Us leaving our rental for the last ten days and back to life on the road!

Tire apparently wasn’t ready to leave Orlando area!  Blew out on the freeway at dusk.  Blessing though, could have been much worse.  Nobody hurt, minor damage to rv that FaithJean and I repaired, and learned a good lesson about trailer tires and the industry.  After some thorough research, upgraded them all with help from my friends at Discount Tire.  Thank you God.

Hmm…Number 1 beach in USA.  Had to see.  Sand was the best we have ever felt, but…we like our beaches in Cali best!

Doing some volunteer work at a cat shelter.  Kids loved it!

First, Edison, then Ford.  Learned history about both of them in museum and toured their winter homes.  Fort Myers, Fla.

Hope outside the Edison estate on the bay in Fort Myers.  He apparently had money.

Angels first time on a public beach!  Dog Beach in Florida!  She is an old lady now, but enjoying the trip.  We are blessed to have her with us.

Chuck giving out hugs at his 9th birthday celebration!  He is such a kind hearted boy.

With Uncle Bill, he was in business in Miami same time we were there.  He took the time to tell us about his work and his company.

A new experience, FaithJean having Cuban food for the first time!

Everglades.  Very exciting wildlife up close and personal  Alligator had turtle in its mouth right in front of us.  After swimming with it for a few minutes, the turtle surprisingly wrangled free when the alligator was trying to crush it against the banks of the canal.

See vultures all around which was cool, then see sign warning about damage to vehicles, then see somebody’s white rv in the left background!  When we got back to our truck, the vultures were attacking their rv – so we would run up and scare them off…only to have them return and us repeat the cycle.  We kept that up for awhile, while others of us went to search the park for the owners.  We were blessed to find them and get them back to their rv with only minor damage so they could continue their own journey. Us on the road have to stick together! They were from Michigan!  More adventure!

FaithJean – with her REAL fresh shake from famous “Robert is Here” fruit and vegetable stand in southern Florida.

Daddy and son – built lego ship.  It brought us such joy to do together and complete then – where is that lego ship now???

Jumping pillow – the family loves these things!  Watch the bouncing family.  We see them from time to time at rv parks.  Hopefully no insurance company shuts these things down.

Crazy man doing a couple of “flips” in South Beach Miami.  Viewer discretion advised.

Some early video of the alligator swimming with turtle!

The last two weeks of January consisted of 3 different cities. Hi again, this is FaithJean, and I’ll also be writing about the last two weeks of January. It all began on January 16^th , we packed up out of the house rental in Orlando and headed to Camping World where our rv was getting fixed. While we were unloading our stuff, Chuck Jr. walked into the hitch.  Daddy rushed him to the hospital and he received 3 staples in his head just a few days before his birthday! Last year, Chuck Jr. got 8 stitches on his 8^th birthday only 4 inches from where he got his 3 staples on his head this time! That was very painful! So now we were on the way to Sarasota, only a bit later then planned, when one of our tires blew out on the freeway!  We ended up 20 miles away from our destination stuck on the side of the road and it turned dark! Thankfully, a driver on the road warned us about it as it happened or there would have been even more damage then what we had. In addition to the blessing of the driver’s warning, we had another blessing, which was that we only had minor damage to the undercarriage of the rv which Daddy and I later repaired much of it. We also had a blessing getting the tire replaced.  The roadside assistance couldn’t get the rv up high enough with his tools, but he and Daddy worked together and they did it – with God’s help!  The rest of us sat in the truck.  The whole experience was a chance for all of us to pray and count on our faith while trucks and cars rushed by next to us all at 80 miles an hour.  When we finally got to our park we noticed a bubble in another tire, but at least we made it safely to our park without it bursting! It was scary but God helped us through it.

In Sarasota, we stayed in a wonderful, nice, clean rv park called Sun and Fun  (and with a jumping pillow).  Oh, and by the way, my Mommy and I have been working out, fellowshipping, and encouraging one another since we were at a rv park in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s been great! Anyway, while we were in Sarasota we did various things. Actually my grandpa’s mom, on my dad’s side, used to live in Sarasota for 20 years, and that brings back some memories for my daddy who used to visit her. Sarasota is nice and clean. One of the things we did there was visiting Siesta Beach, the number 1 beach in America. This beach had “moon sand” (as I like to call it) because it is grayish, very, very soft, and it feels like modeling dough. The water at the beaches in Florida is amazingly clear and warmish. Siesta Beach was great, but since we’re from SoCal we weren’t used to the lack of waves.

We also did a couple of volunteer things in Sarasota. One of them was a unique organization called Cat Depot. At Cat Depot, they house and take care of cats that need a home in a nice and safe environment. We pet the cats and fed them. It was an awesome and quite an interesting experience. It was different for all of us because we aren’t usually around cats, but an important one considering we had to learn different techniques with the cats. The other organization we went to was a powerful one, called Resurrection House. At Resurrection House, they help homeless people by providing them with showers, laundry, clothes, and bikes for transportation. The lady gave us a tour of their remarkable place, and we donated two adult bikes to them (they will give them to people who need them to get to new jobs they get). It was truly a humbling experience for us. Back at the park they offered a yoga class, so mommy and I attended. It was a huge workout and it relaxed and stretched our bodies to the full! The lady named Wendy, who we met at church, was very nice and enthusiastic, and she taught a great class! Speaking of church, we went to church there at the rv park and we met some great people, and it was an all women led service. Something special they do once in awhile.  The women did the choir and the service and that was cool! Also, at the laundromat Mommy and Grace did some outreach by praying with a lady, a blessing.

