Adam ondi Ahman

We recently visited Adam Ondi Ahman, a historical and religiously significant site maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Benjamin's parents are missionaries there, maintaining the grounds.


This is Preachers' Rock, Joseph Smith Stood on this rock and organized the 3rd stake of Zion. Maddie stood on it and posed.

We found some great tress to play in by the east overlook. The grounds are all well cared for, and from what we heard, there was a lot of work put into making them look this nice.

The kids called this the 'family tree'. We do all like to climb trees.


We went to a park in the nearby town of Gallatin and played. There were a lot of mud puddles, and three of the four kids got so incredibly muddy that they had to go home in different clothes.
Benjamin's Parents, Ben and Melody, are in their element. You could not design a missionary experience more perfect for their abilities and talents. Ben's dad drives around tractors and backhoes, while his Mom does indexing for family history work. The sisters also do community service and seem to have a lot of craft projects going as well.This was an incredibly fun, spiritually uplifting family vacation and I hope to go back a lot over the next year while Ben and Melody are serving their mission.

Spring Harbor Beach

Today we visited Spring Harbor Beach. It is a neighborhood beach located at 1918 Norman way, just north of Spring Harbor Middle school along the shore of Lake Mendota.


Amenities
The Parking lot for the beach is located across the street from the park. It is a pretty good walk from the parking lot to the sand, but this is the only major inconvenience. There are bathrooms and a drinking fountain located near the water. There are a few shade trees and grass in the park, as well as several picnic tables.

Safety
The entire beach was visible from my spot sitting on a picnic table under a shade tree. The swimming area is well marked with ropes and buoys. A life guard is on duty for part of the day, though we had to provide our own lifeguards....

Caleb kept saying "don't throw sand Martin!"

Sand&Water
There was a little bit of green seaweed. I didn't have a problem with it, but Maddie and Martin who were actually swimming in the water seamed to find a lot. The water was fairly clear and relatively cool. There were lots of boats going by, so there were waves in the water.

I really liked this beach, it is small and safe and I will come here again with my kids to swim.

Stewart Park Mt. Horeb

Stewart Park in Mt. Horeb, Wi has a lovely newly created beach and swimming area. There is a natural spring in the sand, which creates a tiny, 2ft wide shallow pool which then drains down the beach into the water. It is like a natural sand and water table, and is really really fun to play in. As a bonus, the spring water is cold, so it can be used to ice sore muscles.

I once belonged to a gym that had a 'cold immersion pool' right next to the hot tub. Some older guys would "go to the gym" and sit in the cold immersion pool, then get in the hot tub, then back to the cold immersion pool again and call it a workout.....

well, here we have this little spring and it is fun.

Safety
There are no life guards, no swim lines, and no buoys. Motorized boats do not have access to this part of the lake, so they are not a danger, but the swim area does drop off sharply about 100ft from the beach. There is a sign warning of this, but no swim lines. All of the mothers at the beach agreed that the city should put up a swim line. It would probably not cost very much money and would make it much easier for us to tell if our kids were going out too far.
Sand
The sand is clean and new. It was only been on the beach for a year, so it is beautiful. The beach was fairly clean, a little bit of seaweed and some droppings, but it wasn't too bad. The water is pretty clear.
Amenities
The changing rooms and flushable toilets are near the parking lot which is very far from the beach. It is about 300yards from the water to the parking lot. There is a small playground near the parking lot and there are lovely hiking trails around the park and lake. There are lots of berries growing in the woods around the beach.

The beach is very wide and there were a lot of people there. This is a great beach for a cloudy day, as there is no shade. Even in the sun this is a pretty great place to swim.

Goodland County Park beach

Today we visited Goodland County Park. We swam from 1:30-3:30 It was really fun.

Amenities
There is a playground and park near the beach. The park is full of large beautiful trees that shade much of the beach. There are bathrooms, but they are far away from the beach. There is also a drinking fountain and lots of picnic benches. We also found some clay deposits along the beach, which we dug into and brought home a bunch of clay to make into works of art.


Safety
There are no lifeguards and the swimming area is not marked by lines; just several large buoys. I felt very safe because the beach is very small. I could see all of my kids all of the time.
Water
Because there are no lifeguards, the beach is covered in floating water plants. We made a game of cleaning them up. After 20 minutes of occasionally scooping up water plants, the beach was pretty much clear. The water was warm, and it was nice to walk in. There were a few sticks on the bottom of the lake, but other than that it was smooth and muddy.

I think that occasionally playing in water along side water plants builds character. I want my children to learn that nature is normal, good, and fun; not something to be feared an avoided. The county tests the levels of blue-green algae at every beach every week, and closes beaches that are unsafe. They also put watches on beaches that are near unsafe levels, so swimming at this beach is perfectly fine. Just full of seaweed. Like swimming in a salad.



I liked this beach, but my kids did not like the floating water plants. It is a great small beach and would be perfect for activities that lifeguards do not allow- water guns, throwing people in the water, inner tubes, etc.

July 4rth

For the July 4rth Neighborhood parade, Maddie dressed up as a bald eagle.

Reed was also dressed up as a baby Bald Eagle, or Eaglet. There are benefits to attending the Eagle festival in Sauk City every January- Maddie knew all about baby eagles, especially how their heads are brown until they are several years old.

Caleb dressed up as a dinosaur. He really wanted to be a dinosaur. Maddie tried to invent some story about how she was the mommy eagle, and that she protected Reed the Eaglet from the dinosaur that was trying to eat him.

