Day One: Union Park and Midnight Ping Pong

I realize that that title of the first post about my family's trip to Iowa didn't make since "They Came, We Saw, Justin Conquered."  I spent the whole post talking about their long horrible trip out here and alluding to things we did, but what the heck did Justin conquer?  Well I am going to get to that soon, right after I tell you about our fun afternoon at Union Park.

Union Park is one of my favorite places to take the kids in Des Moines.  There is a wading pool, two great playgrounds, and my favorite, a carousel. The carousel is only 50 cents to ride, unlike the one at the mall that is $2 per ride.  I didn't really make plans for while everyone was here, because I wanted them to pick where they wanted to go.  I told them about everything there was to do and I was so excited when they said they wanted to go to this park.

Everyone spent the first morning recuperating and that afternoon we packed up the grill, dinner, swimsuits, sunblock, towels, toys, and of course the kids to play at the park.  It was sooooooo much fun!  When we were leaving, my nephew Kaden asked if we could come back the next day.

Later that night, after the kids had gone down the adults that were left at my house (some were staying at a nearby friend's house) were sitting around talking and somehow the subject got onto my dad's amazing ping pong skills.  Apparently my dad's work allows for 3 hours of paid fitness leave every week. So he plays ping pong 4 days a week for 45 minutes a day with his coworkers. He has also played all the scouts and scout leaders at church and came off conquerer! He told us about how a man he was playing against broke his ankle because he tried to change direction too quickly after returning the ball and trying to get the next one my dad slammed down his throat! After hearing all this, Justin just had to pipe in and let us all know that he was pretty good himself seeing as he spent all of his study breaks this past year at the ping pong table at the University.  What followed was the most outrageous outburst of trash talk I have ever witnessed.  It was all in good fun of course but there was some major trash talking going on.

Dad:  I beat a guy who was the top ping pong player in his entire high school.
Justin: What 20 years ago? I could waste you (flexing his muscles)
Dad: You say that, but people call me "The Destroyer" My mad skills caused a man to break his ankle.
Justin: Sure you can beat old men anytime, but can you beat a strong, althletic 27 year-old who's in his prime?
Dad: Did you not hear me? They call me "The DESTROYER" 
Justin: Fine, we'll play tomorrow at DMU you better get ready.
Dad: You're on! I hope you have enough time to warm up!
More trash talk ensued.
Finally Dad says: I could take you on tonight, I'm ready
Justin: Let's do it, I'm not going to be able to sleep anyways if we wait until tomorrow.

So that was that. At 11:15pm we all (Mom, Dad, Justin, me, Kellie, her baby Marcus, and Joshua) hopped in the car, leaving the sleeping kids and Kimberly to babysit (thanks Kimberly), and headed to DMU. The entire ride there Justin was playing the song from Rocky "Gonna Fly Now" on his iphone. It helped set the stage for what lay ahead.

We got to the school and the spectators settled into the bleachers

While the contenders went to their corners.

And the match started. The first game went to Justin, as did the second, and third... and the fourth, fifth and sixth game! Wahoo! Go Justin! Sorry Dad maybe with some practice, dedication, and the familiarity of your own paddle you will be ready to beat Justin next time.

About halfway through the second game, the spectators were bored so we played some games of our own.

Shout out to Mom who beat Kellie in fooseball and ping pong! Here she is doing her victory dance:

So you see, that is how Justin (and my mom) conquered! Wasn't that such a fun start to the vacay?  Just wait to see what we did on day #2!