It might be the shortest month of the year, but we managed to fill it right up! We started off with a visit to Gary’s sister Judy (in hurricane ravaged Punta Gorda) and some driveway camping Ft. Myers at our friends Jim & Sue Taylor’s home. From there we hit Disney for our long planned Family Adventure. It was great getting better acquainted with Ellie (age 2) and Hayley (10wks) and it was wonderful all being together. I think we’ve all recovered from the exhaustion of so much fun! After a couple of stops along the way, we ended up at the SOWER’s Reunion at The Life for Youth Camp in Vero Beach. We’ve been hanging around here (after the reunion) and have just been enjoying the Florida sunshine and some of the local sights.
We made it to the beach – and got a first hand look at another hard hit hurricane coast. Here is Gary walking on the beach –

And this is the view looking the other way…..

The Blue Tarp roofs are everywhere! Hurricane season is certainly more than just a memory here.
Along with the beach we took in a local quilt show for me and the Navy SEAL Museum for Gary. And we got to spend time with our friends Dave and Edie. We have one more day in our little “campground” in the back of this Camp and then we head off to new adventures.
Here’s a shot of our camping spot – we enjoyed the company of those two sand cranes (on the right side) for almost a whole day!

See ya in March!

We’re here in Beautiful Vero Beach, Florida, where we’ve enjoyed several days of perfect Florida weather, great fellowship with many new Sower friends, and a time of spiritual and physical refreshment. We’re at the Florida Sowers Reunion being held at The Youth for Life Camp - a beautiful camp/retreat center. Since we’re so new to the Sower Ministry we’ve especially appreciated hanging out with friends from our January Project, Dave and Edie Williams. They’ve been showing us the ropes and introducing us to folks. Everyone one has been wonderfully friendly! It been a great chance to see how this ministry has impacted people for so many years. We are definitely one of the younger couples here – and it really is inspiring to see so many mature Christians really living out their faith in this ministry.
The reunion ended today, and most of the gang has headed off to their next destination. We’re hanging around at the camp until it’s time to go to our next project at the Teen Challenge Ranch in the Florida panhandle. We have some chores to do, but hopefully we’ll get to the beach while we’re here. Can’t beat this fine Florida weather!
Here are our friends Dave and Edie -

Did you know that cameras naturally gravitate to small children? Mine was no exception!

Ellie enjoying some time with her Uncle Woody (Josiah)

Hayley was full of smiles and contentment!

A kiss for a special friend

And posing with Mom with friends from Nemo!

What do you get when you take 6 adults and 2 small children, put them together in an RV and a tent on one campsite, add a five day Disney pass and almost perfect weather?
Eight very tired people who thoroughly enjoyed themselves (to the point of exhaustion it seemed at times) and each other immensely!
We truly had a special time as a family at Fort Wilderness and Disney World last week. It’s hard to believe that something we’ve talked about and been planning for over three years is now just a wonderful memory to be cherished.
Yes, we were a little cramped and
Yes, there was “stuff” everywhere and
Yes, our precious 2 yr old Ellie suffered a couple of meltdowns from excitement overload combined with late nights and missing naps and
Yes, we ALL went home with colds and the need for repeated naps,
BUT –
Hayley was content in her stroller for hours on end,
Ellie got to hug Snow White, Mickey Mouse, any number of Lion King friends, Winnie the Pooh, Stitch (or was it Lilo?) and even Nemo.
Toby, Tammy, Lara and Josiah got to ride the roller coasters and see the shows they wanted to. Gary and I even took in a few ‘coasters and shared some old people moments while we enjoyed the company of the grandbabies while the big kids took their turns!
We got to share meals together (even getting together with my niece Bethany who lives in NY City, but who happened to be in FL on a mini-vacation) and even agreed (mostly) on what kind of food we should be eating! (BTW, everything was delicious and while not a bargain, was not totally out of sight price-wise!)
We played miniature golf, sat around the campfire and sang silly songs with Chip and Dale, spent recovery time just hangin’ round the campground and never left the Disney Complex (except to do airport runs) the entire time.
It was a VERY WONDERFUL WEEK and one that I believe we will all cherish for years to come.
Lara’s back in California, Toby, Tammy and the girls are back in Columbus (trying to reestablish their routine, I’m sure) and Josiah is back in Doylestown. The RV is quiet again, and I’m missing them already!
Here we are at the Disney miniature golf course – with a trailer of course!

(There are a couple of new pictures of the girls on the family picture page – I must confess that most of the pictures centered around Ellie (and I’m sure you’ll be able to tell why!) )

Tomorrow (the 4th) we head into Disney World for a 10 day vacation with all our kids and grandbabies! We’ll all be staying in the RV (well, Gary & I will actually be in a tent) right in Fort Wilderness, so there will be wonderful chaos abounding! If you don’t hear much from us for the next week or so, just chalk it up to Gary making sure that we see and do EVERYTHING, which makes for many exhausted puppies in the evenings! If you have any “must do” ideas, please feel free to send them along. Just remember, we’ll be traveling with a 2 year old and a 10 week old! That might even slow Gary down a bit!
We can’t wait!

OH – BTW – Go EAGLES!!!!

