Winter pix

Pre-blizzard ... we went skiing with the kids' school!

Ems up to her waist in the snow.

The car was buried!

It's cold

Yes, very cold. Zero when we went downstairs at 6:15 this morning. After the foot and a half of snow and blizzard conditions canceled school yesterday, the cold temps and wind chills in the -15 to -25 degree range canceled school today. Last night Timmy prayed that he could have school today, but he doesn't appear to be suffering much!

The big thrust this week is trying to finish off (or at least get it to a usable state) Timmy's room before the big Super Bowl party. I think it'll be really close. It'll probably mean some crazy nights, but we'll make it. The remaining tasks are painting the climbing wall, attaching all the holds, filling the fish tank, and (the big one), cleaning everything up.

I'm guessing we'll have around 30 - 40 people for the Super Bowl, so that should be fun. I'm going to rig up some lights for the sledding hill and ice skating rink so that (assuming it's not too cold), the kids can go out there some. We're having a Chili Cookoff too. Oh, and there's a football game.

On the kid front, both kids are really into playing Lego (Batman, Star Wars) on the play station. We're trying to limit that, but with snow days and bad weather it becomes difficult at times. They are also really reading a lot. It's helped by the Six Flags promotion at school. Timmy is really getting better very quickly and totally thinks it's a kick to read books all by himself.

So, there you have it ... lots going on!

The start ... officially

The kids finished off their 2010 school year yesterday with some Christmas parties. That means today is officially their first day of vacation. I'm working, but with all the people gone already from work, it's pretty lonely! So I'm trying to help out a bit with the packing that's going on. Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the day after Christmas (duh), we're trying to get much of our packing for the Iowa trip (for which we'll leave late morning on Sunday) done today.

Last night Laura and Gow (and the girls) and our friends Nils and Erica (and their two boys Timmy's age) were over for dinner. Nils and Erica are missionaries in Mexico, so we don't get to see them too often. Anyway, that was a lot of fun. We spent a decent amount of time outside sledding and ice skating. Big thanks to Papa Lee for clearing out so much brush on our new sledding hill. It makes for some awesome sledding. Timmy is fearless ... he's the only kid that's into going down the big chute (12 extra linear feet of hill, and 6 extra feet in height). I went down the chute a couple of times and I could easily have gone another 200 - 300 feet on level ground if there weren't bushes and a road in the way ... oh well! It's fun!! We ended up putting some "reverse" ramps up against some of the bushes at the end of the run to keep Timmy from crashing into the bushes to hard.

So that's about it. It's almost Christmas. Merry Christmas all!

Friday ... finally!

Actually, I can't really say "finally" Friday, because this week has, in reality, seemed to go by rather quickly. This morning we had fun at breakfast trying to convince Timmy that it really was Friday.

Tim: What day is this?
Me: Friday ... you have Spanish (before school) today.
Tim: No, it's Wednesday.
Me: I'm pretty sure it's Friday. Tomorrow's the weekend and the Christmas Party (for our Coffee Shop small group at church).
Tim: No, because yesterday was Tuesday.
Me: Okay, it can be Wednesday, but Mommy is still going to drop you off at school for Spanish this morning.

So, there you have it. Maybe we should refer to today as Frinesday. Although there's not much of a ring to that.

Wednesday night (the actual Wednesday, not Frinesday) was family night, so we pulled out White Christmas and watched it for the first time this year. I anticipate we'll get at least one more viewing in over the winter ... perhaps at the DeVries Family Christmas Retreat*.

*I don't believe there is an official name for this joyous event, but this year, rather than trying to cram 17 of us into one of our houses, we're going to go to the camp we all lived at in the 80s in Iowa, and have 4 or so days of family fun. Hopefully we'll be able to toboggan, play volleyball and do the rock climbing wall. We'll definitely play a large game of (adults included) hide and seek. Anyway, it should be a good time.

Last night at the last minute, we decided to go watch a basketball game at Woods. We got there in time for the B team game (I think B team is the 7th graders and A team is the 8th graders). Woods won 32 - 14 (or there abouts). It was rather hilarious. The first stringers were, on average, around 5 - 8 inches taller than their counterparts on the other team (Traver, another K - 8 school on the south side of the lake). They were also a lot better that Traver. If the first stringers would have played the whole game, it would have been more like 50 - 6. Anyway, it was hilarious to watch them. Being in the tiny gym at Woods and watching junior highers made me reminisce about playing basketball in junior high at Pomeroy when we lived in Iowa ... though I think we were quite a bit better than the Woods team (although my memory may just be a bit foggy). Good times.

