Fundraising Winner - Seaworld Outing

Addison was the happy winner of the FLEC fundraiser lottery - winning the chance to go, along with choosing a friend, to SeaWorld for the day.  She chose her bestie Elin, and Kelli and Amy happily hang out with the girls for the day.  It was a beautiful weather day - not too hot or cold here in Florida!

Ready to hit the rides!

Addison adores all of the roller coasters, with perhaps the exception of Manta (which we therefore opted out of), so they did many many roller coasters.  Unfortunately the mamas can only handle so many, so we waited and chatted at the exit lanes for the girls after a couple at the beginning of the day.

Love them walking hand in hand

For old time memory sake, we went through the aquarium and did the tube in the middle of the fishes - we remember the kids doing this all the time when they were little!

We sat trepidatiously in the front at the Orca show, and then dashed away because we didn't want to get wet!  Addison had gotten wet at the dolphin show, so she was determined not to get wet here - thankfully we did run up to the upper level when the splashing began and we stayed dry!

No more drenching for Addi-cakes!

We enjoyed the dolphin show, the orca show, all of the roller coasters except for Manta, and the penguins! 

Brr - we did not linger here!

This was after the girls got wet at the dolphin show.

Kelli and Elin had to leave at around 4:30 as Kent was taking Elin to the King & Country concert, so Amy then obliged Addison by going on Mako roller coaster multiple times in a row.  It is a good thing Amy has a love of roller coasters too or this would have been a little too much! 😂

And we ended the evening walking down memory lane by feeding the sea lions and the sting rays!

All in all it was a lovely day together, what fun memories - thank you sweet girl!

Celebrating a Very Special Mama

Grandma Bobbi had a very special birthday this year - she is turning 80!  We are so thankful that this special lady is in our lives.  We are blessed by her routinely - we count it as one of our blessings to have a grandparent in town that can interact with us and the kids so frequently.  Having the other grandparents far away in Canada makes this point even more emphatic for us - it is such an amazing thing to know that she can come to every major event, all sports events and just be part of what is going on.

We decided to take her out to a very girly place - the Cake Bake Shop (thanks to friend Olesea's suggestion) and pamper her with yummy food and even more delicious desserts!  Addison was in 7th heaven with how girly this place was.  The food truly was delish, and the gluten free mint chocolate cake that Amy had was YUM!

We enjoyed a room all to ourselves for most of our time there, which was indeed lovely.  

Addison ordered the unicorn (?) hot chocolate.  Lots of glitter, icing and marshmallows!

Dessert for her was a gluten free macaroon

As big as her whole mouth! 😂

Happy birthday!  Grandma chosen a sea salt chocolate caramel cake

Wandering around the store afterwards

While the boys waited on the bench outside!

One must take the opportunity to capture a picture of one's kiddos whenever possible.

We took supper over and cake on her actual birthday as well - Nothing Bundt cake is always a good choice if you haven't tried them!

Happy Birthday Mom - we love you, we are grateful for you, and we pray that you have much health and happiness in the coming year.  You deserve it and more!

In other updates, Addison and Karis took some time to build her new bedside tables.  We love how Addison is always happy to do "construction" and read through instructions for how to do things.  She takes after Karis in this aspect.

Addison and Zachary enjoyed an afternoon (cloudy one, but cool looking clouds!) throwing a baseball back and forth.  Very sweet to see the big brother taking some time for his little sister.

Beautiful Friendships

January was a month in which we counted our blessings for beautiful friendships.  Friendships come in many forms - new, old, casual, deep, life-long.  And isn't a friendship one of the best things in life - sharing life together, good and bad, leaning on each other.

One such friendship is Zachary and Blake B - they have been best friends since they were 18 months old.  They have grown up together, work together, and are like brothers.  Blake was honored during the basketball as he is a senior, and it was great that Zachary was able to go and support him for the special night.

 Amy had the loveliest of evenings with friends when Olesea invited several women out to Mamma Mia.  We laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center.  What a night, and such lovely women to spend it with!

Marina, Amy, Olesea and Kayleith.

Amy and Addison enjoyed an afternoon out for lunch and pampering with two of our dear friends - Kelli and Elin.  Only fitting that Addison and Elin are such good friends as Kelli and Amy have been close friends since we started to work together (and then live together!) back in 1997.

Addison and Elin enjoyed an outing to a bounce house as well at Dezerland for a school field trip....

And somehow they are right beside each other for Una Voce - so it is lovely to be able to take a picture and get both of them - two for one! 😂

Kelli, Amy and Erika enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining lunch out at Superica - catching up with each other and trying new dishes.  What a fun place!  The best part was just enjoying each other - hearing about each other's kids and what is going on for each one of us!  It fills the soul with happiness!

Amy was able to spend a sabbath with Carmen - her high school bestie.  Talk about having a beloved friend for much of one's life - this is a deep friendship that has weathered over 30 years!  Love you girl - I will miss you greatly as you move back to Ohio! Having you here was an unexpected turn of events that I treasured.

One of Addison's beloved friends is Aria - she is completely in love with this dog.  It is a mutual love affair!  Aria has been a great addition to the family - we are all enjoying her happy disposition and joy when one of us comes home!

Speaking of Bergherms and Addison, London and Addison have been enjoying spending time together on several Sabbath afternoons - whether it is out on the soccer field, in the hot tub, or inside the house!

All Good Things Come To an End

The time always flies by when we are there, but alas the time always comes to an end.  Amy never sleeps that well up there (she is beginning to suspect allergies), so it is bittersweet to go home - as it is nice to sleep in one's own bed but hard to leave family and vacation!  We flew home that Sunday from Canada, so one of the last things that we always do is take pictures of everyone.  It is always fun to see how the kids change from year to year.  

The core Z family - including Korey in the painting! 😂

These two are always a hoot - they have a great time together.

Kaylie is like a big sister to Addison, there is lots of adoration on Addison's part

Papa Z - he is in amazing shape for being mid-80s, if only we could all be that with it!

The cousins (well, the ones that were there of course)

The grandparents and their two sets of grandchildren.

For some reason we couldn't get the iphone to capture a decent picture by propping it up on a book, so it became a selfie of the whole family!

 While Karis was there, he found some pictures of family and friends:

His grandparents

This has probably been on our blog before, but aren't these three so cute!?

What a great memory - this was our college trip Amy's senior year to the Grand Canyon - Karis Randy, and Becca in the far distance holding up her hands!

With such an early flight the next morning, we always stay in town at the Hampton Inn, and Karis usually gets together with Eldon Jamieson to catch up.  Always fun to see people that you've known your whole life!

We ended up missing our connecting flight, but thankfully we were able to get on the next one.  We enjoyed the lounge though for several hours - can't complain about that!

What a gorgeous sunset view from the family room!