Dan's Blog

Bobcat

2010-01-24T13:56:00.002-07:00

As a cub scout, I knew what a bobcat was--it was what you earned before you earned your wolf badge. But here in Tucson, we've learned what a bobcat is. This is a video that Lindsey took from her bedroom window a few days before Christmas. We've got a couple rabbits that like to live in the cactus/brush near our front entry. Apparently, they were under critical observation.

Baby blankets

2009-03-15T17:41:00.005-06:00

Most anyone who would read this will already know that Carolyn Jane Madsen (Jane) was born on March 11th. You can see more pictures at my Picassa Web Album or WebAlbum2 or check out Carol's blog.

After we brought her home, we realized that we had given our well-used flannel baby blankets away after Grace grew out of them. Neighbors had kindly taken Rachel and Kimmer to a high school play, so Lindsey, Grace, and I went to the fabric store. Gracie chose out some pink "letter fabric" she liked, and Lindsey and I picked out the brown/green fabric. I knew Carol would love it.

That night, after Gracie had gone to bed, I sewed two little baby blankets. Sewing is a skill I taught myself while trying to get two girls who worked at Carol's Bernina in Price to pay attention to me. The homemade shorts I made that summer tore open in a tragically embarrassing incident, but these blankets are first class. Pretty impressive, huh?

Apparently, it is still not considered manly to sew, as I was teased today in Priesthood meeting (by a member of the neighbor family that took the girls to the play and saw me sewing when they came back). But I guess it's always been (and can only be) about the girls for me. . . .

The local cats

2009-01-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

Along with the javelina that have made our house part of their routine stops, we've been seeing this bobcat frequently making trips along our back wall. I'm sure he's well fed with all of the bunnies roaming the neighborhood. The latest sighting was on Martin Luther King weekend when I got this picture. I was talking to Carol while she was making breakfast and noticed it moving along the wall. Doug (who was staying with us for the weekend) told us we could get $359 for the pelt. I'm pretty sure the gunshot would raise a few eyebrows among our neighbors though.

Our Backyard Friends

2009-01-04T16:07:00.002-07:00

This is a continuation of Carol's post.

So last night I watched the end of the new Indiana Jones movie after everyone else had gone to bed. There is an awful lot of stupid fighting in the show (like you would really continue to drive your Jeep just as fast as the bad guys and jump back and forth between vehicles for no reason). During one of those extraneous fight scenes, I thought the surround sound was a little too good for our TV and paused the show while I took a look for the cause of some extra noises from the back patio. Mother and baby Javalina were enjoying a little snack on some forgotten garbage. They stuck around licking an empty ice cream container long enough for me to go find the camera and get this shot. Seems our yard is coming back on their list of regularly scheduled stops. It's true we do have food stuff (discarded suckers, fallen bits and pieces) strewn around the yard pretty regularly, so I imagine they don't go hungry much. I wonder if garbage fed pig is as good as corn fed beef.

Birthday Trauma

2009-01-04T15:47:00.002-07:00

This picture may be worth a thousand words. For any parent who has ever had a three year-old, this may remind you of about 365 days in addition to those 1000 words. Grace was really happy until we sang Happy Birthday and lit 3 candles--she only wanted to be two, not three. And a three year-old wants to choose EVERYTHING!

Hot Water - An underappreciated utility

2008-12-08T18:35:00.004-07:00

We added to the list of things we are thankful for last week. Hot water came to the top of the list after a few days of delay getting the gas hooked up to the water heater.

I found there are a few reasons why hot water is important:

1) Your dishwasher runs only from the hot water tap. Carol found it too much trouble to unload after all the dishes were already in there, so they just had to wait for hot water. Besides, washing dishes in the sink with cold water is not exactly easy either. Would be easy to heat a pot of water on the stove to make the sink water warm, right? Unless, of course, your stove is a gas stove like ours.

2) Hygiene. Showers and baths just aren't quite as needed when you know the water is cold. Lindsey decided to go to school early and shower to maintain her hygiene. I still wonder what the teachers must think about the girl who comes to school 30 minutes early just to shower. The authorities may be here to visit us soon, but at least we didn't post evidence like Nicole.

3) Post-traumatic Stress Disorder - After maintaining my minimal hygeine by showering at work after sham workouts, I decided to brave the shower on Thursday morning. As I splashed in the frigid water I had vivid flashbacks to mornings in Santo Tome, Argentina where I would pull a disc of ice off the top of an outdoor water basin to get a bucket of water to "shower" with in the little outhouse like enclosure in the backyard. The key was to get all the key areas just wet enough to soap, lather up good, then rinse with urgency and race back inside to the small space heater and blanket. If you were really fast you could do it with only mild hypothermia. This experience explains why we later rigged up 220 volt shower heads in our next apartment which regularly shocked us, but we found it an acceptable alternative.

