Pine Lakes

We had the annual Apopka Adventurer camp-out a few weeks ago - this time with Addison being the newest member of the Apopka family and Zachary graduated, so it was just Kaleb and Addison in the events although Zachary did love tagging along and just playing to his heart's content all weekend!  The weather was beautiful, so no complaints there!  Amy decided that she's the princess and the pea when she woke up the next morning.....while sleeping on an air mattress....to discover that she was in a ton of pain in her hips and legs...apparently Karis had blown up the air mattress so full it was like a rock!!!  Who complains that their air mattress isn't cushy enough???  Goodness gracious - but Amy did decide that only for the love of the family is camping something that she partakes in!!

Doing her crafts and painting

Somehow it always ends up all over her!

He was making an airplane with his group

then they had the fun of seeing how far they could throw their planes

Zachary found some friends who love to play sports as well, and spent the afternoon playing baseball and soccer all day.  He couldn't have been happier!

Each family takes a turn helping to either prepare and serve the meal as well as clean up, so we helped on Sabbath lunch - Addison and Amy passed out the peaches.

The other time was filled with playing on the playground, playing with dolls (Addison now desperately wants a Barbie!) and riding bikes....and Amy found a moment or two to read....carrying her Kindle around in her wind jacket's front pouch was a stroke of brilliance!

Addison, Elin and Devin - sweet peas one and all!

This is the hill that Karis hurt his shoulder on last year when he fell off the skateboard...he did not try it again!

Well, maybe this wasn't the most social way to pass the time...but Amy does love to read!!

Make s'mores by the roaring bonfire!

Amy and Addison went home that second night, much to Amy's camping relief, as Amy had a birthday party the next morning.  It was nice to sleep in a proper bed again!  the next morning the boys enjoyed playing some miniature golf before heading home.

At the birthday party, we had fun celebrating Katrina's 40th birthday at Keke's.  Jennifer decorated the table beautifully, the food was delicious and the company even better.  Happy birthday Katrina!!

There was also a ground breaking event for Winter Park for their new patient pavilion - it was fun to participate in this as this is one of Amy's hospitals that she supports.  It had a peacock theme as Winter Park's unofficial bird is the peacock!

One downside of Amy's new job is the amount of driving that she does all the time.  One day two weeks ago she was driving between two of the hospitals when a young lady rear-ended her.  Thankfully it was at low speeds, and the bumper only has a tiny crease along it (kind of underneath the license plate, the lighter white line in the picture below.)  Because it was so faint, Amy decided to spare the girl and didn't try and get anything fixed.  We were thankful that it wasn't worse...and likely will think about getting a bigger car in 2017 to avoid these types of scary moments!

Phrase of the week: Bubba - apparently for some reason Addison has started to call Zachary "Bubba" - not sure why, but it is their special nickname for the moment!

Florida Hospital Leadership Weekend

Now that Amy works for Florida Hospital, we attend the annual Leadership Weekend, which is yet again another super fun time for the kids to experience things that we could never have imagined as children ourselves.....as the Z-parents we discuss how to ensure that our children know how blessed they are.  this time, it was at the Yacht and Beach Club Resort at Disney World.  We only had one room this time (did you hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth at your home? :).  We were pleased with this as it did enforce that having multiple rooms is a perk, not a right - and Amy told the kids "You know, this is how most people roll - one hotel room - so this is how life normally is!"  .......  Until she stopped and thought about the fact that this single hotel room was still quite expensive compared to a normal Super 8 Hotel (which is where she stayed growing up).... so perhaps the lesson wasn't fully experienced but at least it was a start!

