Blast from the Past

We are sorry for the long drought on the blog posts - we have been out of town for several weekends, so it just ends up being a blur when we get back and the blog doesn't get updated.  But we haven't abandoned the blog....the posts will still keep coming! :)  This is catch-up #1!

We recently had a fun trip down memory lane by trying out a new restaurant in Orlando - Earls - with Jeff and Niesha.  It was fun because when we used to live in Canada, this restaurant was a favorite hang-out for young, poor high school kids because they had cheap food on certain nights and a "margarita-ville" type decor - lots of parrots everywhere.  So we decided to go and try it out - it was much more upscale than the Canadian version, although we did laugh when we were looking around for any sign of the Canadian version and FINALLY saw a nod to their roots when we located a mural on the wall of parrots!  

It was fun to try new foods, and enjoy the company - and then afterwards we went out to get some ice cream - who can say no to ice cream! :)

Jeff is ready to dig into his ice cream!

A few weekends ago we had a Maddie and Cole over to hang out for the day, the kids ended up having quite a wide variety of activities that they did to find entertainment for themselves - the day went by very quickly!

Playing a game of life together

After playing inside, they all went outside to play on the Ninja Warrior obstacles until the heat pushed them back inside!

Just hanging around....

Cole trying the warped wall

When they went inside, their fun morphed into a pillow fight

While the girls decided to play at less "impactful" activities!

Random picture:

At one of Zachary's soccer games - hanging out on Dad's shoulder.  Addison is in a phase that she loves to wear dresses!

NASA

It is hard to believe but Amy has lived here for 20 years and never been to NASA!  The kids had a field trip this year to NASA, so the whole family (well, minus Zachary as he was in school....boo!) went on the field trip. It was fun to go and check it out, and had a lot of interesting things to see, do, and learn there.

In front of the Kennedy memorial wall

Can barely see this astronaut!

Future career?  Hope not - stay on firm ground!

Whoa - floating away in the international space station!

There were lots of kids there, but we mainly hung out with Biris and Bergherms

Wow, it was really cool to see the Atlantis - so much bigger than we realized!

Not sure how this had anything to do with space travel, but they had two slides that we all took advantage of - even the moms - and flew by the seat of our pants super fast down this!

Even the moms took a turn on the slide!

Addi beat Daddy handily on this one!

The rocket is unbelievable huge!

We can never resist stopping to get our picture with the Canadian flag!

This ball spins with water, she had fun letting her hands get all wet and slide over the globe

While the men tried to stop the ball from spinning - not successful!

All the countries that were involved with space exploration

In other news, we had Kaleb and Addison's Adventurer Investiture - and Kaleb was able to carry the flag in - he was very proud!

About to march in!

Kaleb had the honor of also reading part of the opening program

Random picture:

Addison and Devin are back into soccer skills camp - such a big difference in Addison's courage to run after the ball this year - but the highlight is always swinging in the playground afterwards! :)

Hurricane Irma!

Well, Hurricane Irma is one for the books.  It was the strongest Category 5 storm on record. As we returned from Williamsburg, we learned that we were in the bulls-eye for the storm.  We watched, and we waited....and we prepared.  We considered evacuating but frankly did not know whether trying to drive to Atlanta and getting stranded with no gas .... and then riding out the storm in the van with three kids.... was such a great idea so we decided to hunker down and ride out the storm.

The storm's path kept changing, first up the eastern seaboard of Florida, then straight up the western side....before in the end it fooled everyone and came straight over Orlando.  Thanks for nothing!!!

We had purchased tons of water, filled bath tubs, got food, batteries etc.  We ordered a new lantern and batteries from Amazon and paid for one day shipping....only to have UPS drop the ball and not deliver it until AFTER the storm.  Oh well, even UPS has to prepare we guess!

The weekend was fairly normal as the storm wasn't coming until Sunday night.  We diligently were doing laundry and dishes throughout Sunday in order to avoid having a lot of dirty stuff when the storm hit....only to have the power go out as we sat watching a family movie at 8:15ish on Sunday night.  GREAT.  Just prior to our power going out though, we had a fun video chat with friends all over Orlando as we all sat waiting for what the storm would bring us.  It was a fun group chat - thanks Allen!

With nothing much to do in the dark, we headed to bed.  The storm was supposed to be the worst overnight and with Hurricanes come tornados, so we decided to spend the night as close to the kids as possible in case we had to make a fast dash to the kids' bathroom (the only interior room with no windows in our house!!!).  Karis slept with Kaleb and Zachary in Zach's room while Amy and Addison slept in Kaleb's room.  Or should we say the kids slept.....while the adults laid awake listening to the storm.