4) The Ward Relief Society Progressive Dinner was at our house on Thursday night. You might, like me, think there are a lot of homes in the ward which are not under threat of having walls knocked in at any moment that might serve to host the Progressive Dinner this year. But apparently the Lord works in mysterious ways. Fortunately, we were the last stop and we only needed to fit 50 chairs in the living area (no small feat) and serve desert. Carol plead with David and the other workers and managed to get them to delay knocking in the wall from the garage until Friday morning. So aside from the 30 yard dumpster everyone had to shuffle around to get in the front door, it was like there was no construction at all. Plus all those people managed to create quite a bit of heat over the hour they were here--a free benefit that is appreciated when your furnace is also not operable. See-- didn't even need the hot water. . . .

5) Compassion - It must be an awful thing to have to work for the gas company and shut people's gas off in the middle of winter. It must really take a toll on the workers. When Carol called on Friday to make sure they were coming to hook up the gas, they told her they couldn't make it out until Monday or Tuesday. Carol says she told them, "that's just not going to work." (Add a persistent and persuasive wife to the list of things I'm grateful for.) Somehow she persuaded the gas workers and they found a way to squeeze hooking a gas meter up for a pregnant woman and her now slightly stinky family.

When Lindsey got home from school on Friday and found out the hot water was working she had the same reaction as if we said her homework was cancelled for a week and we were going on vacation to a waterpark. Maybe next November we'll turn off the water or power for a week.

Shoes--not just an accessory

2008-11-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

Perhaps it was spending two years on Guam that got our girls in the habit of not wearing shoes. Our Salt Lake neighbors always gave us puzzled looks as our girls continued to venture outside in the chilly weather without shoes on. The habit has continued even into Arizona, despite the fact that it is like walking on a frying pan in the summer and there are a few other hazards here. Yesterday Lindsey "went for a walk down the street" and came whimpering home for this picture.

I remember my Mom painting my fingernails with some kind of putrid material to get me to stop biting them. Maybe cactus can have a similar function--

Challenges, t-shirts and a turtle

2008-10-29T20:00:00.003-06:00

Some of you may have heard about the race that Mark and I ran last week. To set the stage for the race, you must understand the idea for running the race came from my brother Robert, who along with Mark, decided that we should enter a marathon and try to qualify for Boston. Our lack of planning eliminated the St.George marathon as a possibility, since it had filled up long before. So Mark looked around for another Boston qualifying marathon and stumbled onto the Ridge to Bridge Marathon in Morgantown, NC. It seemed to be pretty, on Saturday, and at least somewhat downhill.

Robert emailed us:

"Man and boys (in other words, Daniel and Mark/Bryce), The time to decide is now- are we going to do this marathon or not. I’m in! They cap the race at 150 runners. Rob"

Apparently, what he meant to say was "I'm in for now." Robert was all about training and seemed to be in great shape. He showed us a book on marathon training recommended to him by Ed Eyestone who was teaching his running class at BYU. We all began training. About 8 weeks before the marathon, the race has a final deadline for backing out. Robert decides that his "knee hurts" (he tried running and it hurt so he just stopped). He announced that he was backing out of the race.

About a week later, I got sick (probably influenza) and spent 3 weeks coughing and not running much at all. I did try two long runs toward the end of my training. The first was 16 miles, and while I kept a really good pace the first 8 miles of this run, I became really tired and ended up really slowing down the last two miles. It was during this time that my mind became semi-delirious (Carol would argue that delirium is the only thing that makes people run) that I came up with an idea to wear T-shirts and dedicate the race to Robert in a sort of mockery.

Mark helped me fine tune the wording, and they were ordered and turned out great. Here they are at the finish.

The best part of the race was seeing the transition people would make from the "how wonderful that they are remembering their dead brother" stage to yelling "Tell Bob he's a wuss" as they read the back of the shirts.

Of course the race wasn't all fun. Maybe if I'd done more of those 16 or 18 mile runs before hand it would have been better. But running in Tucson in July and August is not really fun at any time of the day. So qualifying for Boston did not happen.

During the race, Carol would wait for me every few miles, hand me Gatorade and say, "You know, you don't ever have to do this again."

Of course she doesn't know the power my brothers have. . . .

-------------------------

This last picture is when Nicole mistakenly thought Bryce (my brother-in-law) had entered the race.

Teenagers---anyone want to go to Nebraska?

2008-10-08T19:07:00.003-06:00

Lindsey is a really great 12 year old, but it never hurts to have a backup plan if things go south. . . . I found this on CNN today.

updated 33 minutes ago
Frustrated parents dump teens at hospitals
Frustrated parents are dumping their teenagers at Nebraska hospitals -- even crossing state lines to do it -- and the state Legislature has scheduled a special hearing to try to stem the tide. Nebraska's "safe haven" law, intended to allow parents to anonymously hand over an infant to a hospital without being prosecuted, isn't working out as planned. full story

Strawberry Jam

2008-07-12T21:02:00.001-06:00

I saw Nicole made some strawberry jam and I was a little bit jealous. So here's my collection of strawberry jam I made this afternoon. It's pretty amazing that you put in 2 cups of fruit and 4 cups of sugar to make the stuff. It's got to be good!

