Saturday, November 4, 2023

Sun Outdoors 2023

We have enjoyed now several years having a getaway to glamping with a group of friends - the people adjust often from time to time but it is always great fun to go and spend the weekend outdoors away from our to-do lists! We went in late October for a long weekend again with a group and the weather was perfect!

Off we go!

We did our Sabbath potluck this time out in the pavilion - it worked well to be right beside the playground and to have some shade!

Our group - Js, Birmeles (new this time), Reiners, Mixons (new!), Ellis' and of course the Zs

This particular location has shuffle board and the group really enjoys playing - we're preparing for retirement years! 😂

Even Zach likes to play!

From young to old, we all like this game!
The entire group often ends up over there playing


While shuffleboard is one of the fan favorites, there are TONS of activities at the resort, and we always end up going over to play pickleball at least once.

Kaleb and Amy after our match
The other 3 Zs played a game with Mellie - super fun!

This particular place has a lot to offer, and we always try and spend a little time doing things at the various outlets:

Card games at the pavilion by the shuffle board - Skipbo for this particular evening


And they had a bubble blaster cannon!
And ceramics
And of course the pool and water slide - look how empty the pool was this time!  Amazing, it was shoulder to shoulder last time we went
And Addison took her remote control boat to play with on the lake - unfortunately the battery seems to have aged out, so it would last only a few minutes each time


On Sabbath, we went out to the beach for sunset at Lido Beach - it was a lovely evening, we even saw dolphins!  The kids were able to play in the sand and water, and we watched the incredibly beautiful sunset at the end.  As we left, we gathered to have prayer and it was really neat when another person on the beach came up to one of the group afterwards to comment on how refreshing it was to see people engaging in prayer.  





The men in our group

And the women - holding our "umbrella" drinks (don't worry, just orange juice!)

sweet cuddle

Her heart creation with sand and shells

After coming back from the beach, we gathered around one of the chalets/cabins and cooked s'mores and just chatted until about midnight.


It was super fun, and we're looking forward to going back in late April again!

We packed up on Sunday and headed back to Orlando, just in time for us to be able to pop over to the church Fall Festival which Addison is still young enough to enjoy.  So glad that we still have a little one, as Amy enjoys going as well -- although more and more of the people are unknown to her as our kids are starting to age out and be replaced with younger families that we don't interact with.  How can this be - we're getting old! 😂😢

This girl loves nothing more than SUGAR of any kind!

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Soccer Tournaments Galore - Local and Union College

 With Kaleb being on the FLA varsity soccer team, he and Karis made the annual trek up to Union College for the soccer tournament.  Kaleb was excited as this was his first soccer trip outside of Orlando.  He was even more excited when he received his first iphone (typically given at Christmas of their freshman year, but we wanted to be sure he had a way of contacting us before Karis flew up)!

All packed and ready to go - they flew out on Tuesday during the day (much better than Zachary's 5A) and did a tour of Union

The team is all ready to go!

They had five games, and the team came in 3rd - congratulations boys!

Kaleb is in the middle of the picture
And throwing the ball in from the back
The team photo

Karis flew up on Wednesday along with two other dads - Brad Hillmon and Eber Azevedo -- they shared an airbnb and did some fun "dad bonding."  They also ended up being the designated laundry men to clean all of the boys' uniforms.  They had a grand idea of putting the uniforms in mesh bags (great idea in concept) but it took so long to dry that it took most of the night with them tag-teaming sleeping.    So the next day they went to a laundromat so that they could do everyone's in separate machines with big capacity - that was great in concept until they got "a few" uniforms mixed up and the kids were all scrambling via GroupMe to find their various socks etc! 😉

Bonding at the laundromat!
Grabbing something to eat
Taking a quick snooze on the lawn (northern grass is so much better than the Floridian grass!)


Amy as forementioned in earlier years' spent a few years in Lincoln where her grandma lived.  It is always fun to send Karis up to take a picture of her old house.  Still there, and still yellow!


They explored a little bit of Lincoln together and popped into the Supreme Court.

Kaleb and Micah

And on Sunday they each flew home on their respective flights.  Karis flew to Sanford (easy peasy) and the team flew Southwest to Orlando arriving home at around 9P that night.


The next week FLA varsity had a home game, so Amy was able to pop over there and her heart was warmed walking up to the field and seeing the same three Dads hanging out together on the sidelines!

While Kaleb headed off to Union for the soccer tournament, there were also local soccer tournaments that he participated the week before.  Their team did very well, and it was fun to watch them play.  That same weekend, Addison participated in her very first soccer tournament - they came in second and got a metal - very exciting for one little girl!


Good job team!

Great metal!

Soccer Dad is tickled pink


Thankfully there is more to life than just the soccer world, and this week we have a few pictures from the FLEC annual fundraiser - it is their 50th anniversary, so it was in honor of the 70s with key chains for each $50 raised.   Addison was delighted to collect all of the keychains (thanks to grandparents and parents).  They also had a 70s spirit dress up day -- we scrambled at the last minute to figure out what to wear but there were some creative clothes thrown together
Slightly 70ish, right!?
Her collection of keychains
At tne end of the fundraising week, they throw a festival which is always fun to go and do the activities and eat some food.
scrambling up the obstacle course

And Michael and Addison enjoyed some bubble tea afterwards

Banquet Ask:


The first banquet for FLA is held in November, and Kaleb was hem-hawing around who to invite when a friend casually asked if they wanted to go together.  Karis informed Kaleb that he still needed to "properly" invite Lily, so he found out her favorite candy (Sour Patch Kids) and we put together a little candy gift package along with a poem "To escort you would be a treat / One never sour, only sweet / Let's go have some fun, in the sand and sun / Making memories and laughter, that we'll remember for years after"



October is a busy month with FLA Pink-Out as well.  Amy's co-worker Yamile was the emcee - she is a breast cancer survivor herself (three time).  She did a great job!  The pink dancing men are always a hoot, and they made their customary appearance as well.



Capturing a picture of Kaleb and Becca to send to her parents to nudge them into coming!  Alas, it didn't work but it is still a cute picture!

On the morning of Pink-Out, Amy had "coffee/hot chocolate" with a friend Olesea and we ran into other moms there as well, so we had a large impromptu gathering - it was lovely.  


October also of course sports Canadian Thanksgiving - Daddy is a dream and made us a very amazing Thanksgiving dinner!  We invited the Js in, but only Kent and Erik took us up on the offer. 




Back in March, Amy switched from handling all of the non-acute areas to now handling the Northwest Market (she is the day to day CFO at Winter Garden, but has responsibility for Apopka and Altamonte as well).  She still has some of the non-acute areas until a full-time replacement is found but life is so much less complicated now that it is a true blessing.  The work is challenging, a great learning experience, but it is helping to give her the complete picture of healthcare and her hours are even less hectic than they were before - it is a win on all counts!  She is so blessed by her new C-Suite, it is a great team! 
Yamile, Amy, Shannon, Kay, Kari (CEO), Dr. Bennett

Saturday, October 7, 2023

A Senator In the House!

Kaleb decided that he wanted to be part of class leadership for his Freshman class, but he was very careful not to try and compete with his good friends, and wanted to also have a chance to try out different roles.  He was the NJHS president last year, so this year he ran for the Class Senator which allows him to participate in his class leadership meetings but also be involved in the entire academy Senate, which is a nice chance to interact with other classes.  He had to give a speech, so he wrote his speech, practiced it diligently in front of a home audience and rocked it!  He won the Senator position - congratulations!

Practicing his speech

 He gave out blow pops as well - the slogan card said "Don't BLOW it, Make Your Votes POP! Vote Kaleb for Senator"



We had the fun of going to the Dr. Phillip's production of Annie with Mom (Lyle decided he was fine not going).  It was so fun to go to a musical - Amy is hoping to expose the kids this year to some of the fine arts, so this was a great start.  



Addison had a super fun outing with Miss Jennifer and London to do some pottery painting and Jeremiah's Ice cream:

Who doesn't love Jeremiah's Ice Cream!

Painting their pottery


In other random updates, Amy had the opportunity - first in her life - to go skeet shooting with a fundraiser.  She went with her coworker Kay.....it was surprisingly fun!  She hit about 30-35 of the targets, but she was so happy that she didn't miss them all that this was just fine!  It is a definite do-over, something that the kids would likely have a fun time doing. 

Amy and Kay

Random pictures:


Zach, Blake and Aiden


Umm, anyone notice the bear at the end of our driveway?  Two cubs have been hanging around our road lately.

Two handsome men!

Kaleb and London