Iowa '08 tour, first installment

Good morning!  I've slept and now have time and energy to post the first installment of the Iowa '08 tour.  I took the largest amount of photos at "pool, castle and train day" so I've decided to show you that day first, with more to follow in the next day or two.

Here is the front of the home of  the parents of the good friend of my aunt Krissi.

Allow me to introduce you to my fantastic cousin, Emma.  She'll make more appearances in the photos to come.  She's hilarious and just graduated high school and I think she's great.

This is the door to the two apartments above the garages.  I liked it, so here it is:

An outside shot of those apartments:

The pool (which I did not swim in, because I didn't remember to bring my suit, and also I don't really do pools/swimming very often). Most of the day the pool was FILLED with kids, I'm not sure how I managed to get a photo of it almost empty.

One of two gazebos around their lake, along with the miniature train track the circles the lake and leads through the castle (which you'll see very shortly):

Back of the home and pool cabana (and Gabe and Abby--more of her to come):

This is my sweet sweet cousin Zachary, who is turning into a star golfer:

This is Zachary's little sister Lauren who is already very much her own person in the first grade.  Poor Lauren accidentally burned her upper lip while she was inspecting a pizza cooker in the cabana.    Such a pretty little girlie :)

"Is this heaven?"  --No.  It's WAY  to freakishly hot and humid.  But it is pretty.

(This was a reference to the movie Field of Dreams for those of you not familiar with the quote every Iowan knows:  Is this heaven?  No, it's Iowa.  I love my home state, don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty sure no one has ever actually mistaken it for heaven.  I could be mistaken.)

Emma and Abby with the castle's (more on the castle later) fireman poll:
Hiking along the track:

Where the train track ultimately leads, a gazebo with a slightly altered American Gothic mermaid and farmer eerily hanging out in this remote gazebo.  And here we also find Abby guarding (?) them with a small branch (Not her last encounter with a branch, as you'll soon see).  Emma and Abby are sisters.  Abby is starting high school this year.  This girl will certainly keep you laughing.  Love her.

Here we find Abby on the ground laughing hysterically promptly after she ran, jumped, grabbed onto the branch you now see lying next to her, hung momentarily and then plummeted to the ground branch and all.  I laughed more than I have in a LONG time.  Thanks for that perfectly constructed moment of funny, Abby.

Emma and Abby and I sitting in front of the lake.  They are my honorary sisters.

The castle!  When you walk out to the gazebo behind the house and pool and begin following the train tracks, a few minutes later you come upon a guest house, then a train depot (miniature for kids--as is the train), a small play house, an old double decker bus planted in the ground with a slide out the back, a swing set...and a CASTLE!!!  It was like a kid sactuary. Totally secluded castle.  How cool would that have been as a kid?  The picture I posted a couple days ago of Madeline standing in front of the lion "stained-glass"/painted window was inside this castle.  The picture of Emma and Abby and the pole is inside this castle.  There is also a kid-sized spiral staircase inside and basically two wide open playrooms, one upstairs, one down.  The far left side of the castle is where the train goes through a tunnel out the back and winds around the rest of the land and lake to find the eery Mermaid and farmer couple. 

Here is a picture of the swings, the bus and the train depot:

This is my cousin Olivia who lives in Scotland standing in front of the giant rocking horse we found in the home's basement.  It was great to spend some time with her.  I haven't seen her since she was a baby.  She is such a sweet girl.

Lauren took our picture.  Thanks, Lauren!  

One last shot of the pool overlooking the lake.