My Solar Powered Yard Lighting

2008-07-07T22:13:00.003-06:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I've got a little project I'm excited about.

About a year ago we went to see our good friends the Poppes who are now living in New Jersey. Besides being a great doctor and helping me out a lot in Guam, Matt has talked me through a lot of projects and love to tinker with new ideas. While we were in New Jersey he showed me how he was using a solar panel and a deep cycle battery to provide all the power he needed in his tool shed for lights and his electric tools. I was pretty impressed.

After we got home, I started looking into different solar projects we could do around the house. I'm not the hard-core environmentalist type, but I have to admit I covet using less gasoline and someday hope to put a solar array up on our house. The big solar project is $20,000 before tax incentives and not very feasible on our tile roof (maybe after we add on a new garage we could put it out there). Anyhow, the big project was out of reach, so I came up with a smaller project to test out the idea of using solar energy: power our backyard lights with a solar panel.

I know you can buy solar powered lights now, but all of the ones our neighbors have are pathetic little underpowered things that end up looking like runway markers on the sides of the driveway and don't illuminate anything. There are more expensive lights that will put out more light, but they each need a separate solar panel, so the backyard would end up looking like a solar farm and at $50-120 each it quickly adds up to more than I thought yard lighting was worth. And by the way--I think even what I spent is a lot more than yard lighting is probably worth, but this is about the experience too.

I did some rough planning and ended up calling Matt for a little help. He reviewed Ohms Law with me (Volts x Amps = Watts) as well as the idea of watt hours. I figured I would be running about 200 watts of lighting when all is said and done. I looked into using LED lights instead of standard bulbs to try to decrease this output. You could power about 10 LEDs of equal brightness with the same amount as 1 standard light. Only hangup is that the LEDs cost at least $30 each (closer to $40 with shipping). Maybe I'll covert someday, but I went with the $7 standard lamps from Lowes. If you figure that I need the 15 10 watt lights to be on 3 hours each day, that ends up being about 450 watt hours of electricity a day. I had to get a solar array that would be able to put that much power back in the battery each day. I figured at least 10% would get lost as inefficiency (probably it's a little worse??).

I looked around the internet and found a couple of sites to help you figure out your array size. One of the factors that goes into it is how much sun your panel will see every day. This takes into account average weather and day length. Here's an insolation map of north america:

http://www.sunwize.com/info_center/insolmap.htm

Tucson has an average insolation number of 6.57. That's among the most sunny spots in anywhere in North America, which means whatever panel I got will make more electricity per day than the same panel that you buy. Sorry. But it also means that I will have to suffer through the summer heat here.

So if I get an 80 watt panel and it works for 6.5 hours a day, that will give me about 500 watt hours of power a day. Now to find a panel.

There are several stores in town here that offered me a 80W panel for about $500. They would come with service and a warranty. I looked on Craigslist for a month for a used panel but never found one at a decent price or the right size. But I found a used panel on eBay for $350 that came with a 10 amp charge controller which I was going to need anyway, so I bought it.

The fun was just beginning--now I had to put it in and hook it up. Maybe that's a story for another day. . . .

Last week's progress

2008-03-23T16:10:00.003-06:00

Another week has passed, and the yard is starting to get closer to the "finishing frenzy" weekend we have planned.

Last Tuesday we got our first two truckloads of rock (18 tons). This rock will go around the main part of the yard. Tomorrow, another 12 tons of rock for the pool area, 10 tons of sand for the center of the yard, and 6 tons of river rock for the drainage will be delivered.

Then while we were in Mexico, our wrought iron fence was installed around the pool. Tomorrow the county inspector will come check it over, and if we pass the PebbleFina interior finish will be installed on Tuesday and they'll start filling the pool.

The Backyard

2008-03-16T21:51:00.002-06:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/DSMadsen/OurBackyardProgression

Modern Art

2008-02-19T09:25:00.002-07:00

Priceless Modern Art

2008-01-27T21:10:00.002-07:00

Many of you may know about the tragedy of our minivan's engine giving out on the way back from Island Park. Thankfully, we were just outside of St George when it happened. We were even more grateful that Mom and Dad let us take their Suburban and continue our trip home with minor interruption. The van has now received a new engine (Did you know you can get a new engine for just slightly less than a new used minivan?).

While the van was being fixed we were out working in the yard and Carol pointed out some obvious scratches on the passenger side door of the Suburban. "Were those there?" she asked. We looked closer and discovered they looked like deep keymarks in varied directions on the door. The car is a few years old, but it's been well cared for and had enough minor damage (trailer into the back doors ring a bell Robert?) repaired that the paint is in good shape. The gouges were only in the one door, and on closer inspection seemed to be letters, in handwriting that was just like our 5 year old Rachel's writing.

