looking back at winter and looking forward to spring and summer

We stopped by the Yacht club a few weeks ago to check on a few things. on our way there we drove by the big lake to see how it was looking, we had driven by it in December and there were huge ice burgs every where...but it looks like they are finely starting to melt.

This is the mouth of the Muskegon channel

Pier Marquette Park...looking southward toward Grand Haven.

Kyla is looking forward to the spring...she is like her mom and doesn't like the cold weather.
We have figured out that Kyla has not enjoyed the sailboat as much as we thought she did....she don't like it when it heel a lot, and it freaked her out when I would have to go up on deck and raise the jib & main sail....so this year we are installing a roller furling and a main sail raising system...where all the lines run to the cockpit and I won't have to go up on the deck.....

We are looking forward to sailing this season...in hopes that Kyla will start enjoying it a lot better.......At the end of the season last year we started giving her jobs to do ...and it started taking her mind off the fact that we were heeling and she actually started enjoying it...so we think there might be hope for her yet.....

This is a pic we took last year right before a storm.....It is so cool to see a storm come up on the big lake, and watch it crash up over the break wall....

we start our Seamanship class in a few weeks, and should have our boat ( just add water) in the water in about 4 to 6 weeks....CAN'T WAIT !!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY !!

Happy Valentines Day Daddy !!!
Kyla bakes a cake for every occasion in our family.
For Valentines Day this year she made her Daddy
a two layer heart shaped Chocolate cake with Great
Grandma Drapers Fluffy frosting.
I have to tell you a story about Kyla and her cake baking.
she keeps track of when every ones birthday is in the family.
well time came for Grandpa Normans birthday, as she does on
a regular basis she happened to go down stairs to visit her
Grandparents who live with us.
She came upstairs in a huff, come to find out Grandma Carol
not thinking had bought a cake at the store........Kyla would not
speak or look at Grandma Carol for over 2 weeks......until
Grandma carol asked her to make another cake for Grandpa Norman.
Then she was fine....All forgiven!!!!!!

Cross country skiing

This is Bruce, Kyla met him and his wife Mary at the Muskegon Yacht club last summer, and we have become good friends. Bruce and Mary are volunteers at Calvary church in the go getters for Jesus group for special needs adults......He also teaches the blind how to cross country ski....














So they asked us to go cross country skiing , and bring Kyla along.......Kyla fell down and he was trying to teach her how to get up on her own.

















We skied at pigeon creek in Ottawa county....here we are at the end of the trail..... we had skied on one of the easy trails....Kyla did real well so next time we go we will try one of the harder & longer trails.
































We had to bribe her with hot chocolate to get her to finish the trail.......we were ready to take our skis off and go in the warm house and have hot chocolate.....she was a happy camper































We have tried to do things with Kyla that would stretch her....and give her positive life experiences .
This was one....we hope to be able to do this a few more times this year with her...and next year buy our own Skies and poles.... we all had a great time...But were pooped out when we got home!!!!

Go Getters For Jesus

We discovered a church group for adults with disabilities at Calvary church in Grand Rapids. Kyla really enjoys it. The church provides a family dinner for all church attenders every week....5 dollars for adults and 3 dollars for the kids.

They sing songs, share prayer request, and have a bible story every week...Kyla has been really getting a lot out of it, a few weeks ago she told us the story about how moses dropped the rod and it turned into a snake, and then picked it back up by the tail and it turned back into a rod. The lady who is the story teller has such a way with the kids, the room is so quiet when she speaks you could hear a pin drop, and the kids get so much out of her ministry.

This week they had a short story and then they made Christmas cards for the veterans home of Grand Rapids.....( Kyla works at the vets home a few days a month through school)....Kyla's card was blue with hearts on the front, and inside she wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!

This class has been such a blessing for Kyla, and she really looks forward to going every week.............More stories to come in the future...

Tis the season

Happy Jack starts the fire in the fire place.
It takes alot of hot air, but he's up to the task!!! <[;{>

Kyla helps daddy with the tree!!!

Merry Christmas to all...From Kyla and the whole Draper Family!!!

A blast from the past

Kyla before we suspected she was autistic...she met every developmental milestone except she wasn't talking at her age level

Therapeutic ridding...her horses name was partly cloudy...

winter weekend with her class...spring break at bradenton Florida


Family trip to Hawaii...we spent 5 days in Honolulu, and 12 days in Maui, my niece Jenny came along as a nanny....WE ARE HER FAVORITE AUNTIE & UNCLE...LOL

Kyla just being silly at school....Nice earrings Kyla!!!!

