Monday, Tuesday...

Yesterday was our trip to Winterset.  We drove down in the morning after breakfast, and it really is a beautiful drive through Madison County.  The only covered bridge we saw was in the city park, and it's in such an illogical place that I'm thinking it must have been moved there.  Why would anyone need a bridge there??  Anyway, we drove up to Clark tower, and the girls agreed that it did look like a castle and they excitedly put on their princess outfits, and ran up to the tower.  Clara was a good sport and was awake during activities and asleep in the car.  Then we finished up the crazy drive back to the main area of the park, and played on some playground equipment and ran through the English maze (hedges!).  That's about the time that it started getting hot, so we headed back to Des Moines, and ate at Tasty Tacos on our way home.  Throughout the trip, the girls were very observant, but didn't seem to be too impressed.  I was shrugging it off as a semi-failure, except they described it in very different, dramatic terms when Kerri stopped by last night.  They got to be princesses in a castle! Wow! And play on a new playground!!  Delayed feedback, I guess.

We tried to make ice cream yesterday afternoon, like this, but it didn't turn out.  I double-bagged both mixtures, because the only massive amount of salt that I had was driveway salt, which has added chemicals in it.  I wanted to keep that away from the ice cream, but I think the ice cream has to be in contact with the ice on the other side of the bag, so it didn't set up.  It was still delicious, but definitely liquid and not solid.  It says it will set up in about 5 minutes, but after 15 minutes of shaking, I gave up to the whines of how it was taking too long and just let them eat it the way it was.  Audrey managed to spill hers all over the kitchen, which was the final straw for me after being whined at throughout what was supposed to be a fun activity.  They spent much of the rest of the afternoon outside in the water, or on the 100° porch, stripped down to almost nothing.  They really played nicely together for a very long time yesterday, which is pretty impressive, I think.

This morning, we went to Big Creek to go to the beach, but apparently nobody else in Des Moines thinks that a high of 100° is the perfect day to go.  But we did!  We were there by 9:30 or so, and it was already really hot out on the beach.  It took some convincing, but Travis got the girls down by the water, playing in the sand and making sand castles with their buckets and shovels.  The water was pretty stinky and full of algae, so no swimming, but they did play on the playground equipment for quite a while.  Throughout this, Clara was in my arms, wanting to nurse because she was thirsty and uncomfortable, and nursing fixes everything if you're 8 weeks old.  The nice thing about nobody being around - carefree breastfeeding!  I thought it seemed a bit post-apocalyptic, with the empty playground and enormous parking lot (we got one of only two shady spots! woot!), but Travis said it was just good planning on our part.  Emily seemed to concerned that there were no other kids around, but honestly, our kids are more likely to have fun if there aren't other kids around that they have to size up or be intimidated by.

And now we're home, chilling for the afternoon.  We might make some more homemade ice cream this afternoon, but in an ice cream machine this time!  Tomorrow, we're headed to Ames, I think, for a social day.