I looked around the yard a little and soon discovered a hacksaw blade the pool builders had discarded aimlessly that had some tan paint residue on one end. The guilt on Rachel's face when I approached her about it was more telling than her stuttering admission of what happened.

I called Mom and Dad shortly after and asked if they liked Rachel's artwork. They both hesitated before answering "Yes. Why?" I told the story and went out to look at it better. That's when I noticed there was a method to the inscription's madness. The vandal had not scratched random letters and designs in the car but had written "RA", then run out of room on the door so she moved back left and wrote "C", then further left and "H", "E", then "L". The resultant inscription was "LEHCRA".

We're still deciding exactly how much to bill Mom and Dad for the autograph--the artist isn't that well known, but considering the cost of the canvas, it has got to be worth a lot of money.

This tale reminds me of others. Any of you who doubt my father's sainthood can be told of the story of the family's first brand new Suburban and how the snow was miraculously cleared from the windows one snowy morning. Turns out my three younger brothers used their show and tell rocks to tap the snow off, breaking every window but the windshield in the process. Dad just kindly interviewed the boys after he got home from work and got the windows replaced.

Remind any of you of anything?

The end of the Suburban story shows one of the "tender mercies" we received. We took it in to the auto body store and the scratches were buffed away in about 10 minutes for only $40. Unfortunately the van engine could not be fixed with the same process.

Hairless Potter

2008-01-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

We made this video at the cabin as part of the video competition. You have to admit that the footstep special effects are pretty cool.

Snowmobiling - The Art of Getting Stuck

2008-01-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Snowmobiles have come a long way since I was a kid. There were no such thing as handwarmers, electric start, or fuel injection. Reverse meant you turned around and went the other way, not that the snowmobile engine ran backwards. Now the machines have 155 inch tracks with 3 inch paddles and flotation skiis. They are practically unsinkable.

Mark demonstrates that man can overcome an unsinkable machine in this episode of 'The Art of Getting Stuck on a 3 Foot Tall "Hill"'.

Snow sculpture contest

2008-01-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here are the three creations from our annual snow sculpture contest at Island Park. Awards were as follows:

Most Honorable

Idaho Falls Temple - Christy, Lisa, Justin, Matt and Cubby

Most Original

Snowmo Beetle - Mark, Brian, Lindsey, Carol, Amanda

Most Massive

Great Wall of China - Daniel M., Kimberly, Joshua, Rachel Sabey, Elaina

Merry Christmas

2007-12-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ok. So maybe my new year's resolution should be to post more reliably on the blog.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great break.

Are there any boys this cute?

2007-09-23T18:38:00.000-06:00

I mean, she's adorable. Rachel is at that perfect stage where she make cute comments, is genuinely trying to help and usually is just pretty pleasant all around. She is so proud that she learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. Now that the weather is bearable here, she's outside a couple hours every day "practicing".

Cooling at last!

2007-09-10T22:49:00.000-06:00

I just looked at the week weather forecast for Tucson.

Tucson, AZ
89°F ClearWind: N at 7 mph Humidity: 33%
Today 98° 73°
Tue 98° 74°
Wed 98° 70°
Thu 98° 69°

That's right! Thursday morning when I go to the squadron's exercise, it could be less than 70 degrees for the first time since we've been here! Just wait till we go camping on Friday up at some altitude--I could actually be outside and not be sweating! Oh, I think I'm going to like the winter.

Cross Country

2007-08-29T21:00:00.001-06:00

Lindsey's cross country career began today. She seems about 1/2 the size of the fastest runners, but did a great job. She was the 4th runner from her school and is the only 6th grade girl on the team.

Of course, we've improved on the teaching my parents gave me of "don't drink too much water". With the temperature at 105 when the race started, we actually encouraged her to drink some water. I guess she has been trained a little too well not to litter because she ran with the water bottle for the first mile, until she came past us and I begged it from her.

The Goatpacking Trip

2007-07-22T19:02:00.000-06:00

Well, we're still in the process of getting settled in Tucson. We closed on the house on June 19th and have been working the last week to make some changes and unpack boxes. This has involved scraping off 1500 square feet of popcorn ceiling texture from the vaulted ceilings in the great rooms of the house. Priming and painting took another day or two. Fortunately my brother Doug and his wife Alisha came to help us. Now we're working on getting things out of boxes and organized in our smaller home.

Goat Packing

The long rumored goat packing trip was a riot. I can't imagine a better distraction for hiking with children than a few goats. Rachel, our 4 year old, walked the entire 6 miles to Amethyst Basin. It was amazing. And having the goats help to carry all of that stuff was a great bonus.