Let's see, what's going on with the kids these days? Emma is really enjoying reading a lot. We are letting her read for a little bit after we tuck her into bed, so I left her reading last night, and when Cyndie went to get her up this morning, she was reading too. Note, that she did not read through the night. When we checked on her when we went to bed, she was asleep! Timmy is also enjoying reading. Right now we read with him and help him sound out stuff as he needs it. He decided to make a Christmas list the other day (for Santa) and one of the things he put on it were books that he can read all by himself. That's pretty fun!

So there you have it! It's nearly the weekend and we're supposed to get 3 - 5 inches of snow today and overnight. It's certainly cold enough, so we'll see where we get!

Winter Wonderland

It's not quite all the way to "Winter Wonderland" status, but there are some really fun flakes falling as I type this. They are big ones that are just kind of taking it easy as they slowly float to the ground, with small, intermittent swirls thrown in for effect. The driveway is covered, and I really can't see too much of the grass either. Is it really winter? A quick check of the 10 day forecast on weather.com shows that it could be ... there don't appear to be many days that exceed 34 or 35 degrees in temperature. I guess winter is here to stay, and on the first of December too!

There's not a whole lot to report today. We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend ... spending time with family and friends. We're at a nice, leisurely spot with the kids in that they are not really committed to much right now, so we're not running around like crazy trying to get them somewhere. They have really enjoyed getting the Christmas stuff up and are enjoying the Christmas season in general. A couple of weeks ago they pooled their money and made lists of what they wanted to get Cyndie and I for Christmas. The kids and I went shopping for Cyndie the other day and they did a great job of staying in their budget, but also getting some stuff that I think Cyndie will really enjoy.

On the house front, we are looking at a problem with our mound system. It appears to be failing, so we may have a rather large bill with that. Our neighbor, who knows about these things, was over last night to take a look. We're going to have a pro take a look in the next day or two. I guess we'll know more then.

Have a great Wednesday all!

Vacation Pictures

Alrighty then, here are some random pictures from the trip with a little commentary:

Papa Lee picked us up at the airport in his motorhome. This picture really doesn't do it justice, it's a 40 footer and very cool with two pullouts. It comfortably housed us, Papa, and Grandma Kim during our Glamis trip.
Here's Cyndie, the kids, and Papa at the Lake Arrowhead Village, looking out over Lake Arrowhead.

Emma and Timmy loved hanging out with their older cousin Brandon. They spent quite a bit of time sledding in the vacant lot next to Brandon's house.

Here's a picture at the bottom of the hill at Snow Valley ... Papa Lee, Brandon, Gene, and Tim.
Timmy going down the bunny hill. It was nice and long and, I think, he learned a lot!
Here's Emma and I at the top of "her" run (lift 13). We spent quite a bit of time on this one, and really enjoyed it.
Cyndie, me, and Emma headed out for a ride. Emma did great!

Timmy and Papa Lee on his newer dune buggy.

Here's me and Gene hanging out after Gene hurt his ankle. He still managed to go on a couple rides after this. He found out it was fractured when we got back to civilization.

Emma and some of her buddies from Fountain Valley (backrow - Neve, Emma, Meaghan, Maddison; frontrow - Caitlyn, Samantha). She renewed many friendships while we were there!

Cyndie and some of her lady friends ... Julia, Laurie, Sheryl, Cyndie, Elise.

Me and the boys (and Maddison) ... Jim, Greg, Maddi, me, Paul, Youndy. It was really good to be able to spend time with everyone, though, as is the norm, it was not enough!

The kids enjoying the beach (followed up by a trip to Ruby's on the pier).

What a fun trip!

And the car said ...

No, that's not the ending of a joke, the punchline to end all punchlines. Here's what my car told me this morning on the way in to the office:

Yes, as in minus one degree. Fahrenheit. It is a cold one!

Winter Report, part 1

Let's just classify this blog entry as winter report, part 1, because winter is definitely here. A week or two ago, I was outside working in the yard in shorts and a t-shirt*, but today, everything is covered in 12 or so inches of snow! Here's one quick winter equation for your viewing pleasure:

12" of wet snow + snow blower = much shoveling by hand

*Yes, I do wear shorts in abnormally cold weather, but it was in the 50s as recently as a couple of weeks ago.

