Count Your Blessings

Cyndie and I are stuck inside on a cold, blustery day. We're doing some real estate work, working on some travel plans, and generally trying to stay warm and dry (and hoping that Tim's game this afternoon is moved inside the dome instead of being outside in 50 degree weather with 25 mile per hour wind and rain).

On a day which could be a bit of a drag where we're limited to 300 square feet (or the local coffee shop), we are choosing to count ourselves blessed. Looking around our little house on wheels makes me so happy. I am literally smiling as I write this. We are living the dream! Is it everyone's dream? No way. But this is something we've been excited about for a while. We have a lot of flexibility to pursue those things which are important to us (travel, experiences, family). We have almost all of the things we really enjoy in life with almost none of the negatives. And more exciting things (overseas travel, catamaran!!) are on the horizon.

What is the moral of the story? Pursue your dreams. Push your limits. Make goals for yourself. Set steps toward your goals. Execute them. Everyone has different priorities. Pursue what you value. Don't let someone else tell you that your dream is dumb or unachievable. Don't get stuck living life the same way you always have just because.

Our society likes to tell us what should be. Don't accept that. 

Think outside the box. You are worth it.

So a thing happened?!

 Yes, it's been a while since I posted. Bad me. Life is great. We are loving RV life and I can't fathom how I ever worked a job given our busy we are?! We've spent the last several months doing lots of exercising, watching soccer, visiting family, meeting new people, and exploring the upper/western side of the Midwest. It's been great.

And now we did a thing.

*not "our" boat, but the same year and model

There is a fairly length story behind it, but we are on contract to buy a Leopard 44 sailing catamaran!? This has been a dream of ours for a while and the fact that it is so close to reality is insane. There are still a lot of steps (get the boat to the US, do a survey and sea trial. Oh and learn to sail). But the biggest one of finding the boat is complete. More details to come!

These pictures actually of "our" (soon to be) boat.

Fun morning

Bragging for Emma today. We went out on the boat ... the four of us and Auntie Jane. We were very disappointed when we got up at 6 am ... first because it was still dark (I guess we haven't been getting up very early lately), and second because it was 15 - 20 mph winds. We decided to head over anyway, just to see what we would see. It was by no means perfect. On "our" side of the lake, the north shore, there were pretty big waves from the wind. We went across to the south shore and it was quite a bit better, though definitely not of the quality we're used to in the mornings. So we went. I wakeboarded and Cyndie skied, then Emma gave it a go. She had previously maxed out at about 20 or 30 seconds at a time. She wasn't having any problems getting up, but was, I think, getting scared when she thought she was going toward the wake, and so she'd just drop the rope. So I convinced her last night that she a) wasn't going to go out of the wake unless she tried to, and b) could turn herself just like she does when she snow skis. So, the first time, she dropped again after 20 seconds. I think she just forgot what we'd talked about. But after that, she was a champ. She stayed up for minutes, and only dropped under duress (wake from other boats knocking her down). She skied all over the lake, including making some big looping turns when we got to the end of the sheltered part of the lake and needed to go back. She even skied half the way back to the north shore where the water was starting to get really rough again! So while she was a "kind of" skier before, she is now official!!!

A Blast

We went out on the boat early this morning and had a blast as a family. Timmy decided he didn't want to "do" anything, so he was just a long for the ride. I wakeboarded, Cyndie skied, and Emma skied. Cyndie had talked to a friend of our and learned that you can drop a ski, so she had a good time slaloming with out the effort to get up on one ski! Emma's getting there with skiing. She still doesn't stay up for long (I think she's still getting the feel for how much to lean back against the pull of the rope) but she definitely thinks it's cool that she can ski. I'm getting the hang of wakeboarding ... even getting a small amount of air when I go over the wake. Fun times.

Here are some pictures from lately ...

Emma and Timmy entered to be in an ice cream eating contest and made it ... so they did that on Friday night at the Pig. Emma got first in her contest, and Timmy got second! They both got brand new, very nice backpacks and some school supplies. Emma won a years supply of ice cream, and Timmy a $30 gift certificate to Target (which he somehow managed to lose ... bummer). Anyway, it was fun!

Emma by the brand of ice cream she won!

Cyndie found a great deal on this really loud, obnoxious toy that we gave to cousin Daisy for her 2nd birthday ...

Emma skiing!

Summer moves on.

Yes, summer is passing us by, and at a fast pace. We here at the Wildwood DeVries household were looking forward to a slower paced August. Well, I'm not sure it's been much slower paced, and it's going by quickly! We have about three weeks left until school starts, which is nice, but will go quickly. My sister Amy, who is a teacher, starts back at work next week. Good grief!

I was sitting on the deck working yesterday late morning, and it was still a bit cool. In fact it felt a bit fall-like. After the heat we had in the middle of the summer, it was a bit odd to actually feel cool outside. Craziness.

Humm, what else is going on? I just looked back at the last blog entry I made and realized that I didn't write that Cyndie (and my dad) rode their bikes from my folks' house to Crystal Lake. It was nearly 40 miles. They made it! Cyndie said she was pretty wiped out the last 5 or 6 miles, and she was pretty sore the next day or two, but very happy she did it!

Yesterday morning Cyndie and Emma got up early to go out skiing with our friends Jeannine and Anna (I think she's going into 7th grade). Emma got up and skied for a couple couple of minutes three different times! Awesome Ems. I think we're going to need to get her a wet suit because she gets cold so easily. It will also extend our ski calendar a bit.

Last Saturday evening we went to the Music by the Lake for the second time. We saw a quartet that did a lot of 50s and 60s style music. My folks went with. It was a great time!

I think that recaps pretty well the last week or so. Here's to hoping for a bit warmer weather and an end of August that feels like it lasts forever!

A trickle

It appears that my blogging has slowed to a trickle. If that. Sorry about that. I'll make no promises, but I hope to be at least a little more regular about blogging.

So, what's been happening? How about a few bullets:

• Softball ended for Emma. Her team wasn't horribly good, but she improved a lot over the season to where she was probably one of the two best players on her team. Her hitting was good, and her defense was very good. In fact, she turned an unassisted double play in the last game ... awesome considering getting single outs at a time is an iffy proposition at best in her league.
• Baseball ended for Timmy. He was 6 years old in a league for 7 and 8 year olds, so it was a learning time for him. He loved to play, and was constantly wanting to play catch or hit in the yard. He did well for his team, getting lots of hits ... as many as any of the other boys. It was very fun for him to be on a really good team. They only lost twice out of 10 or 12 games. Their second to last game was against an undefeated team (that had beat them by one run the other time they played) and Tim and the boys won 31 - 10! That was a fun game!
  
• Last week we were up in the UP for family camp. As usual, it was a blast. It was fun to not have to do anything, to have meals be prepared for us, to have lots of other kids around for Tim and Emma to play with, etc.
  
• We tried an evening boating trip on Monday, just Cyndie, I, and the kids. It was a blast. I wakeboarded, Cyndie wakeboarded and skied, Timmy went on the knee board for the first time ever, and Emma got up (briefly) on two skis! It was really fun.
  

So, that's kind of catching you up on us. We're looking forward to a fairly quiet month of August after having had a busy first 2/3rds of the summer.

Pictures!

Emma learning to knee board

Timmy winning his Day Camp rock/scissors/paper tournament!

Some of Timmy's buds from Day Camp

At the Freedom Fest ... Timmy showing off his muscles

Waiting for the concert to start at the Freedom Fest

Emma and I at "our" Indian restaurant

Tim and Emma loved having cousin Brandon here to visit!

Uncle Gene rented a jet ski

Tim and Emma cooled off by decorating themselves with shaving cream

I need a weekend from my weekend!

Well now, that was a busy weekend! Friday night my sister Amy and her two kids (non-attending camp division) came up for the night. My folks and Laura and Gow and the kids and Jane came over for dinner and a rousing family baseball game. Then Timmy and his cousin (same age) Ben went over to Auntie Jane's and got to spend the night there. The next morning Tim and I headed to baseball practice, while Cyndie and Amy went to pick up the oldest cousins, Emma and Sarah at camp. Emma (and Sarah too I think) had a great week. The weather was cool, but that didn't seem to bother them too much. I think they were ready to go back again this week, but were pretty darn pooped on Saturday! Emma said her favorite things were the zipline, the climbing wall, and banana boating.

