Iowa Relatives

It's standard procedure when we are back in Iowa to go for a drive and see the farm and also head to the South Church!  The 4 of us crawled in Leonard's pickup and he took us for a nice tour to see the farms (the crops look great!!), the dam (which I hadn't seen in years) and the house where we grew up (which looks awful and needs to be bulldozed - mighty sad to see this!)

I had forgotten how pretty our dam is - and it's a great place to fish too!

 We had a nice visit out to the South Church also and walked a little bit of the cemetery - always such a pretty place!

And then Glenn and I headed to Onawa to meet at Geri and Carl's place - we picked up Glenn's mom and were also glad to see his other two sisters and their spouses!  There's always a GREAT meal served!!  Those 3 sisters know how to cook and we stuffed ourselves!!

Somehow no pictures were taken.................but we had a great afternoon and then ended up playing Mexican Train for a LONG time - all the rounds!!  By that time it was getting late so we headed over to the park before heading back to Soldier so I could see the Freedom Rock in Monona County - the county that I was born and raised in!!

I love these Freedom Rocks - and how fun it would be another time to go to a few more counties and see their rocks!!

Patty had a great meal waiting for us and we just hung out the rest of that evening!!

Monday morning we headed out to Gorhams Dam where Todd and Neal and family were all camping for the 4th!  I hadn't been out there in years - but had spent many many hours out there growing up, swimming and meeting friends!!

The 3 grand kids were all cute as can be - they've grown since the last time we've seen them!!

Todd and Nedelle

 Neal and Jen - must have snapped the picture a hair too soon as they were trying to smile at least!

 Glenn spent the afternoon with them fishing and had a fun time!!

Early evening we headed out to Jim's for another fantastic meal!!  Isn't that what Iowa is all about?  Nephew Josh and his family were also there and the guys had fun playing games!

And then Jim and Josh did an impressive fireworks display!!  The rest of us sat in chairs and did all the "ooh's" and "ahh's" - it was so fun!

 Another couple of great days in Iowa!!