Enjoying the Cooler Weather!

 As October came in, we started to experience a little cooler weather -- cooler at least for Florida!  We finally received our new back deck furniture, and it couldn't have come at a better time because now we can enjoy being outside!  With the cooler weather, the kids decided to do virtual school outside on the back deck together for a couple of days.  It provided a nice diversion and a little variety!

Apparently one day though Addison was quite cold (which the inside of the house is always the same temperature, so how can this be?!), and Amy looked over and she was bundled up like a mummy!

who can do school like this?!

After months of looking for a new bike (apparently Covid limited the number of bikes and increased the number of people wanting bikes!), we were finally able to get a new bike for Addison.  There is a HUGE difference, she now enjoys riding her bike again - the old one must have just been that much heavier or brakes rubbing etc, but it is cool to see her riding around again and having fun!

She wanted a light blue bike this time - from a maker called Enchant Lite

And then we just have random updates to share - letting folks see what is going on in the Z house!

The guest room is finished and ready for you to come!  The baby nursery chair has now been given a slipcover (because Karis really did not want to give up the baby fabric...too many memories)

One day recently we had a surprise visitor join us in our dining room - a little bird!  Karis coaxed it outside to go back to its normal environment, but this created quite a stir for a bit in the afternoon!

And we had more wildlife in our yard when one morning there was a raccoon wandering around!

Addison loves to take boxes and "create" things out of them - and she found a box and made cut-outs in it, so that she could have a "fort" in her bed!

This did not last long, so not comfortable! :)

Do you remember a few posts back (sometime during Covid) we posted about the fact that Kaleb had a gymnastics teacher that now is on national television for the show American Ninja Warrior - her name is Megan, and we were watching ANW and she came on, so we had Kaleb go stand under the TV!  Super cool.

Hanna Park 2020

 In October, we decided to venture out and enjoy the cooler weather by camping at Hanna State Park with some friends - thinking that this may be a safe way to have a little bit of normalcy even in light of Covid -- with each family having their own RV, and doing meals separately, and being outside to keep the germs away!  More on this to come...

The weather was lovely and cool, so it was a nice weekend to be out in nature

Cs, Js, Ws, Bs and of course the Zs - lots of alphabet soup! :)

While the weather was cool, the wind was ferocious on the beach - but we did do a 3 mile hike before calling it quits!

Windy enough to fly kites for sure!

But not too windy for the little ones to get into the sand and make a castle

At the campsite, there was lots of playing games, and Spikeball, and riding bikes!

Even the little kids got into Spikeball!

And we spent a good amount of time out at the playground - there were TONS of people there, so we made sure to sanitize our hands as we were leaving.

No camping experience is complete without the fire - which especially mesmerizes Addison.  And she decided that she'd become a lumberjack and would say "I am going 'axing'" :)  

We did find out on Wednesday after our camping trip though that one of the moms developed symptoms and was tested positive for Covid.  As you can see in the pictures, we weren't wearing masks (false sense of security) so Amy and one other mom who spent the most time with her had to go into "isolation/quarantine" in our respective houses.  Wow, that just is no fun - thankfully our two weeks have passed and no one else got it.  We all went and got tested after 1 week (that is apparently on average when you can tell if you have it after being exposed) and thankfully we were not positive.  Addison said "that hurt, I am NOT doing that again" -- hopefully that is true but with how this thing spreads we may find ourselves there again in the future.   And in truth, it wasn't that terrible... but quarantining away from the rest of the family was!  The kids were unimpressed that Amy couldn't snuggle with them and be as close, so we were all thankful when the time passed and we could lift those precautions.  Lesson for next time, stay OUT of any of the friends' RVs, and if you aren't 6 feet apart you should still wear a mask!

Grandparents Day & Canadian Thanksgiving!

Covid has made nothing "normal" this year, but the school and church has tried to keep as many things going as possible by doing drive-throughs.  This year Grandparents day at school was a drive-through, and even though our kids were in virtual school, they were able to jump in the car and all head over to the school to participate.  We are thankful that we have at least one set of grandparents here (we wish both were!)

Speaking of grandparents, the kids had a day off of school for fall break and enjoyed going miniature golfing with Grandma and Grandpa Lyle! 

Canadian Thanksgiving was of course on a Monday, and this year we didn't have anything else going on (the boys have taken a hiatus, perhaps permanently from piano lessons on Mondays and there were no team practices) so Karis decided to make a full-on Thanksgiving dinner!  Amy is no help as this is budget season, so the work is deep - sorry Karis :(.  His meal was delicious - yummy!

In other random pictures, we had an early morning soccer game and Addison was snuggling up to Karis - they are dark in the picture, but liked the light shining all around them!

Amy was cleaning up Addison's school desk one day and came across her morning journal where she wrote about her beloved cousin Emily.  Addison's spelling isn't the greatest, so Amy was reading and was totally perplexed by the "gator" reference at the end.  She texted the picture to Emily and Aunt Lori because it was so sweet, and they texted back that Amy was too much of a Floridian.....the gator was Addison's way of spelling "guitar" which Emily does play!  Now that makes way more sense in the sentence!

One day Amy went into the office (still working remote), and stopped in to her actual office where she has lent it to a young lady whose boss prefers her to be at the office each day (and she doesn't have an office, so why not use Amy's).  We always laugh because Amanda is a mini-Amy in our personalities and work style etc.....and when we were sitting there chatting, we realized we were wearing almost the exact same outfit as well!  Ha ha ha!  Man, my hair is super curly in this picture too - Covid has made me lazy, I don't want to bother blowing it dry and straightening it every day, so I just leave it curly now

Amy and Amanda

Periodically we take a picture of the boys' soccer teams.  This is Kaleb's team. It has been a good team this year, and Kaleb is enjoying it a lot more than last year which is nice to see.

One day the kids were having a grand time playing electronics together - they don't play that much together because of the age and interest differences, so it was nice to see them enjoying each other.

And last but not least for today's post - just a quick shot of Zachary trying out wakesurfing again.  He was able to drop the rope as well so he was pleased with himself!