St. Augustine

Last week we had a really fun field trip up to St. Augustine, which has lots of interesting things to see and  history to learn.  Zachary loves history, so this was particularly fun for him.  Karis took the day off and went with the kids, and he himself said he'd enjoy going back and hearing the tour again when he could concentrate a little more! :)

About the blow off a cannon - quite loud!

Learning about the fort

That night, we enjoyed some time visiting with the Ds - including the grandparents!  It was our monthly get-together but the other two families were sick so had to take a pass.  It was Al's birthday, so the kids were delighted to be able to eat cake and ice cream!

Sabbath found us heading over to the Shaws for lunch with other AHS executives.  Terry has been Amy's long-time boss and mentor - and the Shaws were amazing to the kids - bringing out their nerf guns, Easter treats, remote control cars etc.  Addison took to Terry right away and began to think of him as her playmate the rest of the afternoon - bossing him around saying "Hey guy, come drive cars with me!" (She forgot his name :( )

Ds were there, so Adam, Luke, Zach and Kaleb had fun with the nerf battles

Sitting at their special table outside - look at those Easter treats - candy galore!

Playing cars with Terry

Loving him so much that she's willing to sit on his lap!

 Sunday found us with a chock-full day of fun - starting off with a birthday party at Rebounderz (trampoline birthday party #2....that seems to be the party of choice this year).  We'd had a birthday party the weekend prior as well as Airheads, also a trampoline place for Dylan.  These parties were from Kaleb's football team which he has really enjoyed getting to know - and Zachary plays with them during their practice sessions, so he considers them just as much his friends now as well!  We have had 3 birthday parties over the last two Sundays, which apparently didn't make it on our update from last week - so here goes with the birthday rounds!

Birthday #1 - Dylan's birthday at Airheads.  This was a great place - not too crowded which was nice. The kids had fun playing dodge ball a lot.

Happy birthday Dylan!

Birthday party #2 - we then immediately jumped into the car and dashed over to Ethan's birthday party at Champion Athletics.  This was a younger crowd so Zachary wasn't quite as thrilled, so it was Kaleb that enjoyed the festivities for this one.

Hard to see but they had a long rope that you could swing on. 

The birthday group

Last Sunday was birthday #3 - Havi and Gabo's birthday at Rebounderz (more football friends).  This place is VERY close to our house which makes it super easy but it was very crowded that day.

Zachary "dunking"

Happy birthday!

Once more, we jumped into the car immediately when we were done and dashed over to see a play at the Rep for "Skippyjon Jones" - we do love to go to plays - the whole family!  Grandma comes with us, so it truly is a family affair.  Thanks to our dear friend Heather who always suggests it!

Phrase of the week:  Addison's hair is usually a crazy mess (typically due to her own making), but especially after her nap when she gets up and the adults around here are usually in a rush to get to the intramural sports so don't take the time to fix her hair to make it lovely.....well she was driving in the car and one of the boys were just tapping her hair and she very indignantly said "Stop it, you're making my hair crazy!  My mommy puts braids in my hair and now you're making it crazy!"  Ha ha - oh girl, if you only had a mirror most of the time to see what you look like as you continuously mess up your hair, pulling it to and fro and then sleeping on it!

Creation Kids!

The kids had fun participating in the church service by 'lip-syncing' to the song "I'm a CREATION Kid"  They have done a really nice job over the last year of getting the kids involved in the service, which has been a fun way to engage the kids in church.  Our friend Allen leads out in the "Kids in Drama" along with Rosa and Ashley - thanks for all the hard work!

Prepping in the choir room beforehand - one last practice session!

They each would hold out their letters as they spelled CREATION - this was Zachary's turn to hold his E out

And then Kaleb's O!

The beauty of the I-phone is that you can capture a video at any time - all you need is a phone.  So long to trying to remember to bring your separate hand-held videocamera!

The kids and Karis also had a blast going on a field trip to Legoland - the weather was warm but not unbearable and they had great fun running through all of the rides.  Addison wasn't feeling that great, so she stayed home with Grandma to try and recuperate.

Karis now has a new phone that takes MUCH better pictures!  Love the selfie with Zach and Blake!

Is this kid cute or what!?

The favorite ride award went to "Chima" where basically the kids and the onlookers have a chance to see how wet they can get the opponents.  What is more fun than that?

Love the fact that Corey has on a rain-coat - Amy would have too!

One more chance to spray the onlookers!

Johnny and Kaleb in the shade taking a break for a minute

A few weeks ago we had Adventurer Sabbath and afterwards the boys hung out and played..... their imaginations led them to have a"cooking contest" with dirt, sand, leaves etc - who knows who the winner was though - no adult was brave enough to try it! :)

Phrase of the week: "Mommy, can I go and play in the "cool"?"  Addison has already made her inaugural entrance into the pool this year - or "cool" in her vernacular.  The weather has been warm, so the pool water isn't too bad!

Deer Valley 2016!

This was our annual ski trip week - which was at Deer Valley again after a 2 year hiatus.  We do dearly love Deer Valley - it is truly the "easy" button and the mountain is friendly to the less skilled skiiers. 

We intended on skiing Sunday afternoon after we landed, but the weather was less than stellar so Amy kept Kaleb but Karis and Zachary decided to brave it and went over to Brighton with the Hilliards and William.  They ended up having a fine time, and it allowed Zachary to get his proverbial "skis under him" before taking two days of lessons at Deer Valley (Kaleb took lessons Monday - Wednesday).  We'll let you view our trip through the pictures....

