Fun on a Saturday

Wow, I'm beat. We had an awesome day (for the most part), but it was exhausting. This morning Thomas, Meg, and I met my mom, sister, and brother-in-law at the farmer's market. We wandered around for awhile and bought a bunch of blueberries for Meg (she goes through a TON of blueberries). Then Thomas had to leave and the rest of us went over to the Italian-American Heritage Festival. To be perfectly honest, it was a bit of a letdown. It ran like 2 city blocks. There were maybe a dozen food vendors - all selling full-size meals for $5 or $6, not sample portions, like I'd hoped. Since we were full from the farmer's market, we didn't even get any entree-type food. We were there for all of 15 minutes. (I think they had more going on at night - maybe we'll try going in the evening next year). We did get cannolis. They were excellent and Meg really loved it.

We'd expected to spend more time there, so no one wanted to go home yet. We decided to go to Starbucks. We hung out there for awhile, then wandered outside and saw the water...thing. I don’t know how to describe it. Its part fountain, part endless pool. For the most part its a long stretch of ankle-deep water a couple feet wide. At one end, the water flows out in a waterfall (shown in the picture) and at the other end, it widens and gets progressively shallower. Basically, you take off your shoes and walk down the street in the ankle-deep water to cool off. Meg LOVED it. Mom put her next to the shallow end so she could feel the water and she immediately walked in further and squatted down to splash, getting her shorts (and the bottom of her onesie) all wet. I took the shorts off, then let her play. She got absolutely soaked and loved every minute. It was really fun spending time with my family, just wandering Des Moines.

1st picture: Meg and I at the farmer's market
2nd picture: Meg and my brother-in-law in the fountain

P.S. I had an extra outfit and diapers with me, so we changed Meg's clothes when she finished splashing in the fountain. It was so hot, the water evaporated pretty fast. My feet were dry within a minute or two of getting out. She dried off really quickly, too.

****Updated - I found some pictures of the fountain****