a movie in (DVD) haven’t seen Captain America, yet.  Took the boy fishing then had a trip to Mullets with him.  Indulged in some ice cold tasty GrainBelt! Even got to watch a replay of DJK putting up a hat trick vs. Michigan on the Big Ten Network.

I also tried what I guess is rated the #1 deli sandwich in Des Moines, B&B Dad’s Killer sub.  Gonna be honest, it’s not #1.  The Zach Johnson at the Manhattan Deli is the best deli sandwich in town.  I thought the Dad’s Killer, if I had all the ingrediants, is something I could have made at home and it would have been the same. 

 

With my boy, this was his second time fishing, and it didn’t go as well as the first one.  We tried a new location, a covered dock at Easter Lake.  He was more excited this time about the dock than sitting there fishing, but he sat for a bit and was proud of him there.  He had a few bites but we never could nag a fish.  After it we went to Mullet’s for lunch.  He was excited to sit at a big chair table and had fun chatting with the girls working there.  The Philly CheeseSteak PoBoy was pretty good, but it wasn't as tasty as The Sandberg. 

Also took a load of big cardboard boxes down to a friend’s house Sunday and burnt them while the kids ran around with their black lab.  Black Lab won a few times knocking them down and licking them like crazy.  Nice thing Saturday Addyson had a play date with a  friend for 4 hours and got to get with a friend of hers from preschool and hang out while the other 2 kids were sleeping.

While Addy was gone, I put on Unstoppable, starring Chris Pine and Denzel Washington.  The movie about an out of control high speed train.  Yes, like most movies in Hollywood these days, it was predictable, but I enjoyed it.  Pine I thought did a good job and liked Denzel in this movie too.  Supporting cast was good too.  Was it believable that the events like that would actually happen, um no…I hope not, but it’s a movie, let yourself go. 

2.5 / 5 STARS

Des Moines Eats

So Tuesday I had the afternoon off and spent it with my daughter as she didn’t have day care.  On the way home to be with her I decided to stop at the Manhattan Deli and get lunch.  Easy choice.  They are by far the best sandwich shop in town!  Quiznos, Subway & Jimmy Johns doubled and combined do not come close to competing with them!  I got what I always get there.  The Zach Johnson.  Named after former Drake golfer and Masters Champion Zach Johnson.  It is ham, hard salami, pepperoni, provolone, hot pepper cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and oil dressing on a hoagie bun.  Fantastic.  I’ll drive downtown and take extra lunch time just to get one.  Add in a cup of macaroni salad and a cookie and it’s a heck of a lunch!

In the evening I had to take Brayden to an eye appointment and Addy tagged along.  I told them if they were good we’d go to a special place for supper.  Brayden did great and his left eye is getting better, so we headed out for supper.  It was late and I didn’t want them to sit too long for supper.  Hit Mullets across the river from Principal Park.  Looking through the menu, and not just beer like last time, I got The Sandberg (named after former Cub and ICubs manager Ryne Sandberg).  It is a poboy – a Polish sausage stuffed with Swiss cheese, wrapped in bacon, fried and then topped with grilled onions and peppers, BBQ sauce, chili, cheddar jack and cream cheese.  Also came with a French Fried Medley of Fries, Curly Fries and sweet potato tator tots.  Needless to say it was great too.

As you can see I had a very filling day of food!  What is great is that these are local business, not branch.  If you know me I hate chains.  And they are also downtown Des Moines.  Even better.  Get me out of the commercial characterless West Des Moines.  I love how we have great original food options downtown and in Des Moines.  If your downtown, stay downtown and eat at a couple great places!

One cool thing was on the way from eye doctor to Mullets was we saw a rainbow.  A big full rainbow.  Addyson was so excited she nearly jumped out of the car seat shouting “Dad a rainbow!  And it ends over there!  That’s where the pot of gold is!”  This shot shows the location of the pot of gold…who would have known?  Pizza Hut had it?

Date Night

So last night Shawnna and I finally got our second date night since Ryleigh's been born.  Usually we want to get at least one a month with each other.  Mom came down and stayed with all 3 kids, they had grandma here so they had fun with artwork, or as Brayden called it, "his masterpiece."

We headed out to eat at the Flying Mango in Beaverdale.  It was a really cool little place.  You walk in and you see the chef cooking on the stove there.  Walking up from the back you can smell the grill going.  I looked at the menu a bit before and saw what they had, and I went with the Big Chop along with Southwestern Smashed potatoes and Cowboy beans, along with a Two Hearted Ale.  The chop came out and had a knife stuck in it and was about the size of a softball, and with the homemade bbq sauce it was DAMN GOOD!  We also shared a slice of Chocolate Malt Cake.  It was gone pretty quick.  Overall I liked the Flying Mango, the service was kind of slow and not very responsive, but the food was great.

Then headed to see Bridesmaids.  I've heard really good things about it, some saying it was the female version of the Hangover.  All I have to say is I laughed so hard that I had a headache and had tears later.  Kristen Wig as a lead was really solid and funny, so was Myra Rudolph, but I thought Melissa McCarthy stole the show.  She was fricken hilarious!  Probably in the lead now too for the Best Dudette on my Summer Movie Awards.   Really glad we went to see it over Hangover 2.  I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Afterwards we took the scenic route downtown, drove through downtown and saw what was going on and decided to go get a drink.  We headed to Mullets.  A cool restaurant/bar just on the other side of the river from Sec Taylor Stadium.  Heard from my buddy Quentin that it had good food, and it's owned by the same people who own El Bait Shop, so I figured they had Grainbelt!  Had a couple, Shawnna had a Monkey Tail to drink and we split some deep fried dill pickles.  After about an hour there we headed home and crashed!

It was one of the best date nights we've had since kids arrived in our life 6 years ago!  Had a great time!