Today is February 3, 2005 – our granddaughter Ellie’s 2nd Birthday. Wow, did that ever go fast. This week was also our six month anniversary of being “retired” or whatever it is that we are. I think of us as just unemployed, but whatever you want to call it, it has been a grand six months. To those of you who faithfully stop by to see where we’ve been and where we’re headed – Thanks! Please feel free to add a comment so we know you’ve visited. And if you’re a first time visitor – welcome to our adventure! We hope you stop by often.
We just spent almost a week in the driveway of friends in Ft. Myers. We were very bad tourists, for although we located a couple of nature preserves and historic houses, somehow we never quite got to any! One of the reasons we just hung around home so much was the lovely setting that we were enjoying – here’s the view in the early morning light…..See what I mean?

We certainly enjoyed our visit with Jim and Sue and their daughter Missy and her husband Rich. We were also blessed to be present for the big news that not only is Missy newly pregnant, but she is expecting TWINS! Sue was exhausted just thinking about it! It’s a good thing she only has to be the Gramma and not the Mom! It exhausts me and I’m just the friend of the Gramma and Grampa! Here we are together on our last evening – it was great to be together with such dear friends.

We also were able to get together with Bill and Irene Creighton, friends from Jamison. Irene used to do some office work for us, and she and Bill now live in Ft. Myers 6 months of the year. As is often the case, we don’t see too much of them when they’re in Jamison, so it’s only fitting that we tracked them down in Ft. Myers. Again, another special day!

We continued our Florida Travels with a visit with Judy, Gary’s sister. She lives in Punta Gorda, an area that was badly damaged during the Hurricane Charlie – and then continued to be battered as the remaining three hurricanes visited the state. Judy lost the roof of her house – and all of her belongings. It’s been a tough road for her, but the house is almost rebuilt and she hopes to be in by mid February. The entire area showed many signs of the massive devastation from Charlie, so it was good to connect with Judy and see that all was well with her (well, on the way to being “well” at least!).
From there we headed to Ft. Myers where we are staying with friends Jim and Sue Taylor. Lizzie fits in their driveway, so we are enjoying spending time with good friends without being right under their feet all the time! It’s been a quiet laid-back time so far – maybe tomorrow we’ll head out to see some of the local sights.
I’ll write more later – just wanted to let you’all know where we were!

Imagine our surprise when we went out early our first morning (after a very cold night and a full moon) to this view –

Talk about a LOW TIDE!!!! We enjoyed watching the amazing water fowl – cranes and egrets and ibis and pelicans and herons. In the distance we even spotted a Roseate Spoonbill with its beautiful pink wings! Brilliant green parrots were flying overhead! It has felt like we’ve been in our own wildlife refuge – right down to the raccoon tracks around the grill in the morning! I would highly recommend this campground – and the area in general.
While we were out and about we managed to take in a little history at The DeSoto National Memorial in Bradenton, FL (across the beautiful Skyway Bridge from here) where Ferdinand DeSoto landed in 1539 to begin his 4000 mile trek into Florida and points north in his quest for gold. Did you know he went as far north as North Carolina and even made it West past the Mississippi?
We joined friends for lunch in Bradenton, entertained Mike and Robyn Fitzpatrick here at the campground, walked on the beautiful St. Petersburg Beaches, and Gary went fishing for the first time in a long, long time. Today we continued exploring this DeSoto County park – walking and riding our bikes through many, many lovely trails and beaches. This really is a lovely area – we were blessed with great weather (especially compared to the blizzard in Pennsylvania!).
Check out the rest of the pictures over on the pictures page, Okay?
Tomorrow we head to Punta Gorda for a visit with Gary’s sister, Judy!
later, friends!

I took so many pictures the last couple of days, I’m trying REALLY HARD to pick the ones that I think represent this area the best. We truly loved all the big birds, but I won’t post all the bird pictures I took – honest!
Here are some from our “back yard” -
I loved the reflection in this one….

Here is another “Low Tide”. Even the ranger said this was an extreme low tide. I guess!

The parrots could often be seen in these trees (though not with the camera!)

One of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed…. (yes, with a bird!)

This is a shot from The DeSoto National Memorial in Bradenton – this picture really has nothing to do with the historic nature of the park – but hey, the actual monument was a boring marble slab and you never know, maybe this IS the spot where he landed?

This was just one of the (way too) many shots I took today while we were roaming around the park.

Yeah, we had a Very Good Time!

We have just completed our third Sower Project, and what a special time it was! When 14 couples (most of whom have never met before) live together for three weeks it can go many different ways. It could be a time of working together on the tasks at hand and then going more or less our own way. It could be a time of personalities vying for attention and control, with little sense of community at all. Or it could be a time of sweet fellowship, whether you’re working in the thrift shop, doing dishes in the kitchen, clearing debris from the hurricanes, painting 20,000 gallon water tanks for fire prevention, or trying to remember just what exactly a Greatest Common Multiplier is (and why anyone would care!). We truly had a special, special time with our co-labors at Green Isle. It was a very diversified group – four couples had done 2 or less projects, some 15 or twenty, and some had been doing projects for many, many years. The diversities became blessings as we all recognized again and again the precious bond we have in our precious Lord and Savoir. I was pushing for us all to remain and form a commune, but reality set in and slowly the RV’s began heading on to their next adventure. Some are going right to another project, others are heading for medical treatment, some are off to see family and friends. It is sad to think that we may never get to work and live with these dear friends again, but the sadness is tempered by the joy that we have in knowing them. God is Good – All the Time!

Here we all are – What a Crew!

We’re heading south. We’ll spend a couple of days at a beautiful county park outside of St. Petersburg (Fort DeSoto Park), and then head to Punta Gorda and Ft. Myers to see Gary’s sister and other dear friends. We really regret missing the blizzard in PA this weekend. NOT.

=)