Here are a few highlights of the trip:

The Sabeys

We love doing things with the Sabeys. Mark and the boys are constantly thinking of ways to make everything more exciting. For instance, on our hike down the mountain, they decided we should each pick a goat who we thought would be leading the goat pack most of the way to the trailhead. They awarded points to a goat and his pickers each time he crossed a stream as the lead goat. Of course along the way there were whimsically heated discussions about the minimum requirements for a "stream", bantering when a goat would pass, and cheering for their favorite goat. Lisa tries to fulfull her divine role as family safety monitor, but has had some setbacks recently as Cubby broke both his wrist and his opposite elbow. Rachel Sabey is so sweet with the girls. They love being dressed up and made up when they see her. And now the princess book she gave them is a highlight.

The Goodnatured Goats

Grace liked the goats and they provided hours of free entertainment.

to be continued. . . . .

Wasatch Back Relay Legs 33 & 34

2007-06-02T11:30:00.000-06:00

I went on another hill climb training run this morning. Jason Haddock met me at Wasatch Mountain State Park and we "ran" 5 miles up the "You've got to be kidding me" (leg 33) and part of the "Ragnar" (leg 34) legs of the Wasatch Back Relay. I'm glad Jason was with me because I would have been seriously tempted to turn back. This is grueling enough in the early morning with fresh legs. Running it after running 4 and 6 mile legs beforehand (and in the middle of the noonday sun) is going to be a challenge. The road is really dusty too.

I just realized you can't read the image too well. Basically the run was a 2200 ft climb for 5 miles from 5800 feet to 8000 feet. I now have a new documented maximal heart rate of 201 (which Carol pointed out I achieved before I even reached the first hill.)

Training Run

2007-05-26T18:15:00.000-06:00

It's easy to delay training for a race when it is still months away, but I can no longer delay. I'm posting a picture of my training run today up Millcreek Canyon. This is courtesy of my new Garmin 305, which I love. With any luck I'll be able to make it up the "You've got to be kidding" or "Ragnar" legs of the Wasatch Back Relay in a month. The real race is 4 miles up a slightly steeper "road" gaining 2000 ft of elevation, instead of 1600 like this training run.

A Gorgeous Garage

2007-03-11T15:28:00.000-06:00

I took these pictures of Mom and Dad's garage while we were down there last weekend. Doug finished the garage floor about 2 weeks ago, and it looks great. We went to the home show at the Expo center last night and saw Doug's cool jigsaw show samples. I think they are going to do well in their new venture.

Bryce and Karen, that is a car parked in the garage. Cars are four wheeled vehicles that the rest of America uses for transportation. Perhaps we can discuss the more complicated idea of a garage if you call sometime.

Moab - Family Bike Ride

2007-02-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

On President's Day, we did the Bar-M Loop trail with the Sabeys and the whole family. Soft sand is the enemy of bike trailers, but we all made it through the loop. And once again, we proved that anything you do with the Sabeys is guaranteed to be fun.

Moab - Slickrock Trail

2007-02-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

We've been so busy playing for the past couple of weeks that I haven't posted any of our great pictures. So here are a few from our Slickrock trail trip on Saturday.

(Pictures coming soon)

After I wiped out going over this little ledge into the deceptively soft sand below, I decided to pull out my camera and watch the rest of the group come over this spot. You might call it entrapment, but I think of it as opportunity. . . .

Mesa Falls

2007-01-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

We went to Mesa Falls with the Sabeys on our New Year's snowmobile trip in Island Park, Idaho. It is about 60 miles from West Yellowstone, MT which made it an all day trail ride.

Here is my best attempt to create a map of what it would require to make a round trip from West Yellowstone to Mesa Falls.

Mark's Video

2007-01-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here is Mark's video from the family reunion. It's 15 minutes long, so had to be cut into two clips. Apparently Mark likes hearing himself narrate.

Madsen Movie

2007-01-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

At our recent Madsen family get together over Christmas, we had a fun video making activity. The family was divided into four teams and given a bag of props that had to be used in the skit. This is one of the four videos that were made. Hopefully some day I'll get ahold of the other videos and be able to post them as well.

Madsen Family Christmas Quiz

2006-12-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you lucky enough to make the printed Christmas card list, here is the Christmas Quiz again. For those of you who were overlooked by our bulk mail consultants, here is the Christmas Quiz:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a New Quiz! This year our update is in the form of a test. (Note: there may be more than one correct answer). The highest score (that is reported first) will be greatly rewarded with a free vacation* to where ever we are stationed next year (you may want to opt out of the prize if you suspect we may be sent to Iran—as the winner is obligated to accept the prize). Good luck and Enjoy!

1. Daniel finishes up his radiology residency this summer where he has even been the chief resident. Yet he still managed to find spare time, in which he has:
a) Planed, organized and executed a high tech (and rather mean) joke for his brother to come home to from his honeymoon. (check it out on http://dsmadsen.blogspot.com/ –hit link 10/29-11/05)
b) Spent 6 weeks in Washington DC for a board preparation conference (which he has since taken and passed his boards). While there he spent his weekends in NYC biking or running with his brother-in-law Bryce
c) Hit (but did not kill) an angry charging moose (with his manly mini-van—not his gun).
d) Bought 4 really old snowmobiles that can’t go very fast but are light weight so even the girls can lift them, so that makes them really good, right?