For anyone who hasn't lived through a hurricane, it is hard to explain the noise and fury of the storm.  It is INCREDIBLY loud - even Zachary commented on how crazy loud it was.  In addition to the wind, rain, trees - the wind howls through the pool screen.....Add to it the frogs and animals raising a cacophony of noise.

So far, so good - this is before the winds started and the front trees behind Kaleb's head in the background were going wild, thrashing from side to side

During the middle of the night, we both got up and wandered around the house looking out windows.  At the front door, we stood watching the huge trees in our front yard whip around wildly from side to side, while the wind gusts blasted rain against our front door.  At times, we weren't sure that the front doors would hold shut.  Thankfully they did.

The next morning, we got up to assess the damage.  We were blessed - no damage that couldn't be repaired by the amazingly handy Karis Z.  A few shingles, 5-6 screen panels torn out of the pool screen and a brace bar torn apart on the pool screen.  The yard looked like a liter zone with tree branches everywhere, but after not too long the big ones could be moved out of the way and the others were "eaten" by a quick rounding of the lawn mower.  By early afternoon, you couldn't tell we had a hurricane.....

One bar, and the pool screens ripped out but all in all, it isn't too bad

Except when we took a bike ride around the neighborhood and saw tree after tree down, some on power lines, some completely blocking the roads, but thankfully hardly any on houses.  There was one area about 2-3 blocks away that had a slight depression on the road where all of the water congregated, flooding 2-3 homes in that area.  It was heartbreaking to see that.

This tree took a power line down with it

A flood amongst dryness everywhere else....our hearts went out to these folks.

The road was completely blocked with this tree

Our power remained out....10 days.  After the first day of no power (which means no water in our house because we are on a well - thus no showers and no toilets), Karis said that it was simply too hot and not feasible to stay there any longer...but again we were blessed when Mom's power came back on Tuesday.  Thank you God!  We started the camp-out with her that night.

Living in other space when you're not on vacation (thus, we did not properly pack a suitcase) was been difficult.  We go back and forth to the house each day (sometimes multiple times per day), and still managed to forget essential things like a work suit, matching work shoes (one brown and one black...that is what you get for trying to get clothes in the dark!), underwear, etc etc.  But we are blessed, because other countries don't even have A/C or running water in some places!  We did wonder though why we'd see 5-6 trucks all travelling around together, can they not split up and fix twice as much?!  But then we reminded ourselves to be grateful that they were all working so hard to fix the power - many from out of state.

Six trucks outside of Mom's subdivision - can ONE come to our area? :)

Our power finally came back on Tuesday in the wee hours of the morning (Tuesday the following week....).  We were practically the last in Orlando to get power.  As we don't live in a subdivision, this likely means that we will always be on the bottom of the totem pole.  Perhaps it is time to invest in a generator!

Impossible to see, but this is the truck that finally came late at night on Monday night to fix our power.....sometime that night in the wee hours it came back on, so on Tuesday when we came back to the house we had power!  YEAH!!

Speaking of blessings, over the course of the week we were were blessed by our friends in more ways than we can count.

1. Brad never lost power, and brought over his generator on Sunday so that at least we could keep our fridges running and not lose all of the food.
2.  Mom let us camp out at her place, and insists on giving up her bed to us (against our kicking and screaming) - she is amazing, hosting both us and a close friend Ivalee.  Pancake breakfasts, homecooked tomatoe soup, and a Mom/Grandma's love!  We took them out to Sweet Tomatoes for Friday as a treat, along with the Js and the Cs

3.  Jeff and Niesha had us over on Tuesday night for a perogie feast - nothing better to raise one's spirits than home-cooked Canadian food....and some car racing games after supper!

4.  Grodacks hosted us for Wednesday night supper, along with the other folks who didn't have power.
5.  Sabbath found us over at Cochrans for potluck lunch

6. While Saturday night we watched with baited breath the American Ninja Warrior finals with the Touchards.

Touchards rescued a baby kitten during Hurricane Irma - "Mayday Irma" was a big hit with the Z children!

7.  Sunday, the Biris opened their home for the kids to come over and be entertained, while Addison got a much-needed nap.