Caleb not only wanted to be a dinosaur for the 4rth of July, he also refused to wear Maddie's Dinosaur costume, It was too big for him, and he wanted a small one. So I sewed him a suit out of an old towel. This may very well be the biggest domestic feat of my life. If I can make this awesome suit out of an old towel, I can do anything.


We entered the parade as a group, and the kids won 3rd prize (there were 3 entries) with our award we got $3 prize money which was then used to purchase fireworks. This was really fun.

A few days later Martin had a track meet , and there was an Eagle statue there. Maddie loved the eagle and kept pretending to fly on its back. Of course we really weren't supposed to climb on the Eagle, so I took this picture secretly while telling my kids in a stern voice to get off the statue. They really are so cute.

Olbrich Beach

This is the first installment of a series of reviews of Beaches in the Madison area.

Today I visited Olbrich Beach. It was a cloudy humid day, so the kids were anxious to cool off. we swam from 1pm till about 4:30.

Safety
The beach was relatively uncrowded. There were 2 lifeguards who seemed fairly capable, without being overbearing.
This beach was a little peninsula in the middle. The kids are allowed to play on the island, but they can not climb the rocks into or out of the water. This could be a safety hazard, if older kids swim across the beach, you can not always see them from the other side of the water.
The lifeguards kept the kids all on the same side of the swimming area, so that they are easy to see.
Amenities
The parking lot was very near the beach, I could see my car from the water. There were bathrooms with changing areas between the parking lot and the water. All very convenient and clean.
Sand
The beach was very clean. The sand contained a lot of shells, which were fun to look though and play with. The bottom of the lake was nice and sandy, very few rocks. AND to the delight of my 8 yr old, the sand is perfect packing sand. Martin made a baseball out of sand, then held it by the sides with two fingers! We also made lots of canals and pits which were then filled with water and gleefully broken. This was great sand.
Water
The water is a bit cooler than average, as it is from Lake Monona, a large lake. It was also pretty clear. I would guess that this is rarely closed for algae.


I will go here again.
This will be a great place to visit after we go to Olbrich Gardens.

So this is what they mean by extreme ultramarathon....

OK, so I have run a few ultramarathons, I have done several marathons, and trail races, and nothing has ever even come close to this.
My friend Jesse was volunteering at the race, so she gave me a ride to the start. This meant that I wouldn't have to drive myself home in case I was too exhausted or injured to do so.
The race started st 5:30 am, there were about 200 ultrarunners doing either the 50k (me) or the 50 mile. 50 mile participants could switch races at mile #25. Just in case you felt like doing 25 mile miles instead of 6.
First off, they sent us up a ski slope. I know because of the ski chairs stored at the base of the hill, we snaked up through the woods, then ran pretty much straight back down the slope. The 50 mile runners get to run the ski slope again at the end of the race.

I tripped on a branch or rock, (fall #1) coming down the mountain. Then we ran across the park through a bunch of pretty nice hiking trails lined with thorny berry bushes (scratches on arms) And into Devils' Lake state park, about mile 15, things got interesting. We were routed up the first of three sets of stone stairs, and around the perimeter of the lake. There were too many participants, and I spent a lot of time walking to get around other runners and hikers. There were a lot of hikers, and the trail around the lake was very narrow. On the south side of the lake We got to run across an open filed, there was no trail, we were just sent across a wooded portion of the park, over a stream, and over rocks and logs, and marshes. The footing was unsure and it took forever. Then we were up and running through some other narrow trails infested with hikers, and stone stairways...We even had an aid station on top if the bluff; people had to cart the water for the aid station up there! Eventually I ran back down the trail towards the finish. When I say 'nice trail' I mean that there was a trail. many of these trails were not open to the public, and were overgrown. There were logs across them, and We had to duck under barriers to get onto them. Towards the end, I was pretty tired and my muscles were not working properly. About a mile from the finish, I was running towards Parfrey's Glen on the Ice age trail, and I tripped on a branch or root. (fall #2) my calf muscles seized up and I had to wait a few minutes before I could get up and continue on my way. Eventually I finished. My family was at the finish as usual, though Maddie complained that I was too slow. Caleb ran into the finish with me so I gave him my medal.

There was no shower at the finish, so I took a swim in the lake.
The course was well marked, there were great volunteers (like Jesse!) directing us across roads and along the course. I think there were too many runners on the course, and too many hikers on the trails. This was an experience, but I prefer less extreme races, ones that actually feature trails throughout the entire races and do not involve ski slopes or wading through streams.

pre-race jitters

Tomorrow I am running the Dances with Dirt Devils' lake 50K. It starts at 5:30am. It is incredibly challenging and hilly. I am fully prepared for this race. I was originally training for the 50 mile, but I was not able to complete enough long runs, so I am doing the 50k (31miles).

I am nervous because my last 50K was run in February, and it was really difficult.

This time I am in way better shape and there is no snow or ice or cold to deal with. I will have plenty of food, water, and extra clothes/shoes. So it is going to be super fun, and I am going to listen to some awesome stuff during the race.

I want to do a timed race this fall; There are 24 and 12hr races, all participants run around a track, a chip counts the laps, and we just all go as long as possible. A runner can quit anytime, Lots of people will do a marathon then leave. Family and friends camp along the track and support the runners. I think it will be a fun and different sort of race experience.