Weekend in Des Moines!

At the beginning of July, we had our annual weekend trip with the Huyser family. However, since I have been quite pregnant throughout the majority of this summer, we didn't travel far. Instead, we stayed in Des Moines for the weekend and went to Adventureland and the zoo. So it was a mini trip, but we had lots of fun spending time with everyone!

On Saturday, we went to Adventureland. This was Bella's first trip to Adventureland, and she loved it! We started off the day riding on the neighs, which remains a favorite for Miss Bella. I think she is waving wildly at Daddy in this picture!
There are lots of kiddie rides, and Bella even got to ride on some of them by herself! I can hardly believe she is old enough to sit on a ride by herself and not try to take off. Here she is zooming on some motorcycles with Tatum!
Peering through the train car. :)
Riding in the airplane- thankfully Bella did not know how to make the airplane go up and down as she was all by herself on this ride, and that may have caused her to freak out!
This ladybug ride was a favorite for Bella! She also LOVED the teapots, but both Derek and I rode with her, so we didn't get a picture. That was very fun for her though as she always loves to spin around and "get dizzy!"
Riding on the dragon with Daddy, with a grumpy look. :)
Uncle Shawn coaxed her to ride on the chuckwagons with him. :) She even sat on his shoulders for some of the day! (Bella likes to tease all the men in her world and not give them any love or attention- except for Daddy.)
Riding on the boats with Dylann! We also went to the water park at Adventureland in the afternoon. However, Bella was too short to go on any of the slides (bummer!) so there wasn't a lot she could do. She was also getting pretty wiped out at that point, so we left earlier so she could take a nap.
All of the kids thought it would be fun to ride on the luggage cart when checking out on Sunday morning. :)
On Sunday, we went to the zoo. Bella was again super excited to go to the zoo and see all the different animals! She was chattering away about everything she was going to see, which is what she always does when she's excited about something. However, Bella apparently did not want to take a picture with Mommy and Daddy, as illustrated by the lovely look on her face!
Sitting on a froggie!
Feeding the hungry llama some food- Bella enjoyed seeing him as she loves her llama llama books! However, she wasn't too thrilled with how fast he ate the food out of her hand- can't blame her, it was a little scary!
Hee hee, I didn't know Derek had taken this picture, and when I first saw it, it made me laugh. And it still does. :) Up close and personal!
Petting the donkey!
And feeding the starving fish.
Looking at the dinosaur exhibit with Grandpa- the exhibit was pretty lame, but Bella did like seeing all the dinosaurs.

We actually had perfect weather the day we went to Adventureland, which was pretty remarkable considering how hot and muggy the weather had been. However, the day at the zoo.... not so much. It was sooo muggy and hot! Thus, we busted through many of the zoo exhibits and didn't take a lot of pictures. Pregnant Mommy and hot blooded Bella were dying of heat! However, it was still a fun day and a very fun weekend spent with family!