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| Fireworks with all 10 cousins! |
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| Mom, enjoying the scene... |
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| Caving at Maquoketa Caves State Park. Beautiful park, excellent beginner caves. |
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| I was so impressed with the bravery of the kids, at the adventurousness of my husband (first-time caver), and how my dad could get in there with the best of them only a couple months after major chemo treatments -- my dad is a rockstar! |
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| Brad was instructed by my brother Jonathan to do "Blue Steel" for the camera. |
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| (photo from Ensoft Co.) |
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| (Photo from Phil Rhoeder) |
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| Bowling! |
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| Lilly and Atticus! |
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| Mt.Olympus Water and Amusement Park, Wisconsin Dells! |
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| We arrived shortly after it opened at 10 and "closed it down" at 7 pm! Pretty impressive for 10 kids ages 2-9, eh?! |
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| First time go-karting! |
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| Horses and ponies at my sister-in-law's sister's home! Thank you, Jamie! |
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| Yes, this happened. |
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| Mississippi River Museum! |
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| Blacksmithing demonstrated by young men... |
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| The mirror that hung in Mark Twain's foray to his home. |
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| Small cave exhibit in honor of the cave scenes in Mark Twain's books |
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| Riverboat wheelhouse exhibit |
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| Lovely mother-of-pearl vintage buttons |
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| Real log cabin moved from Illinois and reconstructed here. |
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| River steam boat from the 1930's |
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| Living interior of the boat |
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| My dream chairs... |
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| We celebrated our 10th anniversary on this vacation, so Brad took me and the kids to the church we were married in; the first church in Iowa, windows designed by Mr.Tiffany of stained glass reknown, absolutely lovely. This was a sweet, thoughtful surprise from Brad especially since our photos from our wedding did not turn out well. In fact, we have only a couple, poorly-lit, terrible photos of the two of us from that day (warning to engaged persons -- pay well for a good photographer -- it matters!). My mom found this church for us. And amazingly enough, there was one opening, a cancellation, for the next two years when my mom called -- the very day we had decided to get married!!! AND because my dad is a pastor, the church let my dad do our service for us -- which, of course, was so wonderful and perfect. |