2. Carol has enjoyed staying home with the girls, and for fun
a) She compiled and formatted a cookbook for her church (the irony is on many levels)
b) She directed the elementary school choir for their holiday performance
c) She almost finished the Salt Lake City marathon
d) She likes long walks in the park, feeding ducks and sipping hot cocoa by a blazing fire

3. Our 10 year old Lindsey is an avid learner and tries to impress people with:
a) Spelling her chosen bonus words like lipohemarthrosis
b) Getting and staying up on water skies
c) Taking the calculator away from her teacher to solve a problem that her 5th grade teacher was struggling with
d) Advancing in both piano and violin

4. Kimmer, our 7 year old, is a very bright, kind and socially aware kid. She keeps busy with:
a) Her role in the school play Honk Jr (the ugly duckling) where she plays a cute duckling
b) Water skiing where she got up and skied for a while on her first try
c) Listening to and reading Harry Potter
d) Piano lessons that she added this year to her musical studies which already includes violin

5. Rachel is almost 4, loves preschool, singing, dancing, skipping, on-demand television, doing cartwheels, and making people think she is older than she is, because:
a) She is really good with numbers and can figure out on any day of the week how many more days until her next dance class
b) She expects to get a violin for her 4th birthday (she has asked for this for several years now)
c) She can recognize, write and tell you the sound of each letter
d) She got up, stayed up and even went out of the wake water skiing before she fell

6. Grace, our gleeful walking 1 year old accompanied us to:
a) Washington DC (twice), Pennsylvania and NYC
b) Glacier, Zion and Yellowstone National Parks
c) Utah’s famous Nutty Putty cave (where we went spelunking)
d) San Diego where we fed the bat rays at Sea World

We are so grateful for good friends and family. We hope you have a wonderful, meaningful holiday. We love hearing from you! Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Madsen family

Christmas Quiz Answers

2006-12-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you who need to cheat, here are the answers to the Madsen Family Christmas Quiz:

1. a & b (c is almost true, but the stumbling baby moose fell to its knees and narrowly missed te car. d is what Daniel always threatens to do but somehow can't quite fork out the money)

2. a, b and d (c isn't even close to being true!)

3. a, b, c, & d

4. a, b, c and d

5. a, b & c

6. a, b, & c (spelunking at nutty putty would be pretty crazy with a baby!)

Holiday Pictures

2006-12-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love holiday family pictures?

I took a few pictures while we were getting ready to take a picture for our family Christmas letter. Hopefully Santa wasn't watching.

You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout. . .

You'd better not cry I'm telling you why

Hopefully Santa is still coming to town.

Snowshoeing

2006-12-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

Mark and I enjoyed a wonderful few hours snowshoeing at Wasatch Mountain State Park today.

I uploaded a video of Mark's fastest movements during the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dioxjzzo81U

We were looking for deer, but didn't see any while we were snowshoeing. But we did see billions of little bugs on the snow. At first I thought they were ash from people's wood burning stoves, but then when you got down really close to the ground, you could seen these little black specks jumping around. They looked like tiny little beatles. Anybody know what they are?

Sea World

2006-12-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

Our happy family after a day at Sea World.

Doug and Alisha's Reception

2006-12-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Notice Mom is wearing a different dress.

The happy couple

A view of things to come . . . .

"I caught the flowers!"

More wedding pictures

2006-12-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I share several characteristics, including our beautiful skulls. But bare scalps can be dangerous in the Dixie sun. Here Bryce fashions an improvised shade device using Rachel.

Did ganster Doug grow up in the hood?

The enterouge

Beautiful Day

The people at the Wedding

2006-12-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

The cool girls: Katie Powell and Kimberly Madsen

David and Tori are so hot, they've got to wear shades!

No one could be happier that Doug is married than these two.

Doug and Alisha's Wedding

2006-12-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of the lovely couple . . . .

Doug's Bachelor Party

2006-12-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

St. George has a new indoor go-carting facility, where we decided to have Doug's bachelor party. It was such a riot, we all went back for another round the next day between the lucheon and the reception.

Robert and Julie demonstrate their starting technique.

Robert raises his hand for help? The gas pedal is on the right!

Doug's Truck

2006-12-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

I guess anyone who reads this blog knows that we love to decorate for weddings. After Alicia saw the "love" we showed to Robert, she was reported to have said, "They better not try that on my apartment."

But Alicia had nothing to fear. Knowing Doug, we had long figured that his wife would suffer enough. So we put together the most classy decorations for his truck that we could think of.

WE SEE YOU BEN!!!

The Aftermath

2006-11-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

After last week's exciting posts, I'm sure you all are wondering: "How did it go?" Did Robert laugh or cry? Did the motion detector detect any motion? How many fish survived? Did the neighbor call the cops about the sign? How does a bullion shower smell? Did the Jello in the toilet ever set up? How about the alarm clocks? And how about Julie? Did she ask for an annulment after seeing what her in-laws can do?

