First Birthday

 Grandchild #9 celebrated her first birthday last week, so we took a trip out to Iowa for a picnic and party.  Most of our immediate family made it, and it was a beautiful day for a picnic in the park.  We met at Burlington's Crapo Park, on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.  Crapo Park is where the American flag was first raised on Iowa soil by Lt. Zebulon Pike in 1805.  The park contains an arboretum and gardens containing over 200 species of trees and shrubs;  all the species that can grow in the state.  It also contains a Pike memorial, river overlook, log cabin, lake, fountain, band shell, playground and hiking trails.  We walked around the park after our picnic and then hiked to the Chief Black Hawk cave.  The small cave was used by Black Hawk when he was in the area and contains a spring fed stream that has small waterfalls as it makes its way through the cave and out into the ravine.  The grandkids really enjoyed the hike, cave and water.

In the evening, we had the birthday party back at Son#2 and DIL's home.  Our pretty little girl enjoyed her cake!

We spent the night, Saturday, while the rest of the family went back to Illinois.  On Sunday, for the first time since quarantine, we enjoyed an almost normal, full day of church.  Two services, singing without masks, noon lunch, and indoor fellowship.  It was a refreshing blessing and a joy to be back in Burlington.  Each time we visit, I get to know the congregation a little better, which I am appreciating.

After church, we snacked and changed clothes.  Then Dave, Charlene, and Jake gave us a UTV tour of Dave's farm, timber, ponds, and pastures where they hunt.  They also have an overlook of the Mississippi River from their bluff farm.  We enjoyed our tour, and then headed back east.

As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.

Numbers 24:6