We decided - foolishly - that we would split up the kids with Kaleb on a futon, Amy with Addison and Karis with Zachary (with Zachary and Kaleb switching the second night).  The kids kept us awake with their need to be right up against us all night, with an occasional arm/elbow/kick to our bodies..... we are too old for this! :0 At one point, Addison kicked out and her short little leg actually caught the top of Amy's PJ pants and went right down Amy's pants....so naturally Amy was quite awake with having someone's leg down her pants! Ha ha

There were amazing entertainment with beautiful singing and even a comedian.  The kids had programs as well, and on one night did a Food Packing event for the children of Haiti - it was awesome.

That Saturday night, we even had the fun of getting to meet the characters after our program (fun for kids...) and then going to Epcot as it closed to watch the fireworks and then to have sole access to 3 rides (Soarin, Mission Space and Test Track) as well as desserts, characters, face painting, tattoos etc etc.  It was from 10 - 12:30P.  Amy let Addison take a monster nap that afternoon - sleeping from about 1:30 to 6:15P, so even Addison had an extremely special treat to stay up that late!  We were all tired the next day, but it was fun memories.

This is Amy's work group - ours were the only kids there though!

And then just our family

Glow in the dark tattoo of Winnie the Pooh and then a butterfly on her face!

And later she added a butterfly glow in the dark painted in her hair

Waiting for the fireworks....

Zachary was off with some friends, so this is just PART of the Zs!

Such a sweet Daddy and his daughter!

3D glasses - the surprise was that when you put them on and looked at the lights or fireworks, the lights glowed with "Florida Hospital!"

At the food packing event, the kids packed about 25,000 meals in one evening - they had quite the production line going.

Holding up one of the meal packages

All done now!

The kids had fun playing in the pool and games with their friends - so the Thursday - Sunday trip went by very quickly!

Will he be a business man in the future?

On Sunday, we hurried home and then went to Victoria's birthday party - they had costumes if desired, and facepainting etc.  Addison does love to have her face painted - she went as a garden flower!

Cute little group of kids!

The boys are nearing the end of their football season - we have really enjoyed having both of them on the same team and they have enjoyed it as well - with Kaleb saying that he had fun with Zachary on his team.  Zachary can play one more season until he gets too old to play with this team.  Great coach, and great kids.  Kaleb has improved amazingly - with getting touch downs and pulling lots of flags this year!

On his way to a touchdown!!

Zachary getting the sportsmanship medal for that particular game!  Proud of you kiddo!

We don't celebrate Halloween, so on Monday the church held a fall festival as an alternative for kids, so the family went to play on the bounce houses and the "trunk games" that people set up int he back of their cars.

Only this child - never any fear!

In preparation for the upcoming ski season, we have started our kids in skating lessons - especially for Addison as this is her first time skating and skiing.  it really helped Kaleb when he learned how to skate before we went skiing, so our fingers are crossed for her as well.  They are all enjoying it, even though we switched them back to the non-ice hockey lessons as we wanted to have all three kids in the same skating lessons.

It is that time of year again, so the kids are starting their eye appointments.  Addison's eyes are very good for her age, and Kaleb's are continuing to work although for very small "cluttered" pages he'll have difficulty so we will continue to do eye exercises for a while.

Random pictures:

Notice the red clown lips on both children....?

Mommy and Addi matching aprons!

Crazy hair day at school!

Enjoying a family movie night!

Phrase of the week:  Addison has an awesome ability to pray to God as her friend....although some prayers can be particularly rambling...but she says whatever is on her mind.  An excerpt from a recent prayer:
    "Dear God, I love that you love my heart, and I wish that you lived in my house with me. I love my grandma.  I ate all of Grandma's pancake with lots of sugar.  I love to go to church, but I have to go to Miss Jennifer's today as well.  I wish that I had a new house but my mommy won't let me.  Help "the brothers" to be responsible and my mommy to be patient.......and so on." (This was after a morning in which the boys were particularly not paying attention and testing Mom's patience!)  We have praised her - telling her that she treats God as her best friend just like we all should and tells Him everything!  I have noticed that the boys are starting to understand a bit more about how to really tell God everything on your mind by listening to her prayers! :)