After a couple of hours of down time, we headed to the Freedom Fest, a free concert/festival in Janesville, joining our friends the Goreckis there. That was fun. The rides/carnival stuff was all free. They had stuff for the kids. The concert, Matthew West, was good, and there was a phenomenal fireworks show at the end. Fun times, but late. We didn't get home until around 11:30. Needless to say, everyone slept in in the morning! Then we had church at Covenant Harbor (our pastor was speaking and we had three people from church get baptized in the lake after the service). There was a picnic, then we spent the rest of the afternoon out on the boat with various friends from church (sandwiched around a trip to Wal-Mart to get a new battery for the boat!). And then we had church (a very short prayer/singing service). And then we went to Culvers for a heavy snack with a bunch of folks from church. Fortunately, the kids got to bed at a decent time.

Whew, typing that makes me tired all over again. Today Tim is off to Day Camp at Covenant Harbor (his first camp experience by himself). He was a bit apprehensive when I dropped him off, but his buddy Owen was dropped off moments later, and I'm assuming that things were peachy from there. Emma had a PetVet class this morning (she said there were five dogs and a cat there today). Tonight we pick Timmy up at camp, then go straight to his 5p baseball game (and Emma's softball game after that).

I need a nap!

Busyness

Yes, we've been busy. I remember a conversation between Cyndie and I where we discussed that every organization we, or the kids, belonged to was having an event within the last two to three weeks of the school year. Well, we weathered that and have made it into summer (which is perhaps summer in name only at this point ... I swear, it's either in the mid to upper 90s, or in the low 70s/high 60s. I don't think we've had any days with highs in the 80s).

So now we're transitioned to summer living. Which really means the normal for me, but is far different for Cyndie and the kids. They've been staying up a bit later, largely because of activities that they've had (more on that in a minute). But they've also been sleeping later, which is good for all of us. They've had some play dates, and are enjoying being outside.

Of course the biggest thing happening for them is that they have baseball/softball three days a week. Games are on Monday and Wednesday nights, and practices on Saturday mornings. They've both been doing very well, and are getting quite a bit better, especially compared to 2 months ago when neither had really played any ball at all. Timmy is one of the youngest kids on his team. But he's doing very well. He's a bit of a hitting savant. He connects with a lot, but doesn't hit it very hard yet. Emma is doing very well fielding, and understanding what to do with the ball when she fields it. She's improving on her hitting too, and hits it pretty hard.

Next week is overnight camp for Emma. She's already started packing. She'll be at Covenant Harbor from Sunday afternoon until Saturday morning. Cousin Sarah and a girl from Sarah's church will be in her cabin. As we speak, she's making them matching bracelets ... since I'm writing this, hopefully she'll actually finish them! Emma is very excited!

Timmy has been reading a TON! It's almost every morning that he stumbles down the stairs with a book in his hand, reading as he goes. For some reason (maybe it's because it's long and he doesn't run out of stuff to read, or maybe he likes the stories) he's been reading the Bible (a kids version) a lot, which is very cool. Spurred on by his cousins learning to ride their bikes, Timmy finally decided that he was going to learn, and did so with not too much difficulty yesterday. We took our first family bike ride (just around the neighborhood) yesterday which was very fun!

Lets see, Cyndie and I have been busy running around with the kids. I'm helping to coach both baseball/softball teams, and Cyndie is (of course) there too for those things. Cyndie's had work, keeping the kids busy during the day, sailing, church leadership team, and multiple activities with her lady friends. I'm doing my own softball team, church worship team, school board (I was on all day panels to interview perspective teachers three days in the last month), etc. We're trying to put in some time on the many unfinished projects that we have around the house too, but that's a bit slow in coming. On top of that, we're trying to get out on the boat too. We had some slight problems with that, but it turned out it was just a clogged fuel filter ... $65 instead of potentially much more.

So there you have it. We'll have a busy summer until the end of July, then August should slow down quite a bit!

Yes, I think so, it's finally Spring!

