Never in the history of the Florida Z family have we had a summer like 2019. We have never travelled this much - and we LOVE to travel - but even for us, we got to the point where we were just so happy to be home in our own beds and the kids groaned when we got back from Canada on Sunday and then that Thursday we were packed up and headed to Marco Island for the hospital's physician retreat. We were right on the beach at the JW Marriott but all of us would have been happy to stay at home! Although let's be clear, once they got there with their friends and all of the fun activities, they were not complaining!
All of the attendees were assigned to a team, and we were on the pink team - so we had on pink bandanas for the weekend. There were lots of games and activities but our team came in LAST. Boo. :)
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| We were on the Merry Mermaid team |
They had lots of activities and competitions, ranging from sand art, sand castles, hoola hoop, races, flag making etc. They definitely kept everyone busy - so while Amy had to participate in everything, Karis and the kids took some time to enjoy the water and some downtime to just play spikeball.
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| Making a colored sand craft |
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| As long as there is a soccer ball, there is never boredom right? |
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| Karis took out Addison kayaking for a bit as well |
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| And then Kaleb |
Some of the games were very silly, but the Zs were good sports to participate - although Zachary at 13 is at that age where he doesn't really want to do anything that is "dumb" so he wasn't sure he'd do a repeat next year!
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| Karis running in flippers, mask, scuba gear |
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| Before Zachary gave it a try |
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| And Kaleb did the gunny sack race |
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| Playing horse shoes |
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| And hoola hoops |
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| She even found a mermaid on the property! How fitting for the merry mermaid team! |
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| One really fun part was the fire thrower guy (what do you call these guys who twirl and throw fire sticks around?!) |
Another fun component was the fact that there was a Menchies Frozen yogurt store on-property and the conference attendees were allowed to get free ice cream all weekend. Our friend's son Micah even ran Addison over there as one final treat on Saturday night - they got there 30 seconds before it closed - was this one little happy girl or what!? Thank you Micah!
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| More ice cream.... |
In other "real life" news, Addison had to get two baby teeth pulled on the bottom because her teeth are so tight that the bottom two teeth came in completely crooked (sideways!). We are hoping now that they will straighten out a bit. We are told that we will have to keep doing that as each set of teeth come in as she just doesn't have enough space in there. Poor kid - lots of dental work ahead of us!
Kaleb has a wart on his finger that we have been trying to get rid of for the last year with NO success. We have tried laser, freezing it, injecting yeast into it (yep, no joke) and infecting him with a rash similar to poison-ivy. All of these things apparently are trying to get his immune system to kick in - but it just keeps getting bigger. So our sister-in-law Lorie told us to try acupuncture so off we went. Not sure if it will work, but anything is worth a try!
For Zachary's birthday belated gift, we took him to the Orlando City all-Star soccer game. He was allowed to take two friends (David and Blake this time) and they enjoyed it - although it was raining so the game ended really late! Good thing for summer!
With the amount of travel we've been doing, we haven't made it out to the local beach much this summer but Jennifer took the kids out on day to enjoy the sand and water
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| Sweet little friends! |
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| She is ready to go boogie boarding! |
Zachary had the opportunity to play indoor soccer with the Forest Lake Academy boys team this summer. It was a little nerve-wracking for a mom to see her 13 year old go out and play with men-sized opponents! Our team always managed to win, which in one particular game frustrated the other team and it gets a little rough like hockey - an older teenage boy who had to be 190 pounds ran across the field and body-checked Zachary into the boards. Zachary just kept on running so it was fine, but that game ended up so rough that the other team quit at half-time - saying that our team surely was too old (even though there were 3 13 year old younger boys on our team playing!!) and thus it wasn't fair. So we just ended up scrimmaging with our own team after that. We were glad Zachary had the opportunity to play with the older academy team as it gave him some good aspirational goals and incited him to run faster on his own younger team!
One day at Jennifer's, the two little girls decided to do her make-up. She ended up looking a bit clownish by the end -- it took her quite a bit of make-up remover to get it off but the two girls were so delighted with themselves!
Random pictures:
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| Science night at church - Miss Shari did a great job! |
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| And after 8 months, our family room entertainment and fireplace is now finished. It was supposed to take 6 weeks. it was one of the most frustrating experiences as the carpenter didn't do a very great quality job but if you don't look too closely, it will be lovely. We are excited for it to be done! Now just to put stuff on the shelves! |
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| Karis has had a goatee for probably 15 years straight, but he had to shave it for a mask fit for the hospital....who is this man?! :) He grew it back but for a few days it was a new man! |
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| Bizarre selfie - it doesn't even hardly look like her! |
