FLA Banquet

Now that Kaleb is in high school, he has the opportunity to go to the annual banquet.  He was hem-hawing around about who to ask when a lovely friend approached him about going together (as friends) which made the decision easy for him!  Karis wanted Kaleb to get experience asking a girl out, so he had Kaleb go and ask her (even though they were already going together) -- Amy helped craft it with Kaleb and he got her favorite candy, and a poem was written to accompany said candy -- so it wasn't too onerous for him.  

There were a group of 5 kids that decided to travel together out to the banquet, so we headed over to the Ws house to take pictures beforehand.  They had a good time, and it was fun for the moms to take pictures and see the flowers etc!  Big thanks to the Ws for being the chauffeurs as the banquet was out at Daytona beach so that was several hour commitment to drive them, wait for them, and then bring them all back.

Kaleb and Lily

Off they go!

This was a fun picture, and Amy took a picture below of Jennifer taking the picture, so that was a fun multi-view perspective!

At the banquet itself, Kaleb was able to catch up with a few other kids that he is close to as well to get some pictures. 

Kaleb and Evan - brothers for life.

And of course our dear friends the Cochrans - Kaleb and Kieran

Evan took Aubree, so that was fun for them to all sit together at the same table together. 

No picture taking session is ever complete without the mom getting a picture with one of her handsome sons!

And one of the "paparazzi" - the moms below are Deanna (Lily), Amy, Jennifer (Becca) and Leticia's mom. 

Kaleb had another fun opportunity to get dressed up fancy for Cayli's birthday.  They had a fancy dinner at Miss Esther's house (her grandma), a photo booth and then watched a movie together.  Kaleb likes to shop so we went out and found a nice new shirt for him.

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!

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