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.

On the road again...

Pic. of Abbey and Josh traveling west to WA state.

Well...starting on the road. Last week-end Josh and Abbey went to a Father - Daughter weekend conference in GA, where Josh worked the audio/recording/etc. at the conference. (hopefully I'm describing that somewhat correctly.) From there, they drove straight back to IL/WI and hopped in the Erber Family van and have headed to the Seattle WA area. This time they are with a homeschool conference where Josh and others will do a reenactment of the meeting leading up to and including Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech. He is portraying Patrick Henry in the picture below. Plus Abbey and Josh will be part of a Courtship panel which will be one of the sessions at the conference. Several other members of Josh's family are speaking at different sessions for the conference. Once Josh and Abbey return back to the IL/WI area they will travel about twice a month to various conferences across the country. Thus begins their traveling season.




Even though they are just starting the traveling season, seems they have been very busy and we don't get to see them too often, but last week Abbey came and spent the afternoon cooking and even gardening at our house.
(Please don't worry, we have been eating since she moved out, though Wendy or I can not recreate lemon bars for anything.)
We do miss some of her special treats:
Like the pecan sandies below.



Or the home made pasta and Italian dishes, like Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, she also made a vodka sauce and pasta dish, lots of yummy items. From our non-Italian daughter to her non-Italian family, we think it's pretty scrumptious. To her Italian husband, I think he thought it pretty tasty also. She does a wonderful job of things and we sure do miss her.

Happy birthday to very special friends...

Anna, a very special girl's birthday today.

And Barb.

We miss Barb so much. Today is her birthday and I wanted to say hi and wish her well. This is a picture from the wedding, some great neighbors and wonderful friends that we miss terribly.

New Bike

Justin and his new bike.

It is hard to imagine, but Abbey was riding a two wheeler since she was 3 1/2 years old. In this picture the bike is the same size bike Justin has, but she was a lot taller than he is, because i can see where the seat is. She woke up from her nap and said, "I think I'll learn to ride my bike", and that is exactly what she did. (She was already very close.) It was a very warm February day and we lived on a big hill, so we had to go down to some flat area.

Olivia update....

We're still waiting and waiting and getting quite frustrated by the wait. Referrals just went out, so it is good to see that things do keep moving. The date we're waiting for is 2-6-2006. China just gave out referrals for LID up to and including 1-9-2006. So it doesn't look too long, but in reality it is. Our agency is saying that China referrals are running about 23 to 27 months from LID date. So for us that would be January, 2008 (which is already past) till about May, 2008. We are not holding our breath on May, because each month things continue to slow down. If you look at the way things have been going, China moves about 5-7 days with the LID dates every 30 calendar days or so. Which would take us to referral in July and travel, just about Olympic time. Considering the Olympics are in Beijing, I don't think travel would happen at that time. So that would put us in the fall. We've made guesses prior to this and have been terribly incorrect. We just hope we do not need to spend another Thanksgiving or Christmas without her, but you never know. Considering we thought it would take about a year when we started (started 9/05)and now we're looking at abound 3 years, it is quite discouraging. There are no official charts or dates or info. A few things have changed, but I don't think they affect us. Also, all the different fees are increasing while we wait, but again there isn't anything we can do. Our case worker is coming next week to update some files, etc. So that's the update, hopefully it makes some sense.

Messing around with the camera

Justin helping his dad work.