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.

On the Road

 Well, it's official. We're on the road. The journey has begun.

How did we get here? Lots of packing, last minute projects, enjoying some last Lake Geneva fun, and good byes with friends and family.

Packing went about as smoothly as it could. We had earlier in July filled a 20 yard dumpster with

20 yard dumpster

"stuff" that had been floating around our house for 17 years, so we were not dealing with quite as much to sort through. But moving from a five bedroom, 2800 square foot home to a 35 foot fifth wheel is no small thing. In this case, the tortoise was successful, and little by little we got moved. As of this writing, we have not really needed for anything!

Our rig "Haven" parked in the driveway awaiting packing.

Getting packed, bedroom edition

Our girl was a big help in getting us ready to go

We were able to get out on the lake a bit despite some engine issues with our boat. We (and especially Cyndie) will totally miss time on the lake and skiing. But alas, despite our best attempts, we have not found a way to do everything, all the time, every where. Meaning that our boating season of life has come to an end for now.

Tim

Emma

Cyndie aka "Ski Babe"

Tim navigated the week before college in typical fashion, soccer, workouts, and getting as much time with friends in as possible. He was able to get some quality hang out time in with all of his various friends including one last overnight with the three amigos. What a blessing these guys have been to Tim. I really hope that their friendship continues as their stages of life change!

Two amigos sleeping

Tim's adult league team - league champs!

And then we left. After a weekend of final prep, cleaning the house, and general chaos we were sent on our way by a lovely group of people on Sunday night. We slept, and hit the road at 6a on Monday driving Tim's car full of his things and our rig 8 hours west to Western Iowa.

My driving partner

Threatening Skies over Iowa

After an uneventful trip* we arrived at Dordt University to get Tim checked in and ready for soccer pre-season.

*Uneventful is probably relative. We got a decent amount of rain and it was pretty windy. At this point we're extremely happy with our decision to buy a one ton dually (GMC) to pull our fifth wheel. We had 20 MPH winds all across Iowa and I barely felt them.

Dordt University's #24, Freshman Tim DeVries

We've now left the land of KwikTrip and entered that of Casey's*. Whatever will Tim do?

*In driving around his college town, Sioux Center, we did see a KwikStar (the Iowa branch of KwikTrip) being built. Perhaps life will go on.

And now we're settling in to a new phase of life. We haven't found a new normal yet. That will come in time. We're at a beautiful little county campground right on the Iowa/South Dakota border where we are the only people (thus far through the first three and a half days we've been here) here in our loop. We wake up to a lake view and sunshine with our coffee. We enjoy the trails the campground has with the goal of walking at least five miles a day. We're enjoying the slower pace of life. We're enjoying being outside a lot. We're finding ourselves on our phones a lot less and rather passing the time reading, watching the water, and being together!

"Our" campsite on the Eagle View loop

Swimming hole at Eagle View Campground

Railroad bridge over the Big Sioux River, the border between SD and IA

Haven

We're official!

Things we've learned this week:

• Leaving is harder than we expected. Even though we'll be back in LG frequently, it will not be the same. We'll miss places. We'll miss our friends. We'll miss our family. Leaving Emma and Connor in LG is probably the hardest. The two and a half months that they've been back have been a ton of fun. It's great to like your kids, but it's even better to get to know them as really awesome adults!
• Goals are good. We talk to so many people who want something similar to what we're doing (flexibility; financially, geographically, etc). We don't have any secret sauce, but we did set goals and were able to attain them.

Things we're looking forward to:

• Real soccer ... Tim's first scrimmage four hours away in Des Moines against Grandview University on Saturday.
• Seeing how Haven handles the heat; we're looking at high 90s weather starting on the weekend and heading through mid-next week. AC is very welcome!

Tim on the training pitch

Firing this Baby Back Up!

Yes, we're heading to Europe in only a few days.  And so to document our trip, I am firing up the old blog.  A quick check shows that this baby hasn't been touched since the last time we hit Paris, so I guess this is appropriate.  Keep your eye's peeled and your ears tuned for more updates.  We leave in one week!

