Finishing our day and the sunset

Sunset looking back over Sanibel and Captiva.

Ah...Starbucks on an island in the gulf after a busy day...perfect. When I found this, I thought what a perfect spot for a Starbucks, and I had passed up Starbucks all day. (at one point Wendy suggested we keep a tally of Starbucks we pass). Wouldn't a tall cup of ice tea be just grand. (Venti, iced, black, tea, no sweetner or sugar, if you must know my favorite.)

It was closed :( being on a very small desert island in the gulf, it probably doesn't get much business after 7:00PM.

FL, again.

Bob and Daniel flew out this morning, very early. They drove the Mustang back to the rental place. (Justin first ask, "Where is my dad? His next question was, "Where is the Mustang?) Wendy, Justin and I are going to stay a few more days.

If you have given up me blogging or posting pictures, I haven't had much chance. Even though there were 3 laptops in the condo much of the time, they were always being used. During most vacations I usually put a ban on electronic devices, but it just seemed to be a blogging vacation. So if you'd like to catch up on our escapades through the last couple weeks check out:
http://wenelise.blogspot.com/
http://insight2daniel.blogspot.com/

FL pictures

All eight of us on the beach at sunset.

Family picture on the beach, Naples, FL...
more to come January, 2009.

Waiting for Bob and Daniel

Bob and Daniel had an "all day flight". They headed off Friday morning to Rockford for the flight to FL. With the airport being so small, when Daniel had too much liquid on him, Daniel just ran the bottle out to his parked car. Their flight was delayed several hours, which we knew, but we still ended up waiting quite awhile. They landed on the east side of FL in Ft. Lauderdale, which means we took a trip across Alligator Alley, which is about 90 miles of nothingness (nothing). About 50 mi into the trip there is one exit with gas at deal for $3.79

We can just use the Expedition.

When we discovered that our tire was flat in the garage in SC; we were saying, that we'd need to wait to leave for FL. Justin picked up on that and he said, "we can just take the Expedition."... That would be PaPa's expedition, his special vehicle. We all laughed that Justin could think so quickly of alternative plans. We decided to get van's tire fixed and wait to leave (the van was already packed :).
Pic above is of Justin in MaMa's Escape waiting at Costco, while the tire was being repaired. It is not many boys who can distinguish between an "older" Explorer, an Explorer, an Expedition and an Escape. Plus is can point out Uncle Harold's Explorer, which is different than Bob's Explorer. So we traveled south in our Chevy Express van.

Happy Anniversery Bob and Nora!

The Speziale girls had a suprise 30th wedding anniversery for Nora and Bob.
Our family has been blessed by the Speziale's (abundantly). They are a wonderful family and great friends.
The girls did a great job, good memories, fun games and of course sweet little Kara.

In the pool

Justin and Wendy in the pool. It was 86 degrees when we pulled into the condo at 1:30 AM, so I'm sure it was/is quite warm. Justin loves the pool and jumped right in, he's learning to swim by himself, though he has not been in a pool/lake as much as our older ones. (Though he's been to the ocean many times during his four years of life). Our bigger three were in the pool often when they were young. Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Jack's pool was only a few blocks away when they were small, so we were there several times during the week, most weeks through the summer. Plus we got to visit with Grandma and/or Grandpa, which was really good. Spending time at Lake Geneva, swimming in the ocean and visiting Grandpa and Grandma's pool helped to ensure good swimmers.

We've made it to FL

We left SC Wed. afternoon, after making sure my dad was OK. We all thought it was OK for us to leave SC and continue on with our planned trip of heading to FL. On top of that, we had a flat tire that needed to be taken care of, once it was fixed we were on our way. We were welcomed to FL with "beware of poisonous snakes" signs.
Wendy and Justin running off some energy.
It was about a 12 hr.+ trip, arriving in Naples around 1:30 AM.

More sliding.

Go to Wendy's blog for pictures of Sunday's slide. They tweaked the ramp, added more tarps and therefore less mud. http://wenelise.blogspot.com/

Brother of the year award.

Daniel took Wendy and two of her friends, Tessa and Joanna to a spa for Wendy's birthday. He took them to a very nice spa, rather than just the beauty parlor with a pedicure. They had very thorough and relaxing treatments to their hands, arms, legs and feet. Plus they had french manicures. Daniel stayed with them and they all had a lot of fun. The girls were very well treated. The ladies at the place kept trying to get Daniel to have a manicure. I'm sure they would have had to charge him extra having plumber hands and all. All in all, I was really pleased with Daniel's birthday present for Wendy. We love you Daniel.

Slip - Sliding

Family slide (click for video)

Click the title above for the Youtube link.

Worm run. (click for video)

For Youtube, click the title above.

We're having fun (click for video)

"We're having fun", is what Justin says at the beginning of the video above. Just click on the title "We're having fun" and you will be taken to Youtube to watch the short video clip.

You are probably wondering if we are mud wrestling in the backyard. No, but we've been slip and sliding and making quite a muddy mess, but having loads of fun. Today we were supposed to put away the sled ramp, but instead we made it into a slip and slide. Daniel has some postings on his Xanga page http://www.xanga.com/insightsofdaniel, things load a lot faster and easier over there. Bob and I were somewhat leary of what the landing might feel like, but it really wasn't very rough at all. We started the day slowly, doned our slippery clothing and our garabage bags and began. It soon became quite a splish splash muddy mess. It was about 62 degrees out, but the water from the water hose was cold! We played for a long time, Justin went through 3 sets of outfits and had one warm up shower before we went in. Cleaning up was a chore, so if you are sitting behind us tomorrow during church and you notice dirt splashes behind our ears, try to ignore them. :)

Abbey wants us to posts lots of pictures and clips, so you'll have to bear with us.

More mud

Tessa posted this picture of Tess, Wen and Josh C., on her Xanga site, it was probably from almost 10 years ago. Great fun.

Wild bull ride. (click for video)

Daniel and Luke B. are considering going to a Bull riding competition. So after watching a couple videos, Daniel and Justin thought they'd try it. It's funny the bull riding competitors all throw their hat down after falling/jumping off the bull, so Justin picked up on that right away. Click on the title it will take you to Youtube.

Daniel and garlic (click for video)

Click on the title and it will take you to Youtube to watch a video of Daniel. We're finally getting over all of the sicknesses and now seems we've been hit with allergies. So we suggested that Daniel try some garlic drops, we knew it would be good so we had the camera ready.

Springtime

Who is this girl?

Wendy was trying to look like me, (wow). I never thought she looked so much like me. :)
PaPa don't get worried, she did get a hair cut, but not this short. I'm not sure exactly what all she did here to make it look so short and like mine. It is really amazing, we have pictures of me (Dee) that look very similar to this.

Playing with antique toys.

The trouble with a 15 year gap between #3 and #4 is, that #4 is forced to play with antique toys. Notice the dial phone with a cord; this Little Tykes kitchen was purchased when Daniel was about 1.5 so it came with a dial phone. Doesn't seem to bother Justin a bit.