I think I can now officially report that spring time has come to Lake Geneva. We've had some good weather, both warmer and sunnier. Mother's Day we had brunch out on the deck. That was our first real meal there since the crazy 80 degree day that happened about a month ago. The piers and lifts are in at Covenant Harbor, so that means the boat (which we've cleaned out and re-packed since getting out of winter storage) is basically ready to go in. The kids have both had their first ball practice (softball for Emma and baseball for Tim ... both "coach pitch" which is the step up from teeball). I had my first softball game (with a bunch of friends from church, bowling, the neighborhood, camp) which we won in dramatic fashion (we were down 9-0 after the first inning and something like 14 - 3 after two innings ... we came back and won 19-18!). Weather.com says that it is a high of 78 and sunny in LG today! Unfortunately, I'm sitting in a meeting in Baltimore for work on a last minute trip. Boooo!

On the kid front, Emma has been really interested in Cyndie's new cell phone (Mother's Day present) ... so if you get a strange text or phone call from Cyndie, beware, it could have come from Emma. Timmy is VERY into sports right now. He loves to watch baseball games and play sports in the yard ... basketball, soccer, and especially baseball. He's very into hitting, and is getting really pretty good. At his first baseball practice, he hit every single of the 15 - 20 pitches that the coach sent his way. It's fun for me that he's turning into a sports maniac like I am. To close this out, I'll relate a quote from Tim the other day. This from when the Royals and Twins were playing (this for you Jane and Dad) ...

"The Twins should start playing soccer because they are so bad at baseball"

Ha, a man after my own heart.

Snow

Yes, it snowed last night, and was still snowing when we got up. It looks beautiful! There was probably about an inch or two. The trees are all covered, the grass is covered. The driveway and roads were clear. That black box above (if it doesn't show up for you) is a youtube link to Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera Ellen singing "Snow" (four part harmony ... snow, snow, snow, snow). I always think about that song when it snows. I have a feeling it will melt rather quickly, but it was a bit of a surprise! Cyndie had to dig out snowpants (needed to go "off the blacktop" at school during recess if snow is on the ground), boots, etc. It looks like the rest of the week won't be horribly pleasant weather wise, but the nice weather WILL come.

The weekend went quickly. Friday night we went down to Casparis for a cousin's weekend. We did some birthday celebrations and hit Costco for some essentials. We also picked up a new tow-behind for the boat at a great price, as well as new life jackets for the kids. Thanks to Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Fred, and Grandma Weaver for that money/gift. It'll be well used this summer.

So there you have it from a White Winter Wonderland in Wisconsin.

Exciting Times

Yes, these are exciting times. Witness:

The snow is gone from the yard ...

The ice is off the lake ...

Forecasts for the foreseeable future (10 days according to weather.com) show highs in the upper 40s and lower 50s ...

The first piers on the lake started appearing yesterday ...

Yes, it's nearing boating season. Now, it is not likely that we'll be in the water (tubing, skiing, whatever) for quite some time. But, we'll probably bring the boat back from storage in the next couple of weekends and get it cleaned up and ready to go for the summer. After that, it's just a matter of getting the docks/lift in at Covenant Harbor (sometime around Easter according to the latest word), and we're back out on the lake!

I see no snow!

Well, that title is not 100% true. There is actually a little snow. You know, where the big piles were. But it's not real snow since it's typically covered in sand and other ick. So, this is a celebratory day. The snow is gone and spring is here! Now if the yard can just dry up a bit so that we can actually go out there without getting totally muddy, we'll be in business.

Tonight is the Woods School Silent Auction. It should be a lot of fun. Emma told us at breakfast that her teacher had told the class that 500 tickets had been sold. Wow. If that's the case, we're going to be packed in there! But it's great that families are so involved with the school.

That's about it around there these days. I guess the next countdown/watch will be for ice on the lake. When it's gone, that means were closer to boating weather! The boat is still in storage at a friend's barn, but I imagine we'll bring it back over here before too long to outfit it and clean it. I think the docks/lifts will go in at Covenant Harbor in about a month.

T-minus one day ...

Yes, there is only one day left until vacation. Today is filled with packing, cleaning, straightening and haircuts (me, maybe Tim, and definitely the dog). Oh, and some errands. Cyndie is taking the boat to be cleaned while we're gone (we're handling all the interior cleaning, but the hull really needs a scrubbing after having been in the lake all summer*). She's also dropping the dog off for a grooming and doing some clothing exchange related errands as well. We should be well occupied today!