We are blessed indeed - we hope to pay it forward some day!  We love you all!  Lastly, God topped it all off with a beautiful rainbow after the storm passed - what a reminder of his love and protection

Williamsburg

While you likely are expecting an update on the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, we are going to catch up on our Labor Day trip instead and do a complete update of Irma next time.  We are blessed - we were not injured, our homes did not sustain unrepairable damage and we have a wonderful Mother/Grandma who is letting us bunk with her while our home sits without power.....8 days later and counting. Add your prayers to ours that we get power back quickly as it is mentally draining, and life seems to be on hold while we wait....but we look on the bright side and we remind ourselves - it could have been much worse and frankly not having AC or electricity or running water....such a first world problem. We will praise Him in the storm!:)

For Labor day, we headed off to Williamsburg thanks to Jet Blue on Thursday night through Monday night.  We met up with Amy's high-school roommate Carmen and her family.  The weather was less than ideal, but the company was wonderful!

On Friday, we went to Jamestown, which we found to be delightful.  It had an indian village where the kids could explore and try hands-on things, and a replicable of an early settlement and then of course several early ships which we had great fun exploring.  It was a perfect day to go, as we were able to see everything in the morning before scurrying inside for lunch and to explore the museum and movie while it rained outside!  Whew!

Kaleb, Zabh, Addison, Andon and Ava in front of an Indian home.

Practicing making corn meal

Trying their hand at a corn hole toss

While Addi made a dug-out canoe

Love Karis and Erfin's metal helmets!

Even found a helmet just her size!

Posing on the cannon

Learning how to keep track in the early days of the direction and speed that the ship was travelling in!

Of course on any trip there are just random pictures taken of the kids and selfies to document that we were there, so these pictures below are all at Jamestown and just capture folks along the way

Carmen and Ava

She takes after her mother - she never wants to walk!

Our resort that we stayed at was great, we had two 2 bedroom, 2 bath condos that were side-by-side ith a shared entry way that we could combine, so we had 4 bedrooms and plenty of space for everyone for less than $200 per night!  The resort also had indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, volleyball court, foozball, mini-golfing, ping pong as well as activities galore to enjoy.  We were definitely pleased!

Their patience with mini-golfing didn't last long!

Riding her first elephant

Zachary discovered a love of tennis with Ava

While the other kids painted pottery!

A new bird house!

Zachary and Ava were both the same age and both into games and sports, so they had fun together - always a good thing!

Anique is very talented with drawing, and was so patient with Addison

Only Sunday was really nice enough to get into the outside pool

On Sunday, we went to Colonial Williamsburg which was really very well done.  We didn't have as much time as we wanted as we had a later start (and then we were hungry so had to sit down and eat!) but we did catch a lot of fun areas.

Notice a trend, she's not picky who she cons into carrying her - thank you Ervin!

The whole group

After the tour oft he governors palace, which was SO WELL DONE with a very interesting tour guide, part of the group went to a play and the rest went to find a restaurant to get some lunch.  At the last minute, Addison decided to attend the play and off she went!  Notice the old fashioned "loud speaker" on the fence - it was quite effective!

The governors palace

So charming!

And yet another person willing to carry Miss Addi-cakes!

Love Andon's expression as he eats his ice cream!

Yummy!

And of course we had to each take a turn in the pillory and stockades.  Did you know that if you were ever in the pillory (the upgrade "pillar" one) that they nailed the top part of the criminals' ear to the wood and the ear remained when you were released, thus missing the top part of your ear branded you as a criminal evermore.  Ouch!

As we walked around,we had fun visiting the dressmaker, shoemaker, wigmaker, Apothecary, bookmaker, newspaper office, gaol etc.

Trying her hand at the bow and arrow

While they found a creek to play in

Is it a ring toss, or horse shoes?  Who knows, but she had fun!

On our last night there, we found enough energy to play Uno, and loved listening to Ava and Kaleb laugh their heads off!  The joy in laughter is so awesome!

On ourlast day there, we drove over to Monticello which was Thonas Jefferson's home. We did the family friendly tour, which was PERFECT.  The kids really enjoyed it (along with their parents!). We would have enjoyed more time there, but had to head out to the airport while Gruias began their long drive home.

These flowers were so pretty!

Great picture except Zach wasn't looking - almost impossible to get all three kids to look at the same time!

A new way to carry her colonial doll!

We were blessed to have such a wonderful time with dear friends, and to learn more about early American history.  The time we had went way too fast, and we're already looking forward to our next trip with them (hopefully next year!).  What fun life memories to make!