The rest of the weekend
The other part of our Kansas City trip was to celebrate a late Christmas with my parents and Christina and Will! This is how we typically split our holiday celebrations with our families – one in December (on Christmas) and one sometime in January. I like spreading out the cheer (and do not like trying to cram two families in to back to back weekends – too draining).
We drove to Kansas City because we had gifts to bring, and would have gifts to bring back. It’s about five hundred and seventy-five miles, one way.
GAH.
We did the first drive in four shifts. One of our stops was at Hurts Donuts in Des Moines. Steven loves sharing his love for Hurts Donuts with everyone!
Crazed, been in the car too long eyes
Nine hours is a loooong time to be in the car (we left at noon and got there at 9:00). We were definitely getting punchy well before we arrived. Ugh. But I know all about raising chickens now (that is what Steven researched while I was driving).
William waited up for us! Aww.
On Saturday I ran in the morning with Dad (William did not want to come, ha),
helped with party decorations and food prep,
ate Minskys,
then we had our Christmas!
Aka, all the ladies exchanging things we bought each other at Bath & Body Works. Seriously – my mom and I bought each other the same candle. Steven said it was somewhat painful to watch us open each item and ooh and ahh over it and smell it and pass it around. Ha ha ha. Ha. Don’t worry, it wasn’t ALL Bath & Body Works.
After presents, Christina treated me, Mom, and Alyssa (our sister-in-law) to manicures! Can you tell which hand is mine?
Then we ran errands for the party, and picked up Chinese food for dinner! I got the tip on where to order from from a worker at Bath & Body Works <— yes, we have a problem.
Why did the restaurant ask if we were having a party? This is food for six people. Ha.
Sunday was all about the party (and a morning run with Dad, and Steven met a friend for breakfast)! After the party, we went to see my brother-in-law Andrew’s new office, and he encouraged me to write my signature equation on his whiteboard. Ha.
On Monday, I ran with Dad again! I feel lucky we got to work out so much together. It’s a treat for me to chat with him, one-on-one, for so long, uninterrupted by other things!
We also went to Mud Pie, then headed out around 11:30. And made the long-arse drive back home (three shifts this time). I’d say we were less punchy this drive, yay!
Something exciting happened on our drive – we saw a sun dog in person for the first time! I was so excited! It lasted for a couple hours, and became most prominent/beautiful right before sunset. I was only able to get a bad photo through the car window.
And… that was our trip! Ha. My post makes it sound like we didn’t do much, but we were busy the whole time! I hope we have more relaxation time during our next visit! And that we take more photos together!
Themocracy
Sounds like a great trip! I’ve never heard of a sun dog before. And I love your signature equation 🙂
I only ever heard of them two years ago! I think they are caused by ice crystals in the air? So pretty!
Ha, thanks! It’s from an old episode of SNL, with one of the Jeopardy skits with someone pretending to be Sean Connery. Ha. I write it whenever I see a white board or chalkboard.
I love Williams little grumpy tired face 😍😍
Me too! What a trooper to stay up that late!
HAHAHA William looks SO skeptical and judgmental of you for going out for a run! That is quite the expression!
That’s so cool about the sun dog! I’ve never even heard of one of those before. It looks like a really amazing phenomenon to witness!
Doesn’t he? There is a whole series of photos of him looking at me like “wtf Aunt Kim?!”
Oh cool! When I was writing this, I actually thought of you and figured it would be something you knew about! You know, since we are both in to things like birds and weather. LOL.
The kids and I saw a sun dog this morning, and we just thought it was some weird rainless rainbow. Thank you for knowing what this really was! They’re going to love knowing that it was an actual thing.
Oh how awesome, and what great timing! I bet they will like learning the name of it, too!
I was amused when I read your disclaimer at the end because I was thinking “I’ll have to scroll back up so I remember all the things I want to add in my comment.”
I’m guessing none of the things are Hurt’s are vegan. (Otherwise, you would have hit your goal a few days sooner.) Does Steven prefer cake or yeasted donuts?
I love how grumpy William looks in the photo before your run. And how nice that you and your dad can run together! That’s one thing I miss about running: getting to have long, uninterrupted conversations (while also not having to make eye contact!).
I think it’s cool that you split your Christmas celebrations up. Does that mean Christina is “free” to celebrate with her in-laws on Christmas day some years? I like getting and giving bath things for gifts too because it’s practical but often feels like a luxury that I wouldn’t necessarily buy all the time. (That being said, I always forget B&BW exists because I’m never in malls anymore!)
I’ve never heard of sundog before (so, of course, I just fell down a Wikipedia hole reading about them and what they are called in other languages). I’d be excited about that too! I guess I won’t see one in SF because there’s never any ice in the air.
Ha! There was a lot of random commentary in there to comment on 😉
Hurts does not have vegan donuts. I always thought Steven was a cake donut guy, but he says Hurts has the best glazed he’s ever had, so he gets a lot of those! He tries a cake and glazed everywhere he goes to gauge how good he thinks the donut place is based off of these “staple” donuts 🙂
William’s facial expressions crack me up! It’s so nice to do those runs and chat forever and yes, not make eye contact! I read once that people are more likely to be open and say more on a run because they don’t have to make eye contact.
I am the only sibling who splits Christmas, they all have arrangements where they get to be with our family on Christmas, or in Christina’s case this year, she saw our family on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas in her home.
I like the bath stuff for the same reason! And all the B&BW I go to are stand alone… and there is one in the train station I go to to get downtown. Sigh. And it’s open at 7:30 am!
Ahh, that’s right that you won’t see one! Maybe someday, somewhere else! I bet you’ve seen some cool “sky” (<--- so scientific) stuff on your travels!
Huh, I never heard of sun-dogs before either, but your picture reminded me of the nacreous cloud we saw when we were in Lapland two years ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_stratospheric_cloud) – we also saw a moon ring while we were there. Seeing those things and the northern lights really changed the way I look at the sky – I find it much more interesting now.
So nice that you guys had a great trip and such a good time with your family!
Those are beautiful, but a horrible reason they exist! (I know a lot of beautiful sky is due to pollution, etc.). I love seeing these things and learning about them!!!!
I can’t wait to see them all again!