Urbandale Parks Challenge: Jackaline Baldwin Dunlap Park & Arboretum

We're behind on our Urbandale Parks Challenge! With less than two weeks to go, we're going to need to start booking it to a few parks at a time. Today, we reached park 17 out of 32 in the challenge.

I also learned that Des Moines Parks and Rec has started their own parks challenge for the month of July! This one would be a lot easier for us and require less driving. They have 31 chosen park sites to see, and participants take a picture at each one they visit. The first 20 people to go to 10 of the park destinations (and take a picture) in the month of July get an Iowa Cubs T-shirt. OK, as a person raised a Sox fan, that doesn't appeal to me. BUT the first 500 people to go to 20 of the park destinations in July get a parks & rec gift card! More details about this challenge are available here.

We decided to check out the new arboretum in Urbandale, called Jackaline Baldwin Dunlap Park & Arboretum. It just officially opened this spring, and you can tell they're still doing some work adding in trails. There's no playground, but there are big, shady trees and picnic tables to picnic at. It was a relaxing stop, although just a quick one for our family.