A New Mr and Mrs

We had the pleasure last week of celebrating the wedding of two of Amy's former employees - Jonathan and Sara.  It was a beautiful and very touching wedding, with at least two separate moments that were so moving that many people were brought to tears.  Jonathan had been married before, and had two children that were joining this marriage, and they did a beautiful job incorporating them into the wedding - it was incredibly loving and we wish them all the best in their new marriage!

The New Mr and Mrs!

Sara made vows to the kids as well

Kent couldn't come,so it was like old times with Amy, Kelli and Karis - we always used to hang out together when we first moved to Orlando (we were roommates for a year), so it was fun times!

In other news, we were lucky ducks and got tickets to the Solar Bears game as well from Karis' hockey mate Lewis - we had a grand time, and he even spoiled us by insisting on getting some ice cream!  Lucky for our mouths, not lucky for Amy's thighs! :)

With the Mascot!

Yummy!

Thanks Lewis!

The kids are always waiting with bated breath for the final get together with friends after Christmas, as there is a gift exchange.  It marks the final opportunity for them to get gifts, so they are always super excited.  It occurred last week, much to their delight!

Sweet moments with Auntie Lisa!

Not long before more joined in

And then the unwrapping began!

We had the fun of inviting Luke and Christian over to our house the other Sabbath for an afternoon of play.  The boys had a great time together, playing so nicely!

Luke, Christian and Zachary

Addison loves her London!

Sharing secrets - love how sweet this is!

Phrases of the week: 

Addison and Grandma:  Addison was eating very quickly one day and Grandma noted that she was eating much faster than the night before....to which Addison "Oh, I had a lot on my mind, I was distracted!"  Ha ha - what possibly could be on a 4 year old's mind that is so heavy that they eat slowly!? :)

A nameless child had a discussion with the male Z-parent the other week, and said "Dad, I really do want to have at least one child, but I am afraid - that means I have put my penis in the lady's vagina.  What if it hurts?  Are there teeth down there?"  How do you keep it together with your child asks you that?  Amazing calm was exhibited with no laughing, and reassurance given that there are no teeth down there!  Ha ha ha.

Parent-less Children

They say that it takes a village to raise children, and those words were never more true than this last week in the Z-household.  Karis went on his annual men's ski trip, which usually isn't a problem but this year it coincided with two HUGE projects that Amy was directing at work - so she was working extremely long hours while Karis was gone.  Grandma to the rescue.....can we say how grateful we are for her willingness to watch the kids?  We could not have done it without her!!  Thankfully Karis is back safe and sound, and Amy's projects are easing up so life will be more normal now but it was an intense week!

Karis, Rob, William and Bryan

William, Rob, Brent, Dan, Karis and Bryan

The day before Karis left, as luck would have it, he was fixing a pipe when he heard an ominous cracccckkk.  He can fix just about anything, but this time there was no fixing it.....and that meant that was no water in the house at all.....Umm, that's going to be a problem!  Plumber to the rescue - and an obscene amount of money, but thankfully we had water again when Karis went out of time.  The plumber came that morning at 5A, and was have to jack-hammer and drill the concrete in order to access the pipe, so we were thankful....yet it was painful to be up that early! :)

As we all know, it was Superbowl Weekend, but with all of the guys out of town this year, we just hang out at the house and Heather C came over for supper for a bit.  It was nice to have the company, and the kids had a good time laughing and giggling at the commercials.  Zachary went over to Biris to have the "serious" watching of the game - and what a game it was!

watching the commercials (which in one person's opinion...not as good as they normally are!)

Amy had the pleasure last week of celebrating a surprise birthday party for Heather - it was lovely to share with the other ladies, and to take a moment to honor a very special friend - Happy birthday!

Zachary had a special treat on Sabbath two of his friends - Luke and Cristian - came over to play.  They had a great time - enjoying the weather outside for quite a while and hten playing hide and seek, as well as ping pong inside!

 Random pictures:

Getting ready to watch a movie at the Science Center with her Grandma!

Playing soccer at FLEEC

This is from a while ago but not sure that it has ever been posted, and because it is a cool two-picture action shot, decided to include in this week's post.  Zachary does enjoy soccer!

This time he was victorious....

Addison:  Mommy, I just want to fly up to heaven and hug and kiss Jesus, I want to play with him!"

Addison  on a very foggy day, "I can't believe it is so "soggy" out here."  Kaleb tried to correct her to say "foggy" but it didn't work so he finally said "put an F on it" - so then Addison said "oh, it is "fsoggy!"

Celebrating Another Year of Grandma!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday last weekend - and we had an extra treat of having Aunt Evelyn here from Canada visiting Jeff and Niesha!  It is always such a nice time to visit and catch up.  And eating cake isn't so bad either....

Pinning Zachary down....this is one way of keeping him quiet and in line! :)

No-one ever gets to blow their own candles out in this house!!

Come again soon Aunt Evelyn!

The boys have had their official school pictures now, it is always fun to see them grow from year to year - but really, could they stop growing up so fast!?

Grade 2

Grade 4

Lately Addison has been very interested in naming off her friends ad taking pictures together....so here are a few of her friends, although not all, so if their picture isn't here, it just means we haven't take a picture lately!

Miss Londy and Addi warming up under a blanket!

Love these two little ones - Elin and Addi take gymnastics together and love it!

The quirkiness never ends.....with the C kids.