*An interesting development on the boat front. A friend of ours is going to be the new volunteer coordinator (amongst other duties) at the camp. He asked us if we'd be interested in letting the camp use the boat for a couple of hours a morning for up to four weeks. In exchange, the camp would give us a lift on which to put our boat. The funny thing is that this is something we had proposed to camp last year! Anyway, we're going to do that. So, since next summer the boat won't be sitting in the water all summer growing algae, we decided to really get the hull cleaned up nicely so that it looks good as new! We're excited to save the money AND have a really great location for the boat.

The tree house continues to progress. The latest progress is starting to put siding on. The kids were playing out there yesterday. That was their "house" and they went to the guest room as their hotel/vacation house.

The next post will likely be from Florida, land of 80+ degree weather (as opposed to the frost on the roof and breath you can see while waiting for the bus to come)!

Pre-vacation week

Well, this week is what we'll call pre-vacation week. On Saturday we're headed to Florida to see Grandpa Fred and Grandma Cathy and spend some time soaking up our last bit of warmth before we take the plunge into winter. That means we're making arrangements to get to and from the airport, farming out the various pets (those seem to be increasing in number and in the amount of care required), packing, getting homework assignments, etc, etc. The extended forecast for Punta Gorda, where Fred and Cathy live, shows highs in the mid 80s and lows in the 60s ... yeah, that's right about ideal for me! It should be a great trip ... we're definitely looking forward to it!

In the mean time, we do have a few things happening this week as well. Cyndie has her big clothing exchange for charity tonight, so there will be 30+ ladies at the house tonight. It'll take a few days to get the house back into shape after that! Currently there are extra tables set up all over the basement, dining room, craft room, and on the deck. I'm sure by the time I get home from work today there will already be a large amount of clothes out and Emma (and Tim too, but Ems will be the ring leader) will be going over the toys table looking for promising items. I guess I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my evening. I mean beside hiding in the bedroom.

We had a nice weekend ... took one last boat ride with Grandma and Grandpa D and then pulled the boat out for the year. We may take another ride if the day is nice enough, but we needed to have the boat off the buoy before we left for vacation, and we also wanted to have some time to clean it, so there you go. Cyndie spent quite a bit of the weekend working on cleaning the boat, while I spent my time on the tree house. It's rounding into shape. The house is all framed up, the plywood is on the roof. The major remaining tasks are roofing, siding, and putting up railing on the exterior deck. We also spent a bit of time burning leaves, and even burned one pile of debris from when Papa Lee cleared out the space in the woods. The pile was nice and dry and easy to burn ... I think we only have 5 or 6 more of those piles left!

This blog is turning ...

700

No, not years old, 700 posts. Yes, this is kind of a boring celebration of the fact, but I don't really have anything horribly interesting to say or commemorate, so this is what you're stuck with. Happy 700th blogday to the Life and Times of the Wildwood DeVries.

In other news, it's Friday. Yea! It seems like this was a long week. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe the on again, off again nature of the truck thing. On that topic, I got it registered this morning, and just sent our insurance guy an email to get started with that portion of vehicle ownership. We also figured out (via a phone call to the previous owner) how to turn off the aftermarket, really sensitive security system which went off multiple times. Hurray! Marking the unofficial start to the weekend, Cyndie just left for her scrappin' *.

*Does scrapping mean that she and Sherri are going to get in a brawl with a rival gang of scrapbooking gals? I'm thinking this could be epic on the scale of the sharks and the jets. Whoohoo, look out. Which makes me wonder, are Sherri, Cyndie and their crew the sharks or the jets?


The kids had their last soccer last night. A friend whose kids also played asked if we were going to do wrestling next. Uh, no. We're both ready for a little break in the weekly commitments. I'm guessing that the next thing will probably be swimming. For now, I want the kids to be free to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having ... it's supposed to be in the low 80s today, tomorrow, and Sunday ... awesome. Does anyone that lives near Lake Geneva want to go water skiing over the weekend. I'm thinking one more good run would be great!

So, happy birthday blog, you don't look a post over 300.