Unfortunately, the answer to these questions remain concealed. Expecting a Sunday evening phone call, I had left the ladder strapped to the top of the minivan (made for some interesting looks at church). But no phone call came. Monday after work, there had still been no phone call. Something WAS FISHY. I called Amy, since Robert and Casey work together. Amy said she heard that it was all cleaned up when Robert got home.

CLEANED UP?? How could this be. I decided to put in a call to Robert himself and see what he had to say. He said he arrived home and the house had been thoroughly cleaned. He said there wasn't a decoration, a fish, a BB, a light, or anything in the sinks or toilets. The only things he saw were the sign on the garage and the sign way up high on the condo outside. The inside was completely clean. He said only one alarm clock (the one in the heater vent) was not found before they went to sleep. "I don't know, I guess the Milar's came and cleaned it up," he said.

I was floored. Who could have done this? What kind of person would dare interfere with in these sensitive family matters? Who did the Milar's think they were anyway?

I told Robert I was really disappointed he didn't get to see a few of the things and moved on to call Mark, Bryce and Karen and tell them what I had heard. While talking to Bryce and Karen, it dawned on me that it would have taken a small army (and one willing to flush innocent fish to their deaths) to undo all the doings quick enough that the interior of the condo was spotless by the time Robert arrived back at 3 PM. This was just not possible. Especially if you consider that it was Sunday, and the Milar's would be at church before ever going to Provo. Something WAS FISHY.

I called my dad and asked for his help. We needed to know if the Milar's were really in on a quick clean up job or not. I asked Dad to call Gordon Milar and find out if they had taken down the decorations. I even proposed he start with a little confrontational statement like "I don't know who you think you are interfering in family matters, but . . . ." Dad declined. I offered other alternatives which were not quite so offensive, but he wasn't really interested in getting involved at all. Fine. I would take matters in my own hands.

At 8:30 or so on Monday night, I called the Milar home. Due to the sensitive nature of the conversations which ensued, requests for anonymity and in an effort to protect the innocent, I cannot reveal the conversations which ensued. But my suspicions were confirmed. ROBERT WAS LYING.

I quickly called the rest of the siblings who were elated to learn that all had not been lost. Robert had seen our "decorations." In fact, he might still be discovering more decorations as we talked. Jubilant spirits returned.

We have heard little or nothing from Robert since Monday. Our lives go on with curiosity as to what happened last Sunday. The questions largely remain unanswered. Gradually certain things have leaked back to the family from other sources (which shall also remain anonymous), confirming that Robert indeed found the house just as we had intended.

Robert's nonacknowledgement of our love, however, is troubling. Various ideas have circulated:
1) Should we kidnap him, put him in a black room with bright lights and slowly dripping water and make him admit his deceptive lies?
2) Should we persist in fake anger against the wonderful Milars? Should we overdramatize how upset we are and begin telling Robert about fake plots to seek revenge?
3) Should we simply repeat the operation the next time Robert leaves town, so that he will get to see the "decorations" this time?
4) Should we employ OPERATION HUMILITY, launching a rolling wave of increasingly traumatic attacks until he comes begging on bended knee for relief? Attacks that might involve cars, employers, taxation entities, honor code comittees, fake newspapers, etc.? Attacks so big, so visible, that he cannot continue to deny our love for him?

These and other questions will be discussed in family councils in the days and weeks to come. It is our sincere desire that Robert repent of his pride, humbly acknowledge our creation of Justice through Jello and our Greatness in Goldfish, and be readmitted to the family council.

I called and invited Robert and Julie to join Mark and me for pizza and the BYU game tonight. We'll have to see if he changes his line at all.

Jello

2006-10-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Jim on the Office is always putting various employees items into Jello, so when we saw the Jello at Walmart on sale for 33 cents, we had just the right idea. Mark first tried the optical mouse (too buoyant), then the remote control (too long), and finally settled on a large wad of cash he found in Rob's room. A few coins were also needed to keep the bills from floating.

Thanks to our sponsors

2006-10-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

We want to acknowledge that none of this would have been possible without the support of our generous benefactors, Bryce and Karen Wisan. Bryce and Karen both felt bad that they weren't able to make the wedding and wanted to make sure Robert felt their support. Without even asking for money, Bryce called up and pledged $250 to the cause, with a promise to add even more if required. I guess that's the kind of generosity that can only come from having a brother-in-law place baby powder in your car vents and 72 black crickets in your honeymoon vehicle.

And we must thank Robert himself. Certianly we had evaluated Robert's plans and it was obvious that any attempts at old blue (his car) would be futile. Strategies were discussed, and a plan made. We had planned to get a copy of his key before the spring wedding, but when the wedding was moved up, we were left a little panicked. A council meeting was held, and Casey was given an emergency assignment to obtain access to the apartment. His intelligence suggested that Robs' roomates might be around to let us in. We thought we might just have to drop by and hope we ran into them and that they would be willing to go along. But Bob came through for us and made the whole thing easy by inviting them to the wedding, where we were able to make appropriate arrangements. Thanks Bob.

