Yes, well, no good excuse!

That's right, I certainly have no good excuse for not blogging lately. I got out of the habit during the tail end of vacation, and then never got back to it here. My apologies to my loyal (do I have any of those) readers!

The end of vacation was more great times. The weather was beautiful, we had a number of outings to the beach, the park, restaurants, trick or treating*, the hospital.

*Okay, trick or treating in downtown Punta Gorda was CRAZY. There had to have been more than 1000 people (possibly much more) in about a one by four block area. The sidewalks were crammed! Interesting times. I'm not sure I'd go back there!

Yes, you read that correctly, the hospital. Literally five minutes before we were going to pack up and leave, Cyndie got stung by a sting ray. It was very painful. She and Cathy ended up going to the ER to get it treated. According to Cyndie ... make sure you do the sting ray shuffle, the alternative is not fun!

We spent a bit more time with Grandma Weaver too. Please pray for her ... she had her surgery and it went okay, but she's still having lots of pain. For a few days she was really confused and the medical team discovered that her kidneys had at least partially shut down, but they have fixed that now and are detoxing her body from the corresponding ammonia build up, but she's still experiencing a lot of pain.

So now were back in the swing of things. We have hundreds of boxes of girl scout cookies on our deck right now, though they are slowly being picked up by the troop members. Emma will probably spend much of the next week delivering hers. The kids' tree house is nearing completion thanks, in large part, to Grandpa D spending a lot of time on it. Cyndie and I's art class is nearing completion for this year. Here are the latest paintings:

Cyndie's painting "Beach Umbrella"

My painting "Keith Exploded"

So there you have it. I hope you feel as if you have caught up with things with the Wildwood DeVries.

80 degrees and headed to 89!

Yes, another beautiful day in southwest Florida. The day started with a jog for Cyndie and I. We went out at around 7:30a. I was expecting it to be cool and nice, but it was already pretty warm and very humid. I'm very glad there was a nice breeze or it would have been much worse for me! I was surprised to see, as I jogged around a golf course near Fred and Cathy's house, that so many lots were vacant. I assumed that this meant that the developer had hit a rough spot of some kind when building the golf course/development, but Cathy told me that that was the result of hurricane Charlie (which was 5 or so years ago). Apparently lots of homes were damaged so much, that they could not be repaired, and insurance, in many cases, didn't cover rebuilding. Crazy. She said that much of the damage was not just from the hurricane itself, but from mold and moisture damage after the fact. There was no power for 3 or 4 weeks, and those homeowners who were not physically present could often not get to their homes to clean up water, etc. leading to the mold and water damage.

Yesterday we headed back from a wonderful couple of days on Sanibel back up to Punta Gorda. We stopped along the way at Grandma Weaver's for dinner. She lives in a retirement community and has a very nice 2 bedroom (plus study), 2 bath apartment. We had dinner at a private dining room off the main restaurant there. It was very nice, and nice to be able to hang out a bit with Grandma Weaver. She's such a pleasant lady, very fun to be with.

This morning the kids are practicing trick or treating. They have on their Halloween costumes, supplemented by some jewelery and accessories that Grandma Cathy supplied, and are going from frog to frog (Cathy has 2 or 3 decorative frog "statues" that have little trays on which she has individually wrapped candies) trick or treating. Hilarious. Grandpa Fred is working this morning, as am I ... Grandma Cathy, Cyndie, and the kids are headed out soon for some activity or another.

Another beautiful day in Florida!

86 degrees with a nice breeze!

Yep, that title is redundant, but it's REALLY nice again today.

The day started (for me) with a jog on the beach ... nice. Cyndie and the kids ran over to the beach with Grandma Cathy for some low tide shelling. They found some fun stuff, but Cyndie found some even better stuff when she went for a jog at the beach.

We've been staying at the house of some friends of Fred and Cathy these first several nights (dog sitting) out on Sanibel Island (where Fred and Cathy had lived for 6 or 8 years). This afternoon we're cleaning up some and then heading back to their house up the coast in Punta Gorda. On the way, we'll stop to visit Grandma Weaver (and have dinner at a dress up only ... no shorts) restaurant in her complex ... very fancy!

While we've been here, the kids have had an absolutely great time in the pool at the house. They've spent a lot of time in there. Obviously, they enjoy the beach greatly too, but when we've been at the house with a spare moment, they've been in the pool. Good times.

In the midst of all the comings and goings, I've been working. Since I've used up almost all of my vacation time for this year, I'm trying to work a full schedule this week. It's actually worked great so far today.

So, vacation is ongoing and great!

86 degrees with a nice breeze!

Yes, we spent much of the morning through early afternoon sitting on the beach. As the title of the blog states, it was 86 degrees with a beautiful breeze! We're currently relaxing at a really nice home where Grandpa Fred and Grandma Cathy are dog sitting (complete with awesome swimming pool and large, friendly golden retriever). We'll head back to the beach later this afternoon.

The flight out was uneventful. It was smack dab in the middle of the day, so we didn't have to get up early, and we got back to the house early enough that the kids could hit the pool (in addition to stopping to see Cyndie's Grandma Weaver).

Vacation ... good times!

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)!

Getting there ...

Yes, it's almost vacation time. We're progressing in that direction at least. The house is starting to empty out after all the clothes, toys, shoes, etc of the clothing exchange. This morning Cyndie and I helped a neighbor load a good portion of the clothes in to his truck to take to a local homeless shelter. Cyndie is returning 10 borrowed folding tables this morning. The house is getting a little less overwhelmed! Laundry is being done (so we'll have clean clothes to take with us on vacation). Arrangements for pets are being made. We're almost there! We're looking forward to some warm weather ... it was very cool this morning here!

Tuesday night Cyndie picked the Woods girls up from girl scouts and returned them home. Then She and Emma met Timmy, Sally, Daisy, and I at Culvers for dollar butter burger night ... $12 for the six of us to eat (including a family size order of french fries). Grandpa and Grandma D joined us. Yesterday was a field trip for Tim that Cyndie chaperoned ... they went to a local hospital. I had art class (Cyndie is going this morning instead due to the field trip) and finished my painting of Emma in a beanie ... it turned out fairly well. I forgot to take a picture though!.

So now we're left with cleaning up the house, packing, and generally getting ready. I can tell you that I'm already ready!

More Tree House Pix

Okay, so here are some more pictures of the tree house ... trying to give some folks who don't live here an idea of where on the property the tree house actually is.

From the top of the mound with the house behind me and the dragon's lair to my right ... the roof is on (plywood part). After I took this (on Sunday), my dad put up some of the railing, so there's been more progress made.

From inside the tree house back toward the house. You can see some smoke going from the pile of brush we burned on Sunday.

Standing on the deck of the tree house back toward the house ... you can see the new deck on the house!

In other news, Cyndie's clothing exchange went really well. She had over 40 ladies here with tons more clothes left over to donate to various charities around the community. She hasn't counted up the money yet, but I'm sure they made at least $300 - $500 dollars ... a lot considering the clothes were going for 25 cents a piece.