Crazy Week

Well now, that week didn't go exactly as anticipated. As you may recall, we started the week with a strange Monday where we spent much of the day getting us and the boat back from the weekend up at Green Lake. Well, we've been without the Suburban now for 10 days or so. The shop where we had the transmission warranty is fixing it, though they outsource that work to a different shop, a transmission specialist, down in Illinois. So the Suburban was supposed to be fixed that Friday and being brought back up to Lake Geneva, where we could pick it up on Saturday. That didn't happen. Cyndie talked to "our" (the LG shop) this morning and apparently the "other" shop started driving the truck back up here and something when wrong. I'm not sure what, I'm not sure if Cyndie was told any details, but we're still waiting on that front. A good thing is that we're going to get a loaner car in the interim. It's going to be a Ford Taurus with no power steering ... so Cyndie should get a good workout from that!

Aside from the car dealings, midway through the week my laptop crapped out, so I spent a good portion of Thursday working with the tech guy at work to try to get it moving again, then most of Friday getting my files transferred from the old, non-working machine to a new laptop. Then the rest of the day getting the new one configured and putting software on it, etc. So now I'm up and running again, with a spiffy new laptop. It's got a new operating system on it, Windows 7, so that's both fun, and challenging! So, that's the biggest reason behind not doing any blog posts, my apologies.

The rest of the week was normal ... soccer for the kids, Emma started Girl Scouts (Brownies) for the year. They're already selling girl scout cookies. If you want to buy any, please let me (or Emma) know. If you're at a distance and don't anticipate seeing us soon after the November 8 (I think) receive date for the cookies, you can also participate by buying boxes of cookies that will be donated to a local food pantry. Timmy is very much enjoying practicing soccer at home. We have a goal set up that we gave him for Christmas last year. He digs doing drills and shooting into the net. Lately he's been very into being a goalie. He loves to dive after the ball.

Over the weekend my Auntie Diane and Uncle John (whose cabin near Kansas City we've gone to multiple times) stopped through. It was fun to see them and head out on the lake with them for a late afternoon. Uncle John is a "car guy", so he went with us to look at a Ford Excursion we were interested in. Which leads us too ...

We started looking for a Suburban replacement. Before the transmission went out, we were thinking we'd have a year or two before we'd have to replace it. However, this event got us thinking that we should start looking around to at least see what's out there. We have, we think pending a final, successful return of the Suburban, some time to shop and get a good deal. We're looking for a truck that can easily pull the boat (we think the Suburban may be a bit underpowered to handle the boat) and something that we can, at least, fit our family into, but preferably a 7 or 8 seater. So we went to see this Excursion that was for sale by a private party near the kids' school. It was a good deal in theory, but the truck was not in good shape. It had been in an accident (replaced headlight and fenders, chassis welds, etc), had some rust that had been painted over, the transmission didn't feel right (lots of hesitation in shifting, really high revving), and the oil was REALLY dirty. So we didn't jump at that. Obviously. But yesterday I drove over to Janesville to look at another Excursion. As bad as that first one was, this one was great. The Excursion is built on a Ford F250 chassis, so it's got a good starting basis to tow the boat. This one has a 6.8 liter V10, plenty to pull the boat. It also has a Banks Power system which is an exhaust system add-on which increases the power of the engine. It rides really nice, has been well taken care of, has some nice add-ons (like a DVD player), and, most importantly, is a pretty nice deal. it's around $3000 less and blue book (for a private party seller). So we made an offer, and it was accepted. Now we're dealing with the bank and getting enough cash to make the deal. Right now, maybe because it's early in the week, the local bank doesn't have enough cash for us. I may need to end up getting a bank check or something like that to pay the guy (and asking him if he'll accept that). Fun times.

Oh, and another new toy is coming today. Emma has been saving her money and doing extra chores all summer in order to get a gerbil. I'm not sure what got that into her head, but she's been very persistent. She's managed to save $42.16. So starting around a month and a half ago, she and Cyndie started checking Craigslist and ebay and the newspapers, for cages/aquariums and accessories. Well, yesterday they found someone up in Milwaukee (not too far from my office) who is selling 3 gerbils and all the accessories. She was asking $80, but Emma emailed and told her about herself and that she'd been saving all summer and got a reply along the lines of "awwwww, of course I'll take that =)".* So needless to say, Emma is VERY excited for those gerbils to arrive and become a part of her room.

*Those extra w's and the smiley face where part of the e-mail, I didn't even have to add them for emphasis.

So, there you go, our week begins with some new excitement!

Well, that didn't go exactly as planned!

