Soccer Tournament - Dayton Ohio & Chicago Healthcare Conference

Late October found 4 of the Zs flying out of town - very unusual for both parents to be out of town at the same time, but Karis and the two boys flew out to Dayton Ohio for the soccer tournament and Amy flew out to Chicago for 3 days for a Kaufman Hall healthcare conference.  Thankfully Grandma saved the day once more and was able to watch Addison -- we are grateful for you Grandma Bobbi!

Kaleb is playing defense for the Varsity soccer team, and Zachary is the team manager - helping with logistics and tracking statistics.  Karis is helping as a co-coach where needed.

All ready to go, including his tie!

The boys and girls soccer teams

What a handsome couple and a beautiful view!

On Sunday they were able to tour the local aviation museum

That's a huge donut!

Hanging out at the airport

 

Amy enjoyed the quick trip up to Chicago - it was a super conference, complete with the Harvard professor on happiness - Arthur Brooks - and Grant Hill.  The weather was lovely, and we were able to see a bit of the iconic Chicago scenery.

The old historic water tower

The previously known as Sears Tower

Amy flew home on Friday afternoon, so was able to spend the weekend with Addison - Mommy Daughter time!

Hurricane Milton

 October found us waiting with baited breath for a category 5 hurricane bearing down on Florida - Hurricane Milton.  We were fortunate that it did not end up packing that much punch by the time it came to Orlando, and we were relatively unscathed -- with one small exception as you'll see in the pictures below.  We did enjoy some time to watch a movie during the day off as we waited for its slow progression. 

At least 3 of us watched, including Aria, but the boys decided If was too baby-ish of a movie -- boo!

The pool was very full, with more rain pouring down!

Our only real damage was the panel on the garage coming off.  Karis was able to fix it thankfully - he is a magic handy-man for sure!

Addison is in Una Voce (advanced choir) at FLEC, and they are in the midst of practicing for Singin' in the Rain.  Addison is super excited about it, and enjoys the opportunity to perform.  What a great opportunity to learn how to be in front of people without having a lot of nerves.  Miss Esther is the leader and makes it really fun for the kids, we are blessed.  

Practicing the moves for one of the singing and dancing numbers in the play.

Aria, our dog, continues to show her love for swimming and water.  She regularly jumps into the pool for a swim.  At least maybe it helps keep her smelling good! 

She is getting quite big - about 50 pounds now

Random pictures: 

The kids have taken Juice Plus gummies since they were babies, and we've finally made the break - no more JP gummies.  Good-bye to a longstanding health tradition.

Random picture:

Amy was working with her finance director Art, who is a photographer in his spare time, and he took this picture of Amy while she was focused on working through a spreadsheet.  Art has a great eye - it is a neat one with the two dueling laptops and the floor to ceiling windows behind Amy - it feels like the trees are part of the indoors!  

Pumpkin Fest & FLEC Fall Festival

October started with a fan favorite - the annual pumpkin fest held by Forest Lake Church, this year at the warehouse so that there was a larger venue.  We were over at Hollands first, so dashed home to get the butternut squash risotto and then over to the fun.  Lots of fun mixer games, and then the ending had the tank game -- Kent and Karis won again - yay, but the biggest yay is that they partner together and thus allow Kelli and Amy to watch from the sidelines 😀

Hard at it - Karis is in the blue shirt and Kent is the black shirt on his knees on the right hand side of the picture.

Allen Isidro is the main brainchild behind the pumpkin fest (he and wife Tangie used to do it at their house!) - thank you Allen for putting together a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and to enjoy some lighthearted moments together!

Pumpkin bread - yum!

FLEC has a festival Sunday each year that has lots of really fun activities, food trucks, BMX bike show this year.  Addison came and enjoyed "shooting" her tie-dye shirt with her desired colors.  

Speaking of FLEC, they had breast cancer awareness month and kids were allowed to wear these special pink hoodies.  This is a group of girls that has a few girls that have been close to Addison - Addi is in the front sitting on the ground, and her close friend Elin is on the left hand side at the end - these two get confused for each other all the time, just like her mom Kelli and Amy 😆

Addison tried out for the FLEC JV basketball team and made it - basketball is a new sport for her so it is fun to watch her learn new skills - good for you girl!

Grade 4 at FLEC read through the book "The Wild Robot" and it just came out as a movie, so London invited Addison to come along with the rest of the 4th grade kids (who were able to come on a Sunday afternoon) to enjoy it.  Addison said it was a little more emotional at the end than she expected but that she really enjoyed it. 

