The start of a new year - 2017

The new year has been quiet for us - no big storms to worry about and wondering if the anchor is dragging.

We are continuing with our kid/sitting gig and are in a pretty good routine with Kai.  Keeps us busy when he gets home from school- doing homework, reading, monitoring his “screen time”.  He’s learning to hit the pickleball and enjoys going out every afternoon to practice.

Had another good visit with Richard at Torrey Oaks.  Joe was in his glory because they play pickleball every morning and then again at 4:00 for Happy Hour pickleball.  I played a few games and also joined an exercise class, water aerobics class and line dancing.  You can be busy every day in this park.

We took Kai to the beach on Martin Luther King day.  Joe tried flying his kite but the wind was onshore and it quickly it got tangled up in the dunes.

Suzie always has lots of projects going to keep Joe and all of her other worker bees busy.  The biggest one is installing an outdoor kitchen-2 burner stove, rotisserie BBQ and sink.  

Kai and Suzie took off on a Thurs. afternoon for Orlando where Suzie went to work and Kai was picked up by this father for a weekend at Disney.  He came home on the Sunday with his new Disney monorail.  He now has a complete airport and monorail set up.

Joe continues to tweek things on the van-he took it for an alignment and ended up with a $900.00 bill-needed 4 new tires too.  It never ends.   The electronics are the biggest issue and I think he’s figured out most of it.  Guess it’s a good thing that we were here for 3 months to get all the kinks out of this vehicle.  Now it will be ready for our trip West.

This past weekend, Joe & Kai worked on his science fair project.  Kai loves airplanes so he picked the project “Can the design of a paper airplane make it fly farther”. They made paper airplanes and Joe designed a launch out of a cardboard box, paper clips and rubber bands.  They tried different wing and elevator configurations to see which one flew the farthest.  Amazing how much fun Kai had with some paper and a cardboard box.

We managed to see a satellite launch from Cape Canaveral.  It was scheduled for a Thurs. evening so we all went over to Suzie’s parents house on the beach to watch.  As we followed the countdown, Joe read online that there was a problem and the launch was cancelled.  The next night we were watching TV and saw a message saying the satellite had been launched so we grabbed Kai, ran outside and saw it clearly in the sky above us.  Really neat.

We try to see a movie and go out to dinner every week-so far we’ve seen, Allied, Fences, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Arrival.

Just purchased a 12V refrigerator for the van and we will continue with updates as we improve our camper.

Happy New Year!!!!

December 31, 2016

Happy New Year everyone!!!!  Can’t believe another year has gone by and I can’t for the life of me remember what we did for a whole year.

Kai & Denise

Had a really great Christmas with Alison.  It’s the first time we’ve been together since 2010 when we celebrated Christmas with Alison and Dad. 

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Last Christmas with Dad and we still miss him.

 Alison had to work on Christmas Eve so Joe & I wrapped presents for Brittney's girls, made the Night Before Breakfast dish and the Apple strudel and then Helen went to 5:00 Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church where I sat in the pew directly in front of one of sister Pat's friends from Georgetown, Ontario-what are the chances of that with a church full of people.

In the evening we decorated Christmas cookies, took a walk around Dunedin to see all of the Christmas lights-beautiful town.

Zoe loving her present

Christmas morning we headed to New Port Richey to Alison's best friend Brittney's house.  So much fun watching her 2 little girls open their presents and then we enjoyed a delicious brunch.

Alison & Britney-best friends forever

With Kira-a beautiful Christmas

In the afternoon we joined Alison and her friends on the beach in Dunedin for their annual "Solar Plunge".  Everyone dresses up and then walks into the water at 4:30.   Not much of a shock going into the water this year since the temperatures have been in the 80's.

We had a quiet week all alone at Suzie’s house.  Suzie, Kai and Stephan are in Quebec for the Holidays, Megan is in Australia and Denise and Serge are at the RV resort in Port St. Lucie.  It was nice not having to get up at 6:30 to get Kai off to School so we just enjoyed our morning coffee and tea, read the newspaper and then decided what we would do for  the rest of the day.  We did make it to pickleball a couple of times and spent one day shopping in Vero Beach.  Also saw a good movie - “La La Land”.  Fun to see a musical for a change-very well done.

On New Year’s Eve, Helen went to Mass at 4:30 and got home just in time to run out to the dock to see the last beautiful sunset of 2016.

New Year’s day we headed to Englewood to visit with our good friends, Barbara & Mike.  Soon after our arrival, the wine was flowing and we were all enjoying a delicious salmon dinner.  We met Barbara & Mike in 2002 when we were all heading south and shared many anchorages with them as we sailed through the E. Caribbean.  Our friendship has continued over the years and we always have a good time whenever we get together.  Barbara & I went to water aerobics at the Y, then did some shopping and will spend the rest of the day relaxing.  

Mike & Barb - beautiful friends 

We plan on heading over to Richard’s park on Wed. for a couple of days and will be back in Melbourne Beach on Fri.  Kai will go back to school on Mon. and we’ll all get back into our routine.

The Sprinter is working out very well for sleeping when we’re visiting-we just pull into the driveway, hook up the electric and we’re very comfortable in our little bed.  Joe has been doing some maintenance and repairs on it and it’s running very well.  Mileage is good - approx. 20+ miles per gallon.

That’s it for now.  Please keep in touch with us, we miss all of you.

Love, Helen & Joe