It snowed a lot last night. But since the temps were only in the 20s or so, the snow is really damp and heavy. It's very pretty though! The kids' school was canceled today. But a friend of ours from the neighborhood is having a sledding party for a bunch of the neighborhood kids at noon, so the kids are looking forward to that. We were all out in the snow this morning ... me to blow the driveway and shovel, the kids to play, and Cyndie to rake* off the boat.

*Yes, I said rake. She discovered that a big leaf rake works the best to grab the snow way up on top of the boat.

After I finished, we worked on the fort that the kids started. They started yesterday and progressed a lot this morning!

Another discovery ... there are still burrs out there. The kids and Pepper were out for about an hour and a half after school yesterday (the snow was already deep enough to play and sled in), and Pepper came in with a TON of burrs. I think there were a bunch out on the hill where the kids were sledding. Anyway, Cyndie and I worked on removing them for about an hour and a half yesterday. We still didn't get them all out! This morning when we were all out, Pep was not too excited about the deep snow, so he stuck inside for the most part.

The long weekend has started!

It's Wednesday. I'm sitting here in bed browsing around on the web for a few minutes before bedtime. Cyndie and I just returned in from the fully functioning jacuzzi! It was nice out there ... nice and wet! The first snow of the year is descending upon us. Emma and I went out for a date tonight around 6 (went to Caribou Coffee ... Emma got a hot chocolate with whip cream and Andes Candies sprinkled on top and we played card games and did a puzzle ... it was a really fun date) and it was raining. On the way back home around 7 it was starting to turn to snow. By the time the kids were going to bed around 7:30 it was BIG, white flakes. I don't think it will last through the day tomorrow, it's really wet snow, but it's nice. Poor Pepper didn't know what to think about it. He just went out on the deck and kind of stood there until I went out with him and brought him out to the yard.

Tomorrow we're off to my sister Amy's for the big meal. We'll stay overnight and then come back Friday morning to work on Christmas decorations and such!

Pictures! and Snow (of Snow?)

Here's a few pix of the recent snow related activities ... mostly Timmy based because Emma was a school when Cyndie was out with the camera.


How cheery, right? This is in our neighbor's yard.



Here you get a little feel for Emma's new short hair. I'll try to get a better picture at a later date.

The week moves on

So the week is nearing an end, and the Wildwood DeVries are dutifully trudging along. I think we're all pretty excited for Christmas to come with the perks that surround it definitely in mind ... vacation from school and work, family time, extended family in town. The larger than usual (or so it sounds) amount of snow, and its fluffy goodness, is also contributing to our general holiday mood. That plus our kids, especially Emma, are in the sweet spot for Christmas excitement. All of which means, we're ready for the season to officially begin, that beginning being marked by Emma's last day of school and my last day of work on the 19th. Let the countdown commence ...

Days until Christmas Break:

Today is a pretty normal day of work and school. Timmy may have a play date after school. Tonight we'll probably head over to the library for a showing of Madagascar, then Cyndie has her normal "Second Thursday" women's outing.

Two items of "interest"* in sporting news today:

1) Timmy is doing very well in his swimming class. In fact, he's getting to the point where he'll jump off the starting blocks thing** in to the deep end. Go Timmy. This is quite a change from last summer when he was hesitant to even get his face wet.

*I use that term loosely. Because while I am interested in these things, you, my faithful reader, may not be.

**You know, this thing ...
2) I had a fun, I think, night of bowling last night. The first game (we play three each league night) was one of my worst ever ... harkening back to the first night of league when I hadn't bowled for a LONG time. I think I rolled a 112 or something. Then the second game was my best ever. I'll remember the score for a long time (especially because I don't think I'll duplicate it any time soon) ... 199. It's especially memorable because on the last ball I had three pins left which I needed to get all of them in order to get the magically 200. Well, I missed one. Oh well. The last game I think I rolled a 159 which is probably the second best game I've ever rolled (and shows how much better than normal I did in the second game). It could have been even better if I would have score more than 38 pins in the first four frames.*

*Look at me using all these bowling terms. I am totally a Wisconin man now what with my bowling league-yness and all.

This night also marked an improvement for the Ham Fighters* in that we picked up 5 of a possible 7 points, this against one of the best teams in the league. Perhaps this will move us out of the league cellar!

*Did you forget the name of our team? Go Ham Fighters Go!