Outside

2006-10-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, my camera had a hard time focusing automatically when I took these pictures (it may have had something to do with having it set on manual focus and forgetting to focus). But you can appreciate the red glow from the light we replaced about 26 feet off the ground. All the other homes have regular white lights, but Casey's red light gives the neon banner below it a special illumination. "Robbie's Love Shack" is proudly displayed 26 feet off the ground. After putting it up, we only had one neighbor come and complain about it and threaten to call the police. "This is private property," he said. I reassured him my brother would take it down the next day. If not, he can always call the Homeowner's Board and complain.

This is also dissapointingly blurred, but Rob's house has been posted.

I showed Mark some flourescent tape I found and Walmart and asked hime to go write something with it. He paused for a brief second, and then an evil grin overcame his face and he said "I know just what to write." Hope that stuff comes off.

Some innovative ideas from WalMart

2006-10-29T02:35:00.000-07:00

So we were walking down the isle at Walmart and spotted a container of 4000 BB's. Now, what would you do? We did what any good Madsen with Wisan funding would do--we bought them and boobie trapped the broom closet with them. Nicole made the sign about Bob being forgiven--we've yet to hear if it's really backed up by Bryce.

Unlike many of the other ideas we came up with, this one was straight revelation. We removed the fan light in the master bedroom and replaced it with a motion sensitive flood light. 14 ft vaulted ceilings were a bit of a challenge, but nothing an acrobat on two stools couldn't handle. That might also make getting them down a bit of an issue for Bob. We also plugged in an alarm clock that plays annoying Jazz music whenever the light is on. How better to encourage a little more talk and and a lot less action?

The bed was also specially prepared with a plastic sheet under the fitted bedsheet--it will help Rob sleep comfortably like being in a bed at Grandma Snow's. Not to metion the mattress protection it provides.

All out of love

2006-10-29T02:32:00.000-07:00

Some families give lots of gifts to show their love. But we give of our time and talents to let "Robbie" and Julie know we love them. Has the stapler set up in the Jello yet?

The Mastermind

2006-10-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

Here you see the evil mastermind behind the dastardly deeds

2006-10-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Perp#5

3AM alarm clock- 1 of 4 wakeup opportunities for the newlyweds

I guess this means they liked it

The money man - found just the items to add to his Jello

Stairs and Kitchen

2006-10-29T02:20:00.001-07:00

The front hallway contains a lingerie display, in case any important guests come by.
Standard streamers and decorations greet them as they arrive upstairs. Note the battery powered radio taped 14 feet off the floor at the peak of the far wall. It's tuned to classical/jazz station, and man is it annoying! Several odorous indoor scent cans were left to freshen the air for them, as well as another scentable surprise we will not discuss.

We had been incorrectly informed that Rob's car had been returned to the apartment by a roomate, so we had purchased Saran wrap. Not having another option, we decided to encourage them to sit closer together on the other small chair.

Several important messages were left on the mirrors.

2006-10-29T02:20:00.000-07:00

Perp #1

Perp#2

Perp #3

Perp#4

Bathrooms

2006-10-29T02:11:00.000-07:00

Ever shower in soup base? We're interested to see if they like chicken bullion more than beef.

Rob hasn't cleaned his toilet in awhile. The brown in the middle is from gelatin, the ring of brown you'll have to ask Robert about.

Never hurts to give them a little realistic hint about marraige.

Hmmm. Something is fishy here.

Windows

2006-10-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

Mark did some work on the windows as well.

Outside

2006-10-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of outside pictures with better focus.

Dad's Proudest Moment

2006-10-27T22:02:00.000-06:00

He shot something with horns this time!

Roberts dance

2006-10-27T22:01:00.000-06:00

"Roby's" wedding

2006-10-27T22:00:00.000-06:00

2006-10-27T21:59:00.000-06:00

Robert's wedding

2006-10-27T21:57:00.000-06:00

Robert's wedding

2006-10-27T21:54:00.000-06:00

Robert's Wedding

2006-10-27T21:48:00.000-06:00

Family Photo

2006-10-02T21:04:00.000-06:00

We went driving on Sunday while listening to the morning session of General Conference. It was just gorgeous with the leaves changing and a little snow on the top of the mountains. We took this picture near the top of Guardsman Pass.

Grace

2006-09-27T21:04:00.000-06:00

Isn't she a cutie?

New York

2006-09-17T16:36:00.000-06:00

I ran across this picture today. It's one of my favorites from our New York/DC trip. Some of you may recognize these kids:

Yellowstone

2006-09-17T16:07:00.000-06:00

We went to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend with the VanPatton's. Here are a few pictures of our adventures:

In the beginning...

2006-07-23T21:07:00.000-06:00

So anyone can blog now, even me.