The City Museum

 We are fortunate to have family in St. Louis, and every time we visit, we find another amazing place.  That city is loaded with so many awesome adventures and while I am not a big city girl, I never feel overwhelmed by St. Louis.  Our trip down in February, was the boys first trip to the City Museum!  We have been waiting since Asher was a babe and at ages 4 and 6 it was fabulous for them, though took the 4 year olds (there were 4 of them along for the trip) a bit of time to warm up.  If you have younger kids take them upstairs first, as the first floor is a lot to take in at once.

 The outside is a climbable sculpture.  In fact that is what I would describe the whole place as, though I am sure that their website describes it better.  I love this place, it is beautiful and engaging and really the most perfect place in winter for Asher.  He was in his element, exploring, climbing, crawling, sliding.  I think he was the only one upset upon leaving after 5 hours.

Cave of the Mounds

We are trying to get back into our exploring groove.  We still play outside a lot, but adventuring past our backyard and nearby sledding hills for an outdoor activity hasn't been our main focus.  But in the past month we have visited this lovely nearby treasure twice.  We all have a key to the mound- our membership to go as many times as we would like to this year.  And with the boys interest in all things really, really old (dinosaurs, fossils, ice age...) this place is a gem and amazing experience for them.  Another thing within 30 minutes of our home.

The flow stone.

 The boys and some stalactites.

 Their silhouettes.

 Walking the thinnest path in the place.

 Maybe a column has formed here?  Otherwise just stalactites and stalagmites.

 For sure a column in the middle.

Asher has plans to work here when he gets older and attend their summer camps.  Truly remarkable place to enjoy.  Always 54 degrees, and not crowded in the winter.

Morning Adventure

We have been really slow to get out of the house these days. But these perfect fall, incredibly beautiful days are running out (rain the rest of the week) so I needed to get us out today and I am so glad that we found what we were looking for, a beautiful place close to home, sand, water, woods, trees and a great view.
Directly across from Ferry Bluff Natural Area, I could see these sandbars and knew that it would be an amazing place
The boys instantly got wet, which I struggled with too much this morning... but I would like to forget about my yelling about running through huge puddles in my crazy attempt to keep their shoes dry. I did successfully prevent Asher from swimming out to the other sand bar...
They got wet, dug in the sand. I enjoyed the view and explored the sand.
And thought about what a wonderful, amazing place this was.
We walked down river a bit.
And I came to the realization that this place is loved by a lot of people.
Mostly naked people. Which I really don't have a problem with, I just want to still be able to come here in the summer! I have known for over a decade now about the Mazo Beach, my friend parents knew of Mazomanie because of the nude beach, in fact most people bring that up when you tell them where you live. I just didn't think we would stumble upon it in such a manner, as me asking a man who was doing trail work on behalf of the Badger Naturist group if there were family volunteering opportunities to take care of the natural area. And he asked me if I knew where I was... which led to me finding out.
But, we climbed trees, ran and had a great morning... though I still need to deal with all of the sand that I stripped off my children.
and we will for sure be back.

Ferry Bluff State Natural Area

We really have landed ourselves somewhere very special, which I guess was kind of the point in moving, we wanted our kids to be able to run and explore a creek close to their home, to grow up with a sense of awe to bodies of water, land shaped by a river, rises in the earths surface. A respect for the land that is hard to get in an area of the planet where so much of it's spaces have been made worse by human interaction.

With the help of a new friend, we found ourselves at Ferry Bluff, which just happens to be right across the river from the natural area closest to our home, Mazomanie Bottomlands. It was awesome to climb up on that bluff look across at the sandbars (I love sandbars!) and think of all the adventures to come for us on the banks of this river. To see kingfishers, bald eagles and sandhill cranes all so close to this place we now call home, witness the nocturnal activity of the beavers as we explore, it all makes the heartache of leaving a place that is familiar a bit more bearable.

To let my boys just play, thought staying out of the water isn't their best skill, was refreshing. They quickly took to being beavers with their new friends. Hauling branches into the river to float downstream. Gnawing branches (sometimes too literally), packing sand into their lodge, putting food stores by for winter... the natural world is amazing as is role playing with your kids.

I also felt on this day that River started to understand a bit of his name. We didn't have river in our vocabulary much, but now River lives by a river and will be able to explore his namesake. I don't know what he thinks of this revelation, but he knows that his name is something we call something else and it isn't another boy like Big Asher. It is all spinning in there.

Blue Mound State Park

There are so many parks around us to explore! We have a great little park across the street with a wonderful creek to explore and fields behind it which we have yet to really explore and then the map is loaded with green space. Our first venture out as a family abandoning our mile long project list was 20 minutes south to Blue Mound State Park. Right off the trail we found a recently felled oak that was wonderful to climb and explore.

We found tons of acorns, ate hickory nuts and walnuts and enjoyed the October shorts weather.

I don't know that I will get my full fall love post this year, so I will just shout is our here, I LOVE FALL. I missed fall in Wisconsin and am so happy to be back for this season.

Oh, and these boys, they are rocking this move. I really expected some sort of problem. They have started to miss friends, but are dealing with their emotions well by role playing being their friends which is so wonderful I think I may have to do the same, as I think the missing of my gals is going to hit hard this week.

Our Return

Thank goodness for some cooler weather. While we had a bit of a kick back into the upper 90's and a day of 100, I think that more of fall will be visiting us. And with this wonderful weather, we returned to one of our favorite venues. Again a goodbye of sorts, as we spend our last month of hikes in this particular wooded area.

It was a great day for deer, lots of mama's and their babes hanging out.

And a great day to bid a farewell. I have photographed this place for the past 9 years, since I first started my job at the nature center. I don't think I have ever captured the part that I will miss the least: the road right there, reminding me that while yes this is a great place to explore, it is a bastardized piece of land that was clear cut, filled and dissected by road ways. I am grateful that 10 acres were saved (eventually when a bitter old lady was sick and tired fighting the Audubon society to put in her strip mall) and the wilds took back over, that the park district restores and maintains it. However it makes it easier to say goodbye as I know I will be saying hello to places where we could actually get lost. A place where we can sit and not here construction vehicles and buses (to River's dismay).

We swung from the vines and climbed through the holes that are so familiar to us, walked barefoot in the mud, and were happy to return after avoiding the mosquitoes and heat of the summer.

I have been happy to have a place to ride my bike to. A place to spend hours without worry or need to provide activity for my boys and a place that we were easily able to visit often. Because becoming familiar with a place that is wild, even if not pristine or always isolated, is important.

Around Home

Life is good and busy, with the rush of warmer weather in April we were anxious to get out to all or our favorite outdoor parks around town. It was wonderful, riding our bikes all over town, climbing all the trees we met last fall and reacquainting ourselves with the quickest and safest (for the balance biking boy) routes to the parks.

Now we have been focusing on enjoying our own piece of the earth. Making obstacle courses over our log piles.

Dining outside, hopefully more often with friends now that our hibernation is over.
Getting our hands dirty in the garden.
SUN TEA!! We have been having a battle with the boys warm beverages in the morning, as more of it has ended on the floor, but they felt bad not being included in my ritual, and luckily sun tea has filled the place. Hisbiscus sun tea is the best, sweetened with honey before chilling.
My boys "painting" the patio, Asher actually told me this was his artwork.
Ferns poached and potted up. I love all the shades of green that I can view from our patio.
And this face: