Zach Turns 17

AHH, Zachary has turned 17 - one more year and he will be old enough to vote - where does the years go!  It reminds me to treasure and savor each year because it flies by. His birthday is the same day as our beloved Aunt Kelli and thus we had a combined cake event that evening as they are living in their RV behind our house.  We will be sad when they leave, it has been fun having them!

Home birthday the evening of his birthday

Happy Birthday to you both - a dear friend for many years!

That Friday we held a birthday party for him at Top Golf with his close group of friends. 

Amy, Kaleb, Cristian, Erick, Blake, Aiden, David, Zach, Luke, Black B, Ruben, 

Ice cream cake

Our long-time friends the Deiningers' son Luke was born three days after Zachary, and as we were all together at Top Golf on Luke's actual birthday, we got him a strawberry chocolate cake to celebrate his 17th birthday as well.  

Happy birthday boys!

We are proud of you Zachary - you have a soft heart, try to do the right thing in life, are respectful, have integrity, dependable worker, responsible in life, and look out for others.  We are proud to call you our son.  Love you kiddo - may God richly bless your life's journey and stay close to you all the days of your life.

And in typical silly fashion, Karis gave us a moment of levity with a silly face as we waited to clear out of the Top Golf venue - he always keeps us laughing and calm.  

In other news that weekend, Kaleb had his Pathfinder campout.  The year is coming to a close so they had their final campout this spring.  

Helping hands for food meal prep!

And in random pictures - Addison went with Grandma and Grandpa to Scott's farm to get some fresh corn on the cob so took the opportunity for a few fun pictures.  Blessed to have active, involved grandparents so close - we just wish both sides were close to us as well - but that likely would be having our cake and eating it too - so we will be grateful for what we are already blessed with!

Etiquette Banquet

At the end of 8th grade, FLEC always teaches the kids an etiquette course in which they learn about various situations and how to use their best manners.  The capstone of the course is a banquet that showcases their table manners.  

Prior to going to the banquet, the kids get out of school at noon.  With Zachary, Miss Jennifer picked him up and took him and Blake out for lunch -- so we repeated the fun, and Kaleb, Evan and Sam went out for lunch and then picked up their corsages before coming over to our house to get ready.  Learning to tie a tie was fun to watch! 😉

Eating at PF Changs (just like Zach and Blake) - yummy!

And they have picked up the corsages!

Thankful for a daddy to teach him!

All handsome and ready to go!

Prior to attending the banquet, a lot of the kids went out to Cranes Roost in order to take pictures with their "dates."   Kaleb went with a friend Emma Rose that he has been friends with now for several years as they are part of Uno Voce and National Junior Honor Society together.

Kaleb and Emma Rose

While we were at Crane's roost, we tried to get a bunch of pictures of friends - both old and young 😀

Evan, Sam and Kaleb, and then one with their mamas below!

Uno Voce friends:  Lena, Lily, Emma and Kaleb

These are the old foogies!

Emma's Dad - Mark Rose, went to Andrews with us when we were in college so we have known him a long time.  Kudos to Mark - he was the one who curled Emma's hair as Lisa (mom) had to work that day!

A bunch of the 8th grade boys

After Crane's Roost, we headed back to the school for a combined class picture and to load the bus.  We were able to see a few more friends and grab pictures. That evening, Karis and Amy went out to dessert with our friends the Wanderslebens while we waited for them to get back - it was fun to visit and catch up!

The whole class

While we were there, we were able to catch a few more pictures with various friends.

Amy, Kaleb, Lucas and Olesea

Becca Wandersleben

A crazy story for the evening was the corsage that we got for Emma.  We used a florist that had been used in the past and after giving Emma the corsage, the flowers came apart from the wristlet.....so Jennifer and Miss Sheri to the rescue when we went back to FLEC as Miss Sheri teachers there and had a hot glue gun -- so we glued it and safety pinned it all back together but during the dinner individual flowers began to fall off.  Crazy.  So irritating.  She took it in stride but that was wholly unacceptable, so we thankfully got our money back and then sent her a floral bouquet the next day.

This was the lovely corsage......that eventually fell apart.

Other than the corsage, the evening was a success and fun was had by all!  

Highlights and Lowlights

The end of March held a few highlights in which Kaleb and Addison both received awards - the best kind of awards - Best Sportsmanship (or womanship) 😀

Karis coached the FLEC varsity soccer team and FLEC held an award ceremony at the end for all of their respective sports teams at the Magic Amway Center on the center court.  Kind of a fun experience to be down on the actual court where the team plays.  Kaleb received Best Sportsmanship - well deserved, he always plays with the intent to win but is gracious, kind and doesn't play dirty out on the field.  We are proud of you Kaleb!