A few random pictures:

Why is coming to Mommy's office so fun as a kid?  Here she is though!

Playing at the park - love those bright colors for her!

Enjoying our adventurer class

Addison loves taking a picture on the little bench outside of church....so we are starting to get a collection of these!

Phase of the week:  Addison during her prayers enjoys talking to God as her friend (shouldn't we all!) - and while they do get quite rambling sometimes, they often have funny quotes in them!!

Addison's recent prayer "...... and teach me how to do selfies.  Oh, and help Zach with responsibility and to do better in science."  So random and so varied - but amazing how much of the household conversations she picks up and listens to!

Zachary was in an debate one day and said with finality "my case sleeps!"....should we tell him that the true phrase is "I rest my case!?" Ha ha ha ha

Yellowstone Club

Well - the Zs have gotten behind on our updates, but it is because we have been having so much fun!!  We had an amazing opportunity to visit with our long-time friends - Adrian and Maggie Cotton and their family - up in Yellowstone Club Montana at the end of January.  This is one of our favorite areas to ski in, although we had never skied at Yellowstone Club before.  Another exciting facet of this trip was that it was Addison's FIRST skiing trip - she is now old enough to join us!  

Yellowstone Club is a private ski resort, so it was a treat to be able to go there - the runs were amazingly empty so you never had to worry about someone running you over.  The weather was perfect - cold enough to have great snow and warm enough not to freeze.

Our ski trip - Alex, Adrian, Luke, Maggie, Bruce, Kaleb, Karis and Addison, Zach and Amy

Without all of our ski gear, you can actually see what we look like!  Front row:  Alex, Bruce, Addison, Kaleb, then back row:  Luke, Maggie, Adrian, Karis, Zachary and Amy

We put the boys in group lessons the first day, and Addison was in group lessons every day.  It was awesome because they turned out to be private lessons each day as there were no other kids there.....so Addison is now quite in love with skiing.  We did half days, and each day when we would pick her up she would beg to keep skiing longer!  Some days she did, but others the ski instructor would let us know that she was looking pretty tired and should likely take a rest.  She was able to go up the big lift to the top of the mountain and see an easy green down - good for you girl!  The instructors commented on quickly she learned!

She's under all that gear somewhere....

One of the mind-blowing perks of Yellowstone are the "Sugar Shacks" where you can stop and warm up....and eat as much free candy as you could possibly ever want.  Every kind of candy you can imagine, drinks, dried fruit, nuts, cheese, nachos.  Amy has quite a sweet tooth, so the first day even she tried quite a few candies (finding a new love of Fifth Avenue bars!) until her "adult responsibility" kicked in and she curbed herself the ensuing days to the more healthy options.  The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven - including the amazing hot chocolate with the yummy whipped cream!!!  These are a few of the ways that the resort spoiled us...

could any place be more exciting for kids than a sugar shack?

warming up by the fire with hot chocolate

Just one side of the sugar shack

Not to be left out of the yummy hot chocolate!

There is a shield that comes down over the chair lift to keep you warm and out of the cold....delightful!

And did we mention the free breakfast at the lodge before heading out on the slopes?  This is after breakfast heading on out!

the ski in and ski out house was amazingly convenient

And then the 20-Below club with all kinds of games was a highlight in the evenings!

We tried to take the opportunity of taking pictures of ourselves at various spots to commemorate our trip:

The adults had a fun time catching up again with each other, it has been a few years since we saw them in California!

Along with having the fun of old friendships, we saw some new friendships form that were precious to see.  Kaleb and the twins - Bruce and Alex, had a grand time together and really just hit it off.  They are the same age, and had a great time.  The Cottons had to leave a day earlier than we did, and Kaleb was so bummed that he could barely get up the excitement to go skiing that day - saying he'd just stay at home!  So Amy skied with him that day and we just did whatever runs he wanted to do, and over the day he perked up.  The other friendship that formed was Addison's intense love with Mr. Adrian - he spoiled her ROTTEN!  One of her favorite things about the trip was her new adult friends, Mr. Adrian and Miss Maggie!!

she even got to "drive" - she thought that she was the biggest girl ever!

Snuggling for a minute together

Besides Addison coming this year, the other "big moment" was that Kaleb graduated to getting poles this year!  This has been a milestone goal for him, so this was fun for him to get poles this year!  And Zachary got the point where he could ski just about anything, and in the trees with his Dad - so he was pretty jazzed

The Z's - well, minus Amy

The whole family

Although sometimes Zachary had a few wipeouts....

And having to hike out wasn't always so easy....:

To memorialize our trip, a few videos of the skiing experience:

This is one of the group (minus Addison) skiing - most of the runs were blues, but fairly easy so even Amy was able to do them without a problem.

And then two videos of Miss Addi-cakes skiing - her brand new favorite sport in her words!

Random pictures:

Playing in the snow slide

Enjoying the house' media room

Whoa - big girl on her brother's shoulders!  This didn't last too long, didn't want Zachary's spine to be crunched!

Phrase of the week:  Addison and Grandma were talking one day and something Addison said was quite funny as always and Grandma asked "Where did you hear that phrase?"  Addison's reply:  "I learned from myself, God 'bringed' it to my mind."

Addison - as we discussed one night going to the Jacuzzi, she got excited and said "yeah, I can't wait to go to the "ca-joozy" :)