In Sarasota, we also walked around the grounds of a museum called the Ringling Brothers museum. Which was about a circus group called the Ringling Brothers.  At the museum they had an awesome park with unique swings and a fast slide, which Chuck Jr. loved going on! Also, we had a sign made, which is made out of wood by a guy at Sun and Fun. It says, “The Webers, Jesus Journey”, and has a cross on it. Since we got it, various people have asked us about it. It is awesome to have it with us wherever we go. It has been a conversation starter and witnessing and fellowshipping opportunity.  One of the rv educational things we did there was attend the Tampa R.V. show. We learned lots there that helped us advance our knowledge about R.V. safety. After we attended that R.V. show, and did some more research we upgraded our tires! Also, as we were pulling out we said goodbye to our new friends we met at the park, The Hunts. They were really nice and Mrs. Hunt gave us necklaces that had shells and beads on them. It was so great meeting them. Next, we traveled to Ft. Myers!

At Ft. Myers we did many things there as well. For one, we saw the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford’s winter estates. Hope thought that it was cool that Edison and Ford got to live next to each other. They were peaceful estates beside the bay. They were big with various plants. We also saw Edison’s laboratory. We also learned that a lot of inventors weren’t great students. It was all very interesting. We also went to a place called Manatee Park, which is were Manatees hibernate. We learned a lot about them, and saw a lot of the gentle giants themselves. Mommy worked out hard at this rv park and I was her trainer! Also at the rv park we stayed at they had a jungle-looking nature walk. It was a nice park with nice people. Once there was a noise that we heard that we classified as gunshots, but anyway, on Sunday the 26^th we celebrated Chuck’s birthday.

We started the day with church at our rv park. All of us were in church a few minutes before Daddy.  Then Daddy accidentally walked in the wrong door through the very front of the church behind the speaker as the church was starting.  All the people in the church turned to Daddy and stared at him. Then as we were trying to call him over to us someone led him to a seat by us. Before he was seated him they said, “ It’s ok everyone is welcome, even Superman.” That day Daddy was wearing his Superman t-shirt! Mommy has noticed that one of the amazing things about traveling to different places is that we always find the strong body of Christ everywhere we go. Thank you God for that great blessing!

After church, we drove to a place called Bonita Beach, which was a leash-free beach for dogs. Another first for us!  So we took our dog, Angel.  Angel is an old dog, and she loves people, and apparently their bags too. She kept going over to people and scrounging through their bags with her nose. She also enjoyed meeting new dogs and so did we. The water was very shallow there, and had a mix of warm and cold water. Grace enjoyed throwing tennis balls to the dogs. We also got Angel to go a couple feet from the shore because she doesn’t usually like to go in water. As we were pulling out of the beach, Grace spotted sharks in the bay across from us. So of course we got out of the car and went to go look at them. Even though they were nearly 75 feet away, we still attempted to draw them closer to us using various methods. When that didn’t work ,we just stood there watching the black dorsal fins move. Then we went home and Mommy made the birthday boy a special dinner, and the dessert was Daddy’s brownies. They were tasty brownies and Chuck Jr. wanted to share them with our neighbors. A great example.  They took them and said thank you. Doing that made Chuck Jr. feel very good, as unselfishness always does. On the day that we left, we said goodbye to our new lovely neighbors. It’s so nice meeting different people on this trip.

When we arrived at Miami, Florida we met up with my Uncle Bill, who was on business there. He introduced us to his wonderful co-worker, Maria and to some of his other co-workers. Before we met up with my Uncle Bill we went to the hotel’s private beach, which is a part of South Beach. Daddy did a back flip in the water! Anyway, our Uncle Bill gave us a tour of the office and what he does there. He works for CBS. It was very interesting to learn all that stuff about CBS. After he showed us his office, we all went to a Cuban food restaurant called Abuela’s. We all got something different. The food was really good and we said good-bye to or Uncle Bill. We are soo glad we got to see him and it was soo cool to learn more about his workplace.

The next day, we did our own first structured family church service and it was awesome. We all had our own special jobs. Daddy taught about Paul and how he was happy even when he was getting persecuted, because he was focused on helping in the advancement of Gods glory.  Also, about how we all have some plans and expectations at times; how if they aren’t truly important, serving God and others, or eternal, that this causes stress and unhappiness.  We need to fix our eyes on what is eternal, Jesus.

At the rv resort we were at, called Miami Everglades Resort, we did various sports. One of which being basketball. Daddy played against, Tony, a guy whom he had met, which was in his 60’s and later he also played against a guy who was in his late 20’s. Daddy really enjoyed playing basketball with them. It had been awhile.  Tony also invited all of us to play volleyball with him and his friends. It was really fun playing with them and getting to know new people. One of the guys playing was 92! Also, at this resort they had a “ginormous” field! Which of course, we played softball on. We hit, fielded, and Hope and I pitched for a little bit. It was really nice getting to play softball again. Also, Mommy hung out at her peaceful place, the tiki hut there. It was hot and humid, so she would go under there where it was 10 degrees cooler and do her devotion and read and relax. She really liked that tiki hut.  One of the really amazing things we did there was go to the Everglades. The Everglades were beautiful. We were on one road straight through several unique ecosystems in the middle of nowhere. We pulled over and did various jungle-like nature walks, and saw a beautiful panoramic view of the Everglades and the saw grass ocean. We saw many birds, alligators and 2 crocs. It was very rare that we saw crocs. We also saw a huge osprey nest and we saw the male osprey bringing food to it’s family! We also did the Junior Ranger program and got badges there. You can also read about our crazy experiences with  a few different animals, at our blog post “Everglades Experiences”. The Everglades were amazing and some peoples’ favorite place so far. After the Everglades we went to a fruit stand called “Robert is Here”. They had really good fruit milkshakes and Mommy really enjoyed her key lime and strawberry milkshake.

January was a great month with crazy and awesome experiences, and new people. Thank you God for an amazing month.