Kaleb with his soccer school "glamour" shot :)

Getting his award

In addition to the sports award ceremony, this time of year holds the National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony for new entrants.  Kaleb is the President this year, and he had the opportunity to speak at the event briefly, he did so well and was so confident as he spoke - really well done (from our biased parent perspective! 😊).  He also received the NJHS medal that he will be allowed to wear at his 8th grade graduation ceremonies.

With the Johnsons living in our back yard temporarily (it will be sad when they leave, we have enjoyed having extra people around - always someone to hang out with and play with outside!), Addison has been starting to enjoy playing football with Erik.  She decided to join his flag football team this Spring.  She is learning still, but is enjoying the opportunity to be out there playing - and frankly in Amy's mind, she is a winner just by having the confidence to get out onto the field in a game that is predominantly boys.  You go girl!  She has received the team medal after the game for her sportsmanship and attitude - proud of you Addison!

Enjoying some ice cream after a particularly hot game with Erik

Speaking of the Js in our backyard, one fun aspect is joint meals outside once in a while around the campfire.  So lovely to enjoy the cooler weather - making hobie pies this one particular day!

This particular picture is after the game with her medal, but the point is actually the cactus behind the kids - all of a sudden a huge spike grew straight out of the top of the cactus! We researched and apparently after 25-30 years these cacti "flower" and then once they flower they die.  This "spike" grew to be about 30 feet high in the air, had small flowers at the top, and then grew too top heavy and fell over eventually.  It was wild!

A recent lowlight was when Karis was driving home, had a green light for about 4-5 seconds and as he eventually entered the intersection someone ran the red light (how can that even happen after such a long time of being red!?) and hit him.  He thankfully saw her coming and slammed on the brakes, so she only hit the front right fender.  With such a large vehicle, no-one was injured for which we are very grateful.   

Bent the front panel and crashed the light, so we had to have it repaired but it wasn't totaled thankfully.

The other car did not fare so well

And that's a wrap for this week!

Vail Colorado Spring Break

Variety is the spice of life and this Spring Break spice was to head out to Vail instead of Utah.  Amy and Karis hadn't been there since the early 2000s so it had been a very long time, and the kids hadn't been.  This year's CFO conference was there, so we went out to Denver first - enjoyed a night to acclimate to the higher elevation, had lunch with our dear friends the Endersons and then drove out to Vail.

The mountain was large, and the lifts closed at 3:30 which meant that by the time we got out and skiing with teens who like to sleep in that there just wasn't as much skiing time.  The weather had fresh snow but not the best visibility at times, but it was a fun time to experience a new ski mountain.  We stayed offsite with the Js in a nice condo that allowed us to host the Reiners over for dinner one night - so it was a great week spent with friends!

Cochrans are usually here but they went to the Holy Land this year, so it was just the two families.

Great views of the mountain, and fairly close with about a 5 minute drive

Apparently Kaleb tired himself out that run!

We enjoyed playing card games at the condo each evening!

Scum is the new favorite card game!

When we flew back, we immediately had the fortune to be able to visit with our dear friends the Gruias - Amy's bestie Carmen and her family came down from Kettering.  They have had several friends move down from Kettering to Orlando, so we had the fun of getting together with the Harters (thanks for hosting Alex!), Lundes, and Tkachucks.

Alex (front), Vickie, Amy, Kim and Carmen

And to put the cherry on top, that very same week (how can so much happen in the same span of time!), Amy's previous work mom - and now just dear friend, Phyllis Harding came down to Orlando from Vermont to visit with friends.  We went out to Positanos and then to breakfast before she left.  Such a wonderful opportunity to catch up and visit with a lovely lady.

St Augustine Field Trip

Addison's 3rd grade (the entire grade) had a field trip to St. Augustine - it is a whole day affair as it is about 90 minutes away from Orlando, so Amy took the day off (reminiscent of going with Kaleb, such a fun bonding experience with all of the kids!) and drove up there with Addison.  Addison decided that she didn't want to ride the noisy bus, so we drove ourselves. 

The day involved going to a native Indian experience, 2) Ponce de Leon fountain of youth, 3) the fort, 4) Fort Mose African American history museum and capped it off with a 5) trolley tour of town!  The trolley was a bit chilly so we all cuddled up as we were driving but the day was bright and sunny and we had a great time!

After getting an demonstration of some of the old traditions at the native Indian experience

Playing some of the traditional games

Is this a little girl in the bushes I see?

Overlooking the ocean at the Fort

One of our stops always have a plethora of beautiful peacocks, it is amazing to see so many of them all together walking around!  One even was courting a lady friend and put his feathers on full display, so incredible!

Taking a break with her friend Caffrey

And in other news, Zachary had a fun time going out with Grandma and Grandpa to an Orlando City Soccer game!  

Pretty cool grandparents to take him to the game!  And love Grandma Bobbi's shirt! 😉

Random pictures:

Some male bonding time on the couch...

Hmm, we can see that she has enjoyed eating some chocolate -- not much hidden on this little girl's face!