Nerdapalooza!

This last weekend, David and I headed off with our good friends (Joe & Tabby) to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Iowa Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association annual conference. As exciting as high-tunnel growing and proper sanitation sounds to the average non-grower, we had a BLAST!

The highlight of the trip was visiting Jennie & Kevin Heileson (Jennie is my cousin) and their family. They were VERY gracious hosts (so much so, we may just have to go back - that will teach them to be so hospitable) and Jennie is a fantastic cook! She just secured a spot on my "idol" list!

One of the perks of the trip was getting to split up our group and do whatever we want whenever we want. David hit the conference circuit all three days and the rest of us went on short adventures. It helps that Jennie's girls are close to Adam's age. We went to the Maytag Blue Cheese Dairy farm where we were fed cheeses of all kinds and shown the history and process of making their world-famous blue cheese. I even tried the stuff - and though I still don't like it because of the tanginess, I could appreciate the high quality. David, the blue-cheese fiend, got a wedge from Adam for his Birthday.


Addy, Daisy, Adam & Brinley at the Maytag Blue Cheese Farm in Newton, IA. Daisy is about 67 years old and made out of paper mache.

We also went to the Mall in West Des Moines and played at the play place there (as well as shopped and ate lunch until the various melt-downs indicated naptime). It was Adam's first exposure to slides and he LOVED it!