Lacey-Keosauqua State Park

Rob and I recently returned from a week camping at Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in southeastern Iowa. We had a great time, but wished the weather had been a bit cooler and a little less rainy, but June is the rainy season in Iowa, so I guess I can't complain. We had our first 90+ degree day while camping too, so that was a bit of a shock to the system. However, we did manage to get in lots of grilling, sitting around the campfire, some hiking, and we went swimming when it was hot.  We also read two books each and played a ton of games from my basket of games that I brought along. We even learned quite a few new games. Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, Kahuna, and Battle Line were some of our favorites.

There are about 12 miles of trails at Lacey-Keosauqua. The state park is situated next to the Des Moines river and has a small lake inside its boundaries along with lots of creeks criss-crossing the area. So the park is very hilly, and the hikes are not easy. Our longest hike involved walking the Lake Trail around the little lake and surrounding area. My phone tracked the walk at 2 and 3/4 miles, but it felt even longer with all of the hills. The trail has several stone bridges and dams over the little creeks and drainage ditches. The stone structures were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The bridge above is one of the more intricate ones. 

As we neared the end of our Lake Trail hike, there were a couple of stopping spots with benches overlooking the lake. They were a welcome rest.

We stayed in one of Lacey-Keosauqua's cabins while we were there. They are small and modest, but have a kitchen and bathroom...and more importantly AC. We had a great time, and I'd definitely put it on my list of parks to return to. More photos of our camping trip can be found in this flickr photo album.

Our drive home had us going through Eldon, IA which is home to the American Gothic house (you know, from that painting). Eldon is tiny, but they have a very nice little museum and park next to the house. It was all free and you could even borrow costumes to match the painting for photographs if you wanted. Next stop on our trip home was Pella. We drove home on Rob's birthday so we stopped for lunch and pastries from Jaarsma Bakery. Their beehive cakes made a good birthday cake substitute and we lit them up after hauling all of our camping gear back in the house (and giving the dog a bath). If you'd like to see more photos of Rob's Birthday and the American Gothic House, you can find them in this flickr photo album. Overall it was a delightful vacation!

Welcome Spring!

I think we should just forget about how there was a giant snowstorm between when I wrote last and now....but I suppose if you want to see my pictures of our 14+ inch snowfall in February, click here.

We had a nice spring break in March. The weather was gorgeous the week before break, and still pretty nice for most of spring break. We went out to Jester park and hiked on some muddy trails one day.

And another day we went downtown and visited the botanical center and the asian gardens. 

On the warmest day of break, we took a walk around Terra Park to see the changes being made there and then spent a good chunk of the afternoon hanging out in the backyard.  We couldn't have asked for a better staycation.

Much of April has been spent grading papers and getting ready for the end of the semester, but in the meantime, the yard exploded with early spring flowers. Now I'm grading portfolios and waiting for the next batch of flowers to bloom. I hope you're all having a great spring! I can't wait for more warm weather adventures!

All of the links in this post take you to my photo pages on flickr.

End of Year Review 2014

It was a beautiful fall this year until a nasty cold snap hit in November.  It was below zero and snowing much too early, but December was mostly wonderful, so it all worked out in the end.

There was a lunar eclipse in October.  I didn't stay up until the early morning hours to watch it, but I did take some photos of the bright full moon early in the evening. See more photos of the moon from our backyard here.

We always love going over to Terra Park/Beaver Creek Natural Resource Area in the fall.  This year was no different.  Terra Park is being redone into a fancy shmancy new park, but we still were able to walk through the Resource Area.  To see more photos click here.

I took some great photos of the fall colors in walks around our neighborhood in October--I even managed to catch a monarch butterfly on one of my neighbor's flowers in their front yard. You can find more fall color photos here.

In early December, Rob tested for his second degree black belt (and passed).  To see more photos from the test, click here.

The second week in December we had beautiful weather in the 50s. We snapped a few photos in the backyard without coats on to put in our Christmas letter.

Rob had to work over Christmas so we had a nice celebration at home.  To see more photos from our Christmas letter photo shoot and Christmas, click here.

After Christmas we went to Estelline to celebrate with the family and we made lefse. To see photos of lefse making click here.

Happy New Year (a little late)!