A REAL Castle

Today was fun.  Very kick back.  We got up, did breakfast, and headed out to the end of line 1 of the metro to Chateau de Vincennes.  It was really fun, and quite big.  It was Charles V's castle back in (if I'm remembering correctly) the mid 1300s.  His son, Charles VI, also lived there an improved it.  It was huge (it was has 1100 meters of wall around it) with a moat around it.  There is a nice, cool cathedral there, a neat keep with its own walls and moat, and lots of cool little rooms, etc.  Louis the XII (I think) and Louis the XIV (I'm pretty sure) lived there as well, but expanded the living quarters far beyond the existing keep to include more Versailles/Louvre looking and feeling buildings*.  Overall, it was fun because it was huge and impressive, but also far less busy than many, or I should say all, of the other places we visited.  The kids could run around and yell and not disturb anyone!

*I'm sure there's a much more formal name for that style of building, but it's far beyond my limited knowledge of history and architecture.

After visiting the chateau, we stopped for lunch at an Italian place just outside the gates.  It was really tasty food, but slightly confusing to order because the menu was in Italian, with French also in there.

We headed home to relax a bit, swam some, had a bit earlier dinner, and got the kids to bed at a somewhat decent time!

Winding Down

Yes, our week in Paris is winding down.  Tomorrow we need to start thinking about packing and getting ready to head up to Amsterdam.

Today started a bit more kick back.  It seems like we're sleeping later and later every day we're here!  We had a leisurely breakfast, cleaned up some and then everyone kind of just felt ready to go, so we did (we had previously considered spending the whole morning "in").

The first stop of the day was Sacre Coeur.  That was interesting.  Cyndie and I had both remembered it having more of a plaza/park around it, but it's largely in the middle of the city.  It's at the top of Montmarte, a big hill in the northern part of Paris.  We also remembered there being a lot more street performers there.  Crazy.  The actual church is very impressive.  There was a service going on inside as we walked through.  Emma commented to me that she really liked the music (it was the normal, I don't even know what the correct term is, "Catholic" singing).

After that we wandered our way to the artist's square.  That too we remembered differently.  I thought it was much bigger.  There sure were a lot of people crammed in there!  We had lunch in the square, and then Cyndie had a drawing of Emma and Timmy done!  The next stop was a small Salvador Dali museum.  It didn't have any of his more famous works, but it was interesting to discuss Surrealism with the kids.

After Montmarte, we headed over to the Arc de Triumphe and jumped on the open top bus for a bit of a tour.  We took that down the Champs Elysees and then over by the Eiffel Tower.  There we jumped on a Seine river cruise which took us down and around the island on which Notre Dame rests.  It was neat to get another, different look at the many famous landmarks and buildings we'd already seen along the Seine.  It was also a very different perspective on Paris since, with both the open top bus and the boat, it was 100% tourists and we had previously spent a lot of time with more typical Parisians (on the metro especially).  We both decided we were glad that we didn't spend any "money" (because the bus and the boat were part of our Paris Pass) on the two tours.  They really were just not hands on enough and, frankly, a little boring.  The kids ended up spending most of the boat tour reading!

So that was our day in Paris.  Tomorrow we're probably going to hit the pool again and go just outside of Paris to a castle called Vincennes.  We may go to Notre Dame for an organ recital too.

Pictures from the Louvre

Our first entrance to the Louvre, through the pyramid.

The fabled Mona Lisa ("it's smaller than I thought" is a typical quote).

Snack in the Louvre ... espresso, yum!

Sailing model boats just outside the Louvre.

 

Ice cream in the Jardin du Tuileries

Yeah, finally some pictures ...

 Here's Tim ... the first thing we did was Notre Dame, the thing he most wanted to see!

 Looking like the like each other near the back of Notre Dame where there are flying butresses.

 With their new friend Kailyn, the daughter of our friends, at the top of the north tower near a gargoyle.

With Kristin (and baby Natalie).

Cyndie is looking at some pictures from today and her comment was (there are a lot of pictures of the Mona Lisa, at least 8).  And I'm guessing that's just from one camera (of the three we're actively using).

The kids stayed up late (until 10p) tonight to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling!

Next up!

Yes, we're about midway through the Paris leg of our journey.  Counting today, we've spent three full days touring around plus the part day we were here and zonked out.  We have three more full days ahead and a partial day/travel day.  It's been great so far!

So, today.

We started by browsing through a farmers market that was on the sidewalk just outside of our flat building.  There were many stalls with produce, meat (fish laying out, etc), clothes, etc.  It was fun to walk through.  I could totally see getting much of my "stuff" at a place like that if I lived in a city like Paris.

The highlight of the day was the Louvre.  Man, that is a spectacular place.  I had forgotten that it started out as a hugh palace.  It's a huge horse shoe (essentially) with this huge courtyard in the middle and even some other big courtyards built into the interior of the building.  Of course there's the very famous glass pyramid as well that is a much more modern addition.  We saw lots of the biggies (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, some Michaelango sculptures.  And in between those, we saw lots of other paintings as well.  There was a pretty neat exhibit in the basement talking about the Louvre as a palace in the middle ages.  We also liked the wing that had been restored to look like it had when it was the apartments of Napolean III in the early mid-19th century.

After the Louvre*, we walked out through the big courtyard into the Jardin des Tuileries.  It was the first public garden in Paris (1500s) and has a bunch of big fountains/ponds in and amongst the sculptures and trees.  The kids enjoyed renting some miniature sailboats at one of the ponds and sailing them around for a half hour or so.  It was great for them after having had to walk slowly and sedately around the Louvre.

*Oh, it wasn't right after the Louvre.  Immediately after the Louvre we went to McDonalds.  How's that for you?  We're in Paris and eating McDonalds!?!  But we were starved and it was the only obvious restaurant right there and the kids really wanted it.  It was fairly similar to the US.  But they served beer, there was no sweet tea (peach tea instead), the burgers tasted slightly different, and they had other menu offerings.  Cyndie's meal was, get this, a "McBaguette".  Hilarious.

After the break sailboating, we headed to the Musee de l' Orangerie ... an impressionist museum.  It was great.  MUCH smaller than the Louvre, but had MANY more recognizable paintings/artists.  Fun.

After that, we were pretty much spent, so headed home.

Observations from the day ....

• I'm not sure if Timmy spends more time looking at art or taking pictures of art.  I don't think he feels like he's really experienced the place unless he's taken pictures of 50% or more of it!  
• Tim also informed me that there were 22 huge chandeliers in Napoleon III's apartments.  
• Emma is the consumate bargain shopper.  Every time she sees a gift shop, she's there looking for a deal.  I think we've finally helped her understand that it's not always quantity.  That sometimes quality counts too!

Tomorrow, Versailles.

Tour Eiffel

So, let's see, I think this is Wednesday?  I'm losing track between being on vacation and the travel and everything.  But that's a good thing!  We had another great day today.

The high light was the Eiffel Tower.  Long before we came, we knew that one of the lifts was broken, which meant that they had ceased to sell reserved, pre-visit tickets, which means that there are LONG lines to take the lift up.  Fortunately, we hung out with our friends Kristen and Nolan yesterday, and they had been to the tower the day previous to that, and had walked up to the second level with their kids.  So we knew that a) you could walk up and b) you could walk up with younger kids.  So we decided to do that because the wait was significantly shorter.  So we got to the tower around 8:50.  The tower opens as 9:30, so we had a little wait, but not bad.*  Cool thing #1:  we were first in line!  So we walked up.  It was no problem at all.  The total climb (we did two legs; first to the first floor, around 75m, then to the second floor, another 75 or so meters with a total of 600+ stairs) didn't even really work us that bad.  It was fun.  And Timmy did very well (we had been a bit concerned because he's definitely got some heights issues ... he mostly just stayed to the inside of the stairway which was a bit more shielded from the view).  At the second floor (about halfway up the total height), we switched to the lift and rode to the top.  It was a slight bit foggy, but not too bad.  The only bad thing is the fog really washed out our pictures.  Whatever.  After spending a little time up there, we went back down to the first level and had some lunch and relaxed a little.  It was very nice.

* Side note.  The metro rides are not at all bad.  We have week long passes, so we don't have to purchase tickets daily, which is nice.  Navigating around is really easy.  And the trip from our flat to where ever, has been no problem at all ... 10 - 20  minutes, depending upon destination and number of transfers.  Yea!

After the Eiffel Tower, we walked through the Tracadero and grabbed a metro up to the Arc de Triumphe.  That was fun.  We walked under the big 12 lane roundabout to the center, and then up to the top of the Arc.  There were great views there, down all twelve boulevards that radiate out from the Arc.

After the Arc de Triumphe, we walked down the Champs Elysees a bit.  We stopped for a break at a little cafe, ordered some goodies, and sat in the little chairs/tables on the Champs Elysees and ate our goodies and watched the people.  Fun stuff.

Then we hopped on the metro again and went back down near Notre Dame to see the Conciergerie.  The Conciergerie is a building that started as a palace and later became a government building and jail.  It is the jail that held both Marie Antoinette and Maxmillian Robespierre prior to their executions during the French Revolution.  It's supposed to be one of the better examples of secular gothic architecture in Paris.  Anyway, the kids thought it was cool because it reminded them of the great hall at Hogwarts (Harry Potter) and because it was a jail.

After that, we were all beat so we headed home for dinner, baths, and bed time.

That's it for now ... from Paris with Love!

That's more like it!

Yep, that's more like it.

We had a great day today.  Let's see, what's the scoop.  Last night after posting, Emma and I investigated the swimming pool (swim caps and pre-swim showers mandatory), but didn't partake.  We came back, and Emma "watched" a Scooby Doo to unwind before bed.  I say "watched" because she fell asleep before the show finished.  Cyndie was also in bed by this time.  I was just wrapping up some reading and thinking of heading to bed when  Timmy started stirring (it was around 8:30 p by this time.  He'd been asleep since around 4).  So I went over there and rubbed his back and tried to get him to go back to sleep.  No dice, he was up.  So I made him a little dinner, and let him watch a little bit of Scooby Doo.  Emma stirred a bit during this time, and talked some random non-sense, but stayed asleep (thankfully).  Timmy ended up going to bed fine after the show.  Cyndie woke up during this time and was a bit refreshed, so we made some tea, and drank it in bed, looking at the Eiffel Tower as it lit up.  It was great!

This morning we got up fairly early, ate some breakfast, and then headed out to Notre Dame.  It was very cool.  While there we met up with our friends Nolan and Kristen Isaac (friends in Engineering with me at JBU.  Cyndie and I came with Kristen to France in 1995 to help her missionary parents with a project) and their three kids.  Their oldest, a girl, is Tim's age, so Emma, Tim, and Kailyn played really well together.  So we did Notre Dame, Saint Chappell, had lunch in the Spanish Quarter, visited the Jardin du Luxembourg, and hung out together.  It was great!  We decided by about 4p that everyone was pooped, so we split ways and headed home.

When we were talking at dinner about highlights of the day, I decided that mine was probably going up the towers of Notre Dame, something we had not done last time we came to Paris.  Cyndie really liked the stained glass at Saint Chappell.  It was a much smaller church, but had a TON of stained glass windows all packed together.  It was about 3/5ths through a restoration process, which really highlighted the difference (in clarity and brilliance) between the old and the new.  It was pretty cool.  Emma liked climbing the little spiral staircases (400 or so steps) in the towers of Notre Dame.  It was interesting to see how worn, some as much as a half inch or more, the steps were with use.  The cathedral is celebrating 850 years next year.  Timmy liked the stained glass and the gargoyles (which we learned are scary creatures who function as rain spouts) and chimeras (which are just general, non-rain spout scary creatures).

So there you have it.  Paris, Day 2, just, or mostly, as planned!

Best Laid Plans

Well, right.  Best laid plans and all.

Here I am, sitting in the flat blogging again for your reading pleasure.  Cyndie and Emma are out hunting for groceries.  There's supposed to be a "normal person" grocery store up around the corner, so they are off.  The original plan was for all of us to go.  However, Timmy hit a wall when we tried to wake him up from his nap on the second flight.  He made it back here to the flat okay, but is now zonked out on the couch.  So we're hoping to be able to wake him up for dinner and maybe the pool tonight, and then get him back to bed for a normal get up tomorrow.  You know, best laid plans and all!

The flat is nice.  Cozy.  It's very clean, not very big, but with an awesome view.  We've already seen the Eiffel Tower as a result of that view.  Since I have a little time to kill, here are a couple of pictures I just took ...

Okay, best laid plans and all.  For some reason my computer is not acknowledging the SD card from the camera.  You're out of luck on the pictures!

Back with a bang!

So here I am, sitting in the Dublin airport waiting for our flight to Paris.  The flight over didn't go great.  I think Cyndie may have slept an hour, and the kids and I didn't sleep at all.  We'll see where that takes us.  So far we're doing okay at least.  The kids both spent some of their money getting stuff here.  Emma a souvenir key chain (she's decided that she's going to get key chains from everywhere she goes and decorate her backpack ... a pretty creative idea if you as me).  Tim wanted to get some cookies like he'd had at the Irish lunch at school that they had for St. Patrick's Day.  And he found those.  So, so far so good!  Hopefully we'll all at least cat nap a bit on the second leg (I think it's only about an hour and a half), and then run on adrenalin to get to the flat and get some groceries and get to a fairly decent bed time!

More as it happens ...

School Starts!

Well, we got the kids off to school today. Everything went pretty smoothly. Up at 6:45, showers, breakfast, no TV (without too much complaining), teeth brushed, lunches made, and out the door. Timmy was pretty hesitant last night, but a little less so this morning. We got there early (7:45, school starts at 8:30) to help with a coffee time for parents, and a couple of his friends were there already, so when he saw them, he was fine. Emma was more excited. She had a little time of nervousness when she got to her room and there wasn't a good place to sit near some of her friends, but she sat next to a new girl (who was sitting alone) and I think that made her feel good. She likes to be the leader/introducer, so being able to do so with the new girl was good. I saw her a couple of times (previous to the sitting incident) leading new kids around and helping them find their classes ... right down her "mommy complex" alley!

Cyndie and I enjoyed the coffee time in the gym with lots of friends (who are parents). Good times. We were all ready to be back in the regularity of school. It was just another great example of why we love the small school. We were just all hanging out there, drinking coffee and having a good time. Not that that doesn't happen in bigger schools, but it's just a great community at Woods.

Now, back to work. Soccer starts tonight at 4:30!

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!!!

Almost School ...

School is almost here ... we start a week from today. It can't come soon enough. We had a back to school hot dog bash last night up at the school. The kids had a great time seeing friends and running around and playing. Now this morning I've been listening to them fight all morning about stupid things. I think they need some space from each other and routine that school brings!

We have a few fun things this week ... we're going to the fair tomorrow for most of the day, and then we're going to a Brewers game on Thursday. Then my cousin, Dawn, and her family will be in town over the weekend, so that will be nice ... and then school!

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 ... the twilight

Yes, we're in our last few weeks of summer. It has just flown by. My (teacher) sister went back for an in service day on Monday and her kids start tomorrow. Frankly, I can't comprehend that! We still have lots of fun things that we're planning on doing before school starts:

• Go to a Brewer's game
• Go canoeing with some friends on the Wisconsin river
• Go to Magic Waters (Cyndie and the kids are currently there) - a water park down in Rockford
  
• Go to Six Flags (Emma went earlier in with Uncle Gow and a friend from church ... this time Tim and Cyndie are going too)

Hey, I just realized that I don't get to go to the last two events! Poor me. I guess someone has to bring home the bacon!

Last night was my last softball game of the summer. We went out in style with a come from behind victory! It was fun because it was only our second win of the year. We won the first game, lost like 10 or 12 in a row, and then won the last game! I particularly enjoyed it because I had a really good hitting night ... 2 home runs, a double and a single in 4 at bats (if you guys don't mind me tooting my own horn a bit). It was definitely the stuff to make me excited to play again next year (while being happy to have a break for a while).

Cyndie continues to be pretty busy with her photography stuff. It seems like she's had 2 or 3 shoots a week for the last several. While that is only 3 or 4 hours of actual shooting time, it also means 8 or 9 hours of managing the photos and touching them up. That's pretty exciting. Hopefully things will continue to roll along (and pick up steam) during the school year when she'll have more time during the day (with the kids off at school) to do the work!

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.