Daytona 500, Soccer & Valentine's Day

 This year, Kaleb is doing Uno Voce choir, and they have the opportunity to go to Daytona 500 and sing God Bless America - as noted last week, they had to record their song instead of singing live due to Covid, but we still had tickets for Daytona to at least watch him on the screen - so off we went!  All of FLEC could buy tickets, and Johnsons and Cochrans bought as well.  We didn't have seats together, but it ended up not mattering too much as after 10-15 laps it started to rain, and it rained, and rained.  So after looking at the weather radar, we decided to head on home -- they did end up finally finishing the race but it was about 10P before they finished, so it would have made for a very late school night, so we were glad that we just finished watching the race at home.

It is hard to see, but in the distance is the screen that is playing Kaleb's Uno Choir song - it was great Kaleb!!

As the cars get going, there is a lot of smell in the air and Addison (and Elin in the background) did not like it! :)

While our seats weren't together, we ended up being in the same section as Johnsons and because there were so many empty chairs because of Covid, they came down and sat with us for a little while (again, not long as we got rained on!)

And our friend Maria was there as her son John Mark is also in Uno Voce, so it was fun to catch up!

Part of what makes Daytona 500 fun is all of the pomp, and they had F18 fighter jets fly over several times - what a noise those planes make!

A little mommy daughter picture

And then the whole family - we were in the very top section, so we weren't super close to the track but it gave us a good view of the whole oval - so we saw the big crash happen with a birds eye view in the beginning of the race!

So cute as we walked around inside - Elin and Addison holding hands!

It also ended up working out that it rained, because Dayton 500 was on Valentine's Day (how dumb is that?!), so we got home early enough that we could still do our traditional "eat at home take-out food" and then we did our Valentine's Day cards with the kids. 

That week, Amy asked for the Orlando City Soccer box from work, in order to go and see the women's US and Canada soccer team play as a part of the She Believes Soccer tournament.  It was fun, and we invited our friends the Wanderslebens as they like soccer too, as well as Amy's mom and Lyle.

The US won, but only by 1 point - we were kind of hoping that it would be a tie as we love both sides!

A Z blog post wouldn't be complete without an update on soccer it feels like sometimes - the next weekend in February the boys had their opening season soccer tournament for their league.   Both teams did very well - with Kaleb's team coming in 2nd and Zachary's team winning the tournament (both in their respective age brackets of course).

Good friend David - nice medals guys!

Addison isn't to be left out, and she had a great time doing the XL Soccer league for the 7 weeks.   She had a few friends join as well - so it was fun to watch several kids that we knew out there!  It has been fun to watch Addison becoming active and sports-y -- hopefully it sets her up for a lifetime of activity and being healthy. 

Jeniyah, Addi, Lele, and Shelby

Addison was the goalie for one game!  

Uno Voce & Celebrations

At the beginning of February we had the fun opportunity to hear Kaleb's advanced choir - Uno Voce - do several performances - one at the Academy Schmidt auditorium where they recorded their rendition of "God Bless America"  for the Daytona 500 as the concert finale(more on that in our next blog edition! 😊) and then at Spring Meadows church for Sabbath.  Both were lovely to attend, and it was so fun to see Kaleb sing, and so handsome in his black and white tuxedo (minus the jacket) outfit!

Schmidt Auditorium

Kaleb is in the second row, first boy on the left in the middle of the picture

We also had a chance to pamper Grandma and Sadie with birthday gifts and well-wishes as well.  Miss Sadie turned a big 3-years old and Grandma is ageless.  

Getting a little help blowing her candles out!

Love you guys!

Happy Birthday mom!

It is hard to deny Miss Sadie anything, and she sweet-talked Zachary into reading her a book.  Look, he even has a smile on his face - love it so much!

We remember when our kids were this small, so precious!

And then of course there was time for play.  Everyone decided that dog-piling Zachary would be a good idea - not sure if Zachary has a smile in this particular picture or not as he may be focused on breathing! :)

With the fact that the Disney parks have been limiting their guests due to Covid, we decided to venture out and use our passes to Animal Kingdom and ride the Avatar ride.  It was SUPER fun, and because we went on a Friday afternoon it was only a 35 minute wait compared to the normal 3-4 hours!  35 minutes is doable, 3-4 hours is not.  It was well worth the wait - super fun!

We always get a selfie together, so this is our selfie for that outing!

We took Lucas along with us, so it was fun to have a Disney veteran along with us to tell us the things to do and see - it was just Amy, Kaleb and Lucas (for some reason Addison didn't come, and Zachary is "too old" for Disney now)

Mini Messi

 It is no secret that the Z-family sport appears to be soccer, so after watching her brothers' soccer games now for years Addison decided that she was ready to enter into the fray.  We decided to tip-toe into it by having her take a 7 week course at XL Soccer, which is an indoor venue here in town.  Several of her girl friends joined in as well, so that made it all the more fun

Addison was super excited, and informed her brothers that "I am a mini-Messi".  For the non-soccer enthusiasts, Messi is a very talented soccer player so she was basically talking smack to her brothers before she'd ever even had her first practice.  Gotta love the youngest one's confidence!

Ready in her outfit, cleats and the ball!

It was fun to watch her in practice and games - she runs around like crazy after the ball, and always does a little "jump" in the air as she starts to run like a deer! :)

Speaking of soccer, Zachary had his final FLEC varsity soccer game and they did the 8th grader 'tribute'.   For this tribute game, they actually played the FLA academy junior varsity team (and won handily) -- but the game was at night after dark in 40-50 degree weather.  The parents were freezing to be sure!!  BRR!

The 8th graders graduation - left to right:  Coach Billy, Cristian, Zachary, Aiden, Adrian, Luke, Cody, Blake, and Assistant coach Cole

Poor Cristian dislocated his knee playing a soccer game earlier in January, so he wasn't able to play but we were happy he could come out and join

Amy found this picture of the boys from just a few years ago - amazing how much they have changed and grown!  L to Right:  Adrian, Aiden, Luke, Zachary and Cristian

Long-time buddies Blake and Zachary

The game was so cold that the younger sister siblings all huddled under a blanket!

While we frozen in Florida, Karis had his annual men's ski trip out in Colorado this year - he had a blast and sent us a quick selfie to show the fun he was having!

And in one random picture, Addison continues to take karate lessons and was giving this bag quite a kick!