The joy of skiing once again! (Karis, William and Zachary)

Apparently something was funny - perhaps the fact that our large helmeted heads were completely covering up the view behind us that we were trying to capture in this selfie!

The only complete Z-family picture!

  Zachary did very well this year - having poles (the pinacle!) and doing a double black diamond on his ski lesson day (thankfully it was the ski instructor that took him vs Karis...Amy would not have been pleased but one cannot argue with the ski instructor so Zachary knew that he could then ski black diamonds the rest of the trip!).  By the end of the week, he really started to do nice parallel skiing, mogul runs, and just about any run that he had the courage to try.  Kaleb did not have poles this year yet, but he also managed to do a mogul run or two.  Poor Kaleb ended up getting sick on Wednesday, so his skiing experience was not tip-top - poor kid had a 103 degree fever so had very little energy and went to bed at 4:30 even one day.

Zachary in the green jacket doing a mogul run

Zach and Cole H - ski buddies!

Zach and Kaleb at Quincy's Cabin on one of the runs

Capturing a moment with Mom and Kaleb

Notice the top sign... It doesn't make one feel very safe!!!

Kaleb and Kieran had a grand time skiing around together!

Kaleb on his mogul run!

Mom, Dad and Kaleb

Zachary was off skiing with Ds as he wanted to do black diamonds and we were doing the tamer green and blue runs with Kaleb.

The very last run of the day Amy and Zachary met up and skiied down together.  He has a "tradition" tha the has to ski the run Big Stick for his last run at Deer Valley.  It is the equivalent of a double  blue, which is more than Amy usually wants to attempt but she gathered up her courage and did it with him.....this is at the bottom of the run looking back up (the one on the left....she NEVER does moguls which are on the right!)

One last picture of Mom and Kaleb

We shared a condo with the Ds (for our records condo 5314 was FABULOUS!) - it had 3 bedrooms with a king, two queens, and then upstairs it had a king and two twin trundles.  This condo was large enough that we could fit Addison next year with us when we go and still have one extra bed - just using the one bedroom upstairs!  The weather was quite warm so the snow was slushy and disappearing at a rapid rate.

Watching basketball

Js, Cs and Zs playing chutes and ladders....

Eating pizza on our first day there

Dutch Blitz was a new game that the kids had fun playing (as long as Karis was there to help guide and referee!)

This was at Gorgoza tubing hill - it was very fun this year again as the runs were a little faster than the last time we were there.

Playing card games at the airport on the way back home....

This was Addison's last year of staying at home (we start to take the kids when they are 4 so that they can get more actual ski lesson time vs having to do private lessons which cost an arm and a leg) - so she and Grandma had a fantastic time back in Orlando - so much so that Addison will surely think that it is boring now that her parents are back!  They went to the Zoo, the Science Center twice, and SeaWorld twice!

Grandma and Addison riding a camel at the Sanford zoo!  So cool!

Went to SeaWorld twice, including riding the paddle boats once!

 We captured several videos of us skiing (thanks to Karis and his new iphone 6 which actually takes much better pictures than his old iphone 5C!)

This first video is on the first Sunday when Zachary (green jacket), Loghann (pink jacket) and Cole (bright yellow/green jacket) went skiing at Brighton.

This second video is of Kaleb skiing down with Karis following him

Kaleb catching a little 'air'

Magic!

Last weekend, we had the fun of going to a Magic basketball game on Sunday night through Amy's work.  It was a privilege indeed as the seats come with free food/treats etc so the kids think their in high heaven.  The Z-parents told them how fortunate they were, as neither of us had the chance to have these kinds of outing as kids!  Our other friends were there as well (although in a different location) so we had fun waving to them across the arena!

We also enjoyed an evening with Johnsons on Friday checking out their amazing new RV (it is nicer than our house - we may beg to move in with them! :)  Ha ha!  And then on Saturday night it was to the church for a Veggie Tales movie - there was another movie afterwards but frankly it was late and some of the story elements we deemed not entirely appropriate for the kids at this age so we headed home.

Kaleb's football team finished up last Sunday for the season - champions again!  It has been a great football experience and we have enjoyed both the coaches and the boys who play on the team.  We have been blessed for him to join such a fun, supportive team!

The kids had a biography book report due last week.   Zachary chose Ben Carson, which was very fitting as he's currently in the presidential election and Kaleb chose Davy Crockett.  They made "people posters" and then took props to the class with them to wear.  This is Kaleb's cute class below - so sweet!

They were off school that week, so they were able to participate in the weekly art class at Jennifer's with Rosa.  Zachary complained bitterly about having to do art class as he's never enjoyed anything crafty.  However, coming home that night he proclaimed how fun it was and how he'd like to do it again!  Rosa has done the unthinkable - thank you Rosa!!

Hard at work on their projects

Kaleb loves to draw....

And even the non-artist is looking happy!

Random Pictures:

At Trader Joe's pushing the little kid cart!  How cute!  She's looking so grown-up in this picture!

The kids had a blast playing in the sprinklers at Jennifer's - gotta love wet and muddy!

Green eggs and ham at Miss Jennifer's - celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Phrase of the week:  Addison was at the doctor's this week for a check-up and as Karis was getting her dressed again, she loudly asked "Do Doctors wear underwear?"  The doctor was standing behind Karis with his back turned around, and as Karis stuttered "Well....it is a personal preference but I imagine most doctors wear underwear.." the doctor began to chuckle and then turned around saying "Yes Addison, I DO wear underwear!"  Ha ha ha - that kid is a nut!