Grandparents tour Madison

We had fun doing several things in Madison while Brad and Liz were here. One that I especially enjoyed was our tour of the Capital. I had heard it was the most beautiful building outside the capital in Wash. D.C., but I thought it was all talk. I have a different opinion now.

The building is full of skylights, gold leafing, and colorful marble.

Many murals adorn the walls. The skylights go through all three floors, filtering in natural light, so it feels open and bright.

We were lucky enough to get in with a tour of Vietnamese judges. It was neat to hear the stories about what the paintings symbolized.

The rock work was amazing. I never knew there were so many different colors of marble.

Another favorite stop in Madison was the zoo. Here is Liz and Mattias with the giraffes.


Here is Brad the zookeeper and his wild animals.

Asher was a sweetie and rode the carousel with Sylvia. He secretly loved it, but as a 12 year old boy, didn't want to look too excited.


Sylvia was in heaven. Carousels are one of her favorite things in the world. We rode the one at the fair this summer 30 times. I was starting to feel sick.


Finally, some pictures for Mattias. These are pictures of a capybara - an animal Mattias is in love with. He wants one for a pet, but being an Amazon rainforest kind of animal, they would not do well in Wisconsin winters. The zoo actually ships them out when the weather gets cold.

They are related to guinea pigs, but are the size of small dogs. Their feet are webbed, like a duck. It is exciting to catch them swimming in their little pond.

Who knows, perhaps in 20 years, Mattias will actually be a capybara breeder, living someplace warmer. The dream all started out at the Madison zoo.

The Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite things about Wisconsin, is the pumpkin patch concept. Here it is warm enough, long enough, to be able to grow an amazing variety of pumpkins. No more Montana green pumpkins, that you are covering with blankets, the last month before Halloween. Here, we do it in style... with a family annual outing to Hermanson's Pumpkin Patch.

Here is a 402 pound pumpkin. We got smaller ones. :)


Inside one of their barns, they made a haybale maze and decorated it. It was perfect for somebody Sylvia's age. The boys weren't too scared.


We were all able to relax after fighting our way through giggling witches, black cats, and hay bales.



It was fun taking lots of silly pictures. Below you have Asher as a ghost, Myself as a witch, and Sylvia as a cat.

The farm has a nice little area for kids to wander about and pet their animals. Noel's favorite was the donkey.

Sylvia and the boys spent most of their time chasing after a little kitten that was wandering around. The farm owners said that kitten gets more attention than all the other animals combined.

Here is the kitten's mother, on the prowl for dangerous pumpkin snatchers.



There was a wagonload of gourds, so of course the boys would find two that looked like swords, and start hitting each other. I bought a cute little gourd that has dried seeds still in it, so when you shake it, it sounds like a maraca. It sounds great with our drums.



Sean did an outstanding job as pumpkin wagon puller. Sylvia was very attached to the pumpkin she picked out, and it a lot of convincing to get her to set it in the wagon.


Brad and Liz posed for a very cute pumpkin patch picture. It was perfect weather.

The rest of the pictures are of all the various kinds of pumpkins they grow. Pumpkins aren't just orange round things. Brad and Liz recognized some French pumpkins. I like the white ones, and warty ones best.








I took the shot below when Liz and I were trying to be cutting edge photographers. I learned a trick from a newspaper photographer this summer, that to make something look noble and glorious, put your camera on the ground and shoot upwards. This worked well during the Memorial Parade with the boy scouts carrying flags. I'm not so sure that pumpkins lend themselves to "nobleness".

And finally, Sylvia saying goodbye a beautiful wagonload of white pumpkins. Maybe we can sneak back before Halloween and say hello to the kitten. :) I'm sure I'll need to pick up a few pumpkins for pie before the month is out.

Liz's Birthday

On Liz's birthday, we went to a living history site called "Old World Wisconsin" I was surprised at how large the place was. They have over 600 acres of land, with houses and farms built by different nationalities (German, Scandinavian, Polish, etc.) I'm not sure why all my pictures from that have been deleted... I might need to contact Brad about filling in with his pictures.

In the evening, we had a seven course French dinner, and angel food cake. In between courses, we were kept entertained by Sean reading Spam Haiku's off the internet. Such as:

Ears, snouts, and innards,
A homogenous mass
Pass another slice

This set off much laughter and uncontrollable giggling. I think the following pictures still have some of that going on...



Sylvia helped Liz with the candels. Always good to have an experienced 4 year old candle blower sitting by you on your birthday.


Liz and grandkids... We were so glad to get to celebrate her birthday as a family. Too bad Brad's is in Jan. Well, you can always just consider flying out twice a year - we wouldn't mind.

Sylvia picked out a stuffed dog for her pressent to Grandma. She suggested that it should be named "Paws". Sylvia has a stuffed dog named Cocoa, they immediately became friends.
Now Sylvia can call and talk with Paws and Grandma on the phone.

It was a very satisfying day. One of favorites.

Grandparents come visit!

Sean's parents, Brad and Liz, were able to come visit this fall. It was one of the high points of our year. We did lots of fun activities with them. It was nice to have them stay so long, so the kids could get used to them again.

We were surprised to find they both enjoyed shooting at the archery range. We shot first at the indoor range, then on another day, at the outdoor range. Here is Liz, showing off her skills.


Here is Brad, dreaming of shooting the deer that wander into his backyard and eat his flowers.

Another favorite place to visit was the local bakery. Fosadal's Bakery, is on Main Street, within walking distance of our house. The kids often go down there, and sit at the tables to do their schoolwork. Of course, they usually get a donut to help them focus better.


One day, we went into the Children's museum in Madison, to show them where Sylvia likes to spend time. Here is a picture of Brad and Mattias constructing a ball drop.

Another day, we spent driving around to different artists studios during an art festival. One of the artists is a friend of ours, and Sylvia loves catching his chickens. Mattias had never gotten to hold a chicken before, so Sylvia caught one for him, and showed him how to do it. He was so happy. I love this picture...it is pure Mattias.

Sylvia also got to cuddle several chickens. These are very tolerant chickens!


Liz was a good sport, and took time out of our studio visits to let the kids play with chickens.


Mattias enjoyed visiting a metal-working shop and seeing his blacksmith tools. Liz discovered a water color artist that does amazing detail. My favorite was an artist who did beautiful cut glass. Sean, Brad and Asher were all at a scout camp out at this time. They got to see a Civil War re-enactment on the same day we were cuddling chickens. I'll have to get some of their camping pictures from Brad and post them later.

Egpyt comes to Wisconsin

My favorite part of our Egypt study was the night we played Senet. Sean cut some twigs into the right kind of throwing sticks, drew a board, and the game was on. We just used regular chess pieces as markers. I am surprised Senet still isn't around, like Chess. Here is Asher throwing his sticks...

Sylvia looks foreward to any chance to use face-paint, so she enjoyed the Egyptian experience as well.
We made a tasty Egyptian recipe, (lots of chopped figs, honey and pecans). Here is the cute resident couple, finishing off the last bites.