Kyla holding a Bird of Paradise in Hawaii

HEY LOOK " IT'S BUZZ LIGHT YEAR" !!!

A lazy day off from school

Grand Rapids schools have election day off....Kyla was up and watching cartoons with her 2 best friends (Rusty & Jinks) way before we even got up...

End of the season pic's

Farewell to summer fun!!!

Sail boats with fixed keels have to be hoisted out of the water.

It is an all day process that is actually quite interesting to watch.

they lift the boat up out of the water, set it on a cradle and move it my tractor to it's storage resting place for the winter.

We have a water ballast boat with a swing keel so the only thing we had to do is bring the boat to the ramp and load it onto our trailer, batten down everything and drive it home for storage.

This is Jack & Dave bringing our boat up to the ramp.

This is a picture of our rudder after 5 months of setting in the lake water. The darker areas are Zebra Muscles..... They are nasty little animals that have invaded the Great Lakes...Luckily we didn't have to many to deal with.



Kyla made a lot of new friends threw sailing, The experience we feel has really stretched her in a positive way. One thing we learned this year was that if we gave her jobs to do it kept her mind off her fears relating to sailing, each year she gets more confident...we all do...

This is Kenny...He let me pilot his 36 ft sail boat this summer....What a thrill.!!!!!

Problem is....NOW I WANT A BIGGER BOAT.....LOL...WE NEED $$$$ FIRST...LOL

Kenny was one of Kyla's Favorites at the yacht club.

This is Linda, Her and her husband John were just SO good to kyla too!!!!

This is Jan, and Mary in the back ground....

Dave & Michell were also on her favorites list!!!

Some of her other friends were, Trish & Larry, Bruce & Sue, Bruce & Patty, and Bruce & Mary!!!

thanks to all for helping making our summer a great !

All good things must come to an end

well our little sail boat is in the process of being put away for the season.


We spent most of last winter trying to come up with a name for our little lady, nothing seemed to fit, what I liked Jack didn't and what Jack liked I didn't. That is until one day when I was in a scrap booking store and I pulled out a page that said "Just add water", so I bought the page and showed it to Jack and he liked it too.... So our little lady's name is "Just Add Water"


Kyla had a hard time when we had gusty wind and the boat would heel quickly, but is getting better. We realized toward the end of the season that kyla didn't like it when ever I went up on the bow to hoist the sail. we won't have that problem next year... we are getting a roller furling system & a main sail hoisting system where I will be able to hoist all the sails from the cock pit. I think that will make Kyla feel a lot more at ease.

Next year for our vacation we are planning on trailering our boat up to the north channel and sail for a week with the trailer association.

we would travel north to saute saint Marie Ontario Then east to a little town called Spanish where we will meet up with the group of fellow sailors that we will be cruising with for the next week or so. we will put up our mast, boom and rigging in order to be ready to launch our boat.

Here are just a few pic's of the beauty we will be seeing while we are there.

Looking forward to a new adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An evening at the symphony

Last night was the first night of the symphony season.



Last nights concert was entitled " The magical music of Disney"
It was a perfect symphony to take Kyla to see! She enjoyed all the music.

She herd songs from:

• The Little Mermaid
• Mary Poppins
• Beauty and the Beast
• Aladdin
• The Lion King

To name just a few!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


As you can see we had great seats.
When we got there Kyla saw the concession stand which consisted of cookies, candy & stuff to drink, she promptly said the she wanted a hot dog.
so when we got out it was 10:00 , We made several wrong turns trying to get out of all the new changes in the down town area. Well to make a long story short , we ended up on the east belt line, so Jack took us to the corner bar in Rockford, they are famous for there hot dogs.
Kyla was a happy camper!!!!!

Praying Bugs and stuffed animals

Well we started the day out by finding a Praying Mantis.


A rare find.


Another rare find,
We went out for pizza at our favorite pizza place in Kent City,when we were done eating Kyla tried to win a stuffed animal, Well this time she hit the jack pot!!!


Kyla puts a quarter in the arcade claw game, and she got the puppy, then she put in another quarter and would you believe that she won again!!! Today was her lucky day!!!!!