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.

Iowa Arboretum on Arbor Day

I believe Arbor Day was yesterday, but they were celebrating it today at the Iowa Arboretum. Admission to the Iowa Arboretum is free (but they accept donations). They had crafts for kids and a tree to take home!

Oliver finger painted some trees on a door hanger for his room, and then he stamped leaves onto pieces of wood to make an ornament. Jo happily colored pictures while Oliver made crafts. 

Most of the trees and flowers weren't in bloom yet, but the arboretum was still beautiful. We had a great time walking (running) around and exploring everything.

There was a children's gardens with a big play house and numerous raised garden beds that are planted with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, horseradish, and currants. Everything was just starting to sprout. I think it will be a lot of fun to check out again in the summer!

On the way to the arboretum, we passed an extraordinary Hindu temple. So, on the way home, I stopped to get closer and take a few pictures. It was really out in the middle of nowhere!

There were two options for trees: a black cherry tree or a serviceberry tree. I'd never heard of a serviceberry tree before, but, apparently, they are a pretty good choice of tree to plant near a house. The berries are edible, but the birds love them and usually beat you to the fruit. They're supposed to have white flowers in the spring and beautiful red leaves in the fall. So, we chose that to take home and plant in the front yard. It's a funny angle, but  here's our new tree!