Uncle Gene's Visit & Shaving Cream fun

In sad news, Uncle Jim passed away in late July of a heart attack (Amy's uncle who came to visit earlier in the year) and the memorial was slated for late September.  Hurricane Helene though had other plans, thwarting the remaining siblings from making their way to the memorial.  This turned out to be a lovely turn of events for Amy though as Uncle Gene (and his son Rick) who were on their way from Oregon down to the memorial came over to Orlando instead.  Uncle Gene is the oldest son out of the 9 children, and is 97!  He is in amazing shape and mentally still very sharp - it was fun to see him.  Amy remembered a time when she was very young in which she was likely a bored little girl, wanting someone to pay attention to her at Grandma's house, and Uncle Gene took the time to take her out for a walk around Union - it was a lovely walk and Amy has always remembered him with fondness for that kindness. 

We went out for breakfast and then later that day they came over for some card games 💗

That weekend we had a fun get-together with Amy's high school bestie Carmen's house along with Lundes, Tkachuk's and Harter's. The kids had a shaving cream adventure - playing the game for tag and shaving cream missiles - they ended up quite covered!

Lily, Andon and Addison

Speaking of shaving cream, Addison has reached the ripe old age in which she has begun to shave her legs.  The excitement was real 😂

Inaugural shaving experience

At work, the division extended leadership team went for meetings at the Magic stadium, and had the fun experience of going to see their stadium locker rooms and received a Magic jersey with our name on the back!  Doesn't Amy look sporty - too bad basketball isn't her favorite sport by any means!

In conclusion, here is a sweet picture of Zachary giving Aria some love.  Whenever you start to pet Aria, she sits down with her chest thrust forward as she loves to be petted there!  Or anywhere really! 😂 

Random picture:

She is enjoying baking - we're figuring out how to do things gluten-free slowly but surely.

Senior Dedication

 It is mind-blowing to think that we have a senior on our hands - where did 18 years go?  With Zachary entering his final year at FLA, they hold a senior dedication vespers in which they dedicate the class to following God's path and giving them Bibles with their names engraved on them. 

The evening began with a bit of chaos when we realized that Zachary's white dress shirt was no longer going to fit him as he has been working out a lot this year....  We had recently bought a new one for Kaleb, so that would have to do, but Kaleb's neck is smaller than Zachary's so poor Zach could barely look down the whole night without choking himself! 😂

Daddy helping him get the tie done!

The program was quite well done, and Mr. Morada spoke - including starting with a very clever poem that he had written for the class!  Kaleb was at Camp Kulaqua for the Southern Union Leader Conference, so he was present in spirit only.

This is Zachary's class - about 80-90 kids.

Several of Zachary's close friends over the years - Jake, Zach, Blake and Erick

Best friends since they were 18 months old!

Addison had a fun weekend when her friend Jackson invited her to his birthday party down at the Camp Wilderness Disney outdoor resort - there was pool, soccer and a lot of friends to play with - the evening ended early as a thunderstorm came through, which was a happy event for Mama who wanted to go home before it was such a late evening after the Disney movie - she suggested to Addison that we could watch a movie at home ourselves!!  Addison ended up being sleepy on the way home so it was an early evening for all. 💕

Random pictures:

Mommy and Addison went out for a yummy Thai date night

Addison was very happy with how wavy her hair on this particular day.

Back to School

 When we returned from the Camporee, we hit the ground running and the kids started school the next day.  Zach had already started the week before, but Amy still took the opportunity for her "first day of school picture!"

Zach (senior), Kaleb (sophomore), Addison (grade 6)

Middle school here we come!

First day of school treat afterwards at Smoothie King.

Before school started (actually end of July), Addison dyed her hair (the underside) a bright pink to be similar to her cousin Emily who had done it a few years ago.  We had to saran wrap her hair and let her sleep in it over night

Trying to protect her clothes

All saran wrapped up

You can really only see it when you pull the top layer of her hair back, which made Amy happy but Addison still felt good about having pink hair!

Random pictures: 

Having your daughter hold your hand never gets old!

Bible study ladies here for Mission Conference - Kelli, Amy, Suzie, Nicole and Erika

What a beautiful butterfly and the flowers

An afternoon hang-out with Elin, Victoria and V's friend from the ICS school

And a boating outing with Addison's friend Michael