Photos taken on vacation September 2000.

While in Iowa this time we managed to visit the small town of West Bend, known for the Grotto of the Redemption.  The local priest back in 1912 started this project of building this grotto out of local rocks and stones.  Soon people were bring him material from everywhere.  He continued this life work and was replaced by a successor priest who also took up the project.  Today it covers about a city block and is just unbelievable.  We also visited the adjacent Catholic Church which has a hand carved birds eye maple alter.  This alter was shown at the 1898 World's Fair.

We also attended Bob's 50th high school class reunion.  They had the largest turnout of class members ever to attend a reunion.

In addition we had a combination first ever Jensen Family Reunion and my mother's 90th birthday party. Her birthday is in November, but we figured we'd have it while we were all there together.

The weekend that we had the family reunion the town of Boone held it's annual Pufferbilly Days complete with parade, craft show, carnival and stage shows and something for everyone of every age.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized photo.

The Grotto

A few views of the church

All that were at the family reunion

A few photos from the parade.

Look who whose watching the parade from front curb seats.  Katie, Nick and Bobby.  During the parade candy is thrown to the children and these three had a great spot to fill their sacks with the goodies .