Ledges State Park

Last weekend we went camping with family and friends at Ledges State Park near Boone, IA.  Rob and I had been to Ledges for the day once when we lived in Ames and had a good time, so when we were asked if we wanted to camp there it was an easy answer...that and it's only about a half an hour away.

The weather was warm on Friday evening, but on Saturday morning a front moved through along with a steady downpour.  We spent an hour or so in Kris and Marie's camper while it rained hard. When it stopped, there were two big puddles in the tent and a few items of soaked clothing that we had to clean up. We were glad we opted to leave our bags in the car or we would have had a much bigger mess to clean up. After the rain went through, we went for a hike.  Part of the park has been carved out by streams into a small canyon, and there are trails throughout that section of the park.  Most of them involve climbing up the sides of the canyon or descending stairs back down into the canyon.  Needless to say, after a couple hours of walking, all of us were ready for a break. The weather was lovely after the rain and we spent the rest of the weekend playing bocce and sitting by the fire.  I look forward to camping there again.

The rest of my photos from the weekend can be found here.

Andre the Giant Sequoia Turns One

Rob's Giant Sequoia has had a growth spurt this summer.  We decided to have a piece of cake in honor of the 1st anniversary of its sprouting.

Happy Birthday Andre!

Waubonsie State Park

Last weekend Rob and I stayed in a camping cabin at an Iowa State Park south of Council Bluffs/Omaha.  Fortunately, the cabin had central air.  It didn't have running water, so we were still sort of roughing it :).  Since the temperatures were in the mid-upper 90s, we really appreciated the A/C.

Waubonsie State Park is a small, relatively secluded, state park in the Loess (pronounced "less") Hills which run along the western side of Iowa. In 2005, the nearby Wa-Shawtee (yes they are both named after American Indians) girl scout camp was sold to the Iowa DNR and they began converting some of their cabins to rent out to campers.  We stayed in one of these converted cabins.  It was very spacious for a camping cabin and had it's own water spigot and pit toilet just steps from the back door. However, it was a bit of a trek to the only bathhouse at the campground.

After the first extremely hot evening at the park, we learned that they have a bit of a tick problem this summer.  Molly was pretty infested.  We moved our campfire to the outdoor fireplace on the covered patio to get out of the grass and ended up making an emergency trip to town for to buy Frontline for Molly.  After that, it was a pretty relaxing vacation.  We built fires, cooked with our pie irons, walked some of the many trails, and spent quite a bit of time inside playing games to beat the heat.

I look forward to going back when it's not as hot so we can walk even more of the beautiful wooded and hilly trails that run throughout the park. I bet it would be beautiful in the fall.  More photos from our trip are here.

Rob's Last Brown Belt Test

Rob had his last Brown Belt Test on Saturday.  I took this picture of him breaking boards.  Assuming that he passes, he'll be testing for his temporary black belt in either December 2012 or April 2013--depending on when he gets approval to test and has completed the requisite number of classes.  The above palm strike went straight through two boards on his first try.  Way to go Rob! :)

There are a few more photos of testing up on my flickr page.

Update: It's official, he passed, and they put the last piece of black tape on his brown belt. :)

Goodnight, Wesley

Mom and Steph Come for a Visit

This last weekend, Mom and Stephanie came down to Iowa to visit. On Friday we drove around Saylorville Lake and checked out Jester Park on the north end of the lake. We drove around some of the campgrounds and stopped at the Dam. After going to the lake, we stopped for lunch and did a little shopping.

The rest of our photos from the lake can be found here.

On Saturday we went to Pella, IA and saw the sights. Most years the town would be filled with blossoms around now. The tulip festival was the first weekend in May, but the tulips were blooming here the first weekend in April instead. So the town was filled with withered stems and beds of dirt where the tulips had been dug up...a few weeks from now many of those beds will be filled with annuals, but for now we had to entertain ourselves with the rest of what Pella has to offer. We walked around to the shops, bought far too many pastries from the Jaarsma bakery, strolled past the Molengracht (canal), and walked around the historical village.

More photos from our trip to Pella can be found here.

On Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day by making mom brunch.  We had french toast, bacon, fruit, and mimosas.  Later that day we did a little shopping and played some games.

On Monday we went downtown, toured the capitol building, visited the state historical museum, strolled through the Des Moines sculpture park, and stopped at a couple of shops.

Photos from the Capitol and a couple of shots from our visit to the Iowa Historical Museum can be found here.

Photos from the Des Moines Sculpture Park can be found here.

It was so nice to have visitors down here in Iowa! Thanks for coming Mom and Steph!

Gets me every time...

Rob's Tree

Last year for Rob's birthday I got him a Grow Your Own Giant Sequoia in a can. He had commented on how cool it would be to try it every time he saw it online, so I thought it would be a good gift. He was pleased when he opened it and set forth to growing his own Giant Sequoia pretty much immediately. 10 months later...it is 3 inches tall. Part of me is petrified of the idea of trying to grow this in our yard and it taking over the entire neighborhood--the other part of me realizes that we will be long gone before it gets big enough to cause problems. What do you think? Would you want a Giant Sequoia in your backyard?

In which Sarah discovers the macro setting on her camera...

What a beautiful spring we've been having! Everything is blooming about a month early. So I took some pictures around the yard of our blossoms. I was getting frustrated with the blurriness and as I was trying to figure out how to adjust the aperture setting, I read online that I should just use the macro setting (on a point and shoot)...so after some hunting around and frustrated grumblings...I discovered how to set it to "macro" for close up shots on all of the different settings--I felt like such a dummy--it was super easy. After that, the blurriness was due to the breeze, not the camera. :) You can find all of today's photos here.

High Trestle Trail

After a brief bout of winter in February, March has skipped us right into early summer. We've broken record highs 5 days in a row. Yesterday we topped out at 84 degrees and 83 degrees today...which is just downright bizarre for March. I have to admit that we turned on our AC. Coming right along with this beautiful weather, next week is Spring Break. I can remember blizzards during Spring Break, but I can't ever recall summer-like temps. So to kick off Spring Break, Rob and I took a little drive North of town to check out the High Trestle Trail Bridge that crosses the Des Moines River Valley between Woodward and Madrid, Iowa.

It's a nifty bridge that was made out of an old rail bridge. The old bridge used to be a trestle bridge, but it is no longer--now the trail is named after the old bridge, and so as not to confuse anyone, they went ahead and called the non-trestle bridge the "High Trestle Trail Bridge." When they turned the bridge into a bike path, they added "cribbing" in a radiating pattern along the bridge to allude to the days when they used to mine coal in the area. It creates an impressive affect. The portions of the cribbing that are directly above the Des Moines River are also lit at night. I look forward to returning at dusk once the leaves have come out to get the full experience.

As you can see in this photo--the bridge is set high above the valley and allows for great views. You can see the rest of the photos we took today here.