Canadian Work Bee

Karis and Addison headed up to the homeland farm end of July.  Amy and the boys didn't go as Zach was working, and originally we thought that Amy would take Kaleb to go and look at college options - although that didn't work out as we didn't get our act together in time.  Boo.  

At the passport control at the airport!

Kent came to pick them up at the airport, and they enjoyed some time with a long-time friend Elden for dinner before heading home to the farm.

Karis went home in order to help his parents repaint the outside of the house, and Addison was a big help - both outside, in the yard, and with helping to cook!  Super proud of her.

Amy was of course asking for pictures along the way of the whole family, so Karis obliged and sent along little moments of time spent with his parents and brother Kent. Lorie and the kids were in Alberta for the first four days, so they were able to visit once they got back to the farm.

Taller than Gram-Z now!

Notice the red moon in the background!

Back on the homefront, Amy enjoyed hanging out with the boys - they seemed to take pity on her being all alone so would come snuggle in bed at night (also because Dad wasn't there to kick them out!), chatting during the day etc.  Aria the dog missed her favorite peeps immensely, and because the boys sleep in late she was also frantic with desire for love and attention when Amy got home - it was a frenzy of licking and petting!

Now Amy has a shadow too.

Kaleb sat with Amy at church

Blake even hung out with us one night!

On Sunday, Heather found the Chocolate House in which they serve tea.  What fun!  We got the peach tea and had the three tier treats.  What a fun outing - we spent several hours there chatting and catching up.  That is a definite repeat!

Zach has been really enjoying playing soccer again, so he has been coaxing Kaleb out onto our soccer field again.  Amy took the chance to run out and get a picture of the boys together!

Kaleb's Universal pass has expired, and the group decided to try Seaworld this go-round - MUCH cheaper which is lovely.

Becca, Kaleb, Lily and Lucas

We missed Karis and Addison deeply and were thrilled when they came back.  Karis tried to soak up every moment with his family, and what a blessing to be able to do that!

Summer Birthday Celebration

As is our norm, we celebrated the summer Zs, Js and Cs kiddo birthdays.  With 5 of them, there are a lot of birthdays!  In fact, only Kaleb and Zach don't fall in the summer.

Not the best birthday picture, but Kieran (left) turned 18, Erik (left) turned 15 (driver's permit!), Elin (end) turned 13 (teenager!), Devin (right) turned 14 as well as Addison

The next morning Uncle Kent was very gracious to take out Addison to learn how to water ski!  That was her first time, so there were some learning "bumps" along the way but she got up the very first time, so that was fun to see.  The video is 2 minutes long, so you can just watch a snippet if desired rather than the whole thing!

The church held a women's viewing of Father of the Bride, which Amy and her mom enjoyed going over to.  It has been a long time since Amy saw that movie, and it made her a little melancholy thinking about the kids getting married one day!

Although little Addi-cakes is still a girl at heart, so we will cherish