We're back from our weekend in Green Lake. This was the second half of a home exchange that was non-similtaneous ... they were at our house over the 4th of July weekend while we were at a family reunion. This house is right on a big lake in central Wisconsin. It was a beautiful house! But more on that later ...

The weekend started normally. We picked up the kids at school at around noontime and started the drive. Yes, I said started the drive. We didn't actually finish it, though we did complete around 98% of the needed 131 or so miles. We stopped to get gas for the boat a few minutes before we were to arrive. When we left the gas station, we went up a fairly steep grade. Smoke started coming out from under the hood. We stopped (duh), and investigate. There was some smoke coming from a small reservoir that had popped open on one side. So we closed that up and kept going. We missed a turn off (no street sign ... thanks Google Maps), and after we turned around, the truck seemed to be starting to lack power. So we tried a little more and then stopped as it became obvious we were not going to be able to pull the boat up the grade in front of us. Enter AAA. We got towed (suburban AND boat) to the lake house. The tow truck left us and the boat there and towed the suburban to a shop. We later found out that the transmission was shot. Now the "Yeah Cyndie" part. When we had the transmission replaced a year and a half ago, she shopped around a bunch to find a place with a good price and a long warrantee. The place we used offered a 3 year/36k miles warrantee. It's been about a year and a half and something like 15k miles! So, it's under warrantee. We had the truck towed down to Lake Geneva on Sunday, and now we're dealing with that shop. We think they'll try to wiggle their way out from under the full repair, but that's not going to happen. It's clearly under warrantee, Cyndie had just checked all the fluid levels before we left on the trip, and we checked again after the "smoking" incident, and the shop that took a look up in Green Lake said that the transmission was not done well. Soooo, hopefully this is just a bump in the road and we'll be back and working sooner rather than later.

On the vacation side, it was a lot of fun. Our friends, the Goreckis, came up with us. The house was a 6 bedroom, 6 1/2 bath house with a media room, foosball (Timmy's favorite) and pool, a spa, and beautiful views. We cruised on the boat (thanks to Cyndie going over to the neighbors and asking if we could use their truck!), including driving into town on the boat to have dinner Sunday night. The neighbor boy was the same age as Kahlib (7th grade), so they played a lot and did a pretty good job of including Timmy. They played a lot of football, and Timmy loved to tackle! Emma enjoyed the spa, though she wasn't feeling 100% the whole weekend.

Monday morning Cyndie left with the Goreckis to drive home and then borrow another friend's truck, drove back, and then back home with us and the boat. I worked in the morning and early afternoon. We got back home around 6:30, and went straight to the Williams Bay boat launch to put the boat back out on the buoy. Then home to unload our junk, then over to the drop the truck at the friend's house ... whew, it was a long day!!!

All in all, it was an adventurous weekend, and a memorable one. Hopefully we'll end up with very little out of pocket on this, and have a good transmission in a week or so.

Low key, but busy too!

Well, yesterday was a bit low key. The usual stuff ... school, Tim and Emma went to the local corn maze and haw fort with our friend Monica and her boys, Cyndie had sailing. When Emma got home from the excursion, she had a bit of a headache and was pretty listless. So we had some dinner and hit the sack pretty early last night ... Cyndie and I too.

Today, however, seems a bit busier. Cyndie has a couple of appointments, we're taking the boat out (to bring with up to Green Lake this weekend), we're packing for the trip, the kids have soccer, and Cyndie is helping serve at a restaurant in town that is donating $7 of every $9 charged to a local charity that she helps out with (Side by Side). The kids and I will head on over there after soccer. So, it should be a busy afternoon and evening.

On the kid front ... Emma is enjoying third grade. She's made a new friend who lives just off Schoefield named Julia. Cyndie met Julia's mom during the apple orchard trip a couple of days ago, so it sounds like a play date will be happening soon.

Timmy totally loves soccer. He's always wanting to play out in the yard, and looks forward to going to what he calls soccer "class".

So that's it on the Wildwood DeVries front!

Random pix ...

Here are some random pix that were on the camera ...

The kids with their friends Alton (a buddy from pre-school, Autumn and Rose). They're the kids of a friend of Cyndie's. I guess Peppers in there too. They were getting ready for a ride in the trailer behind the tractor.

The deck ...

On the boat with some friends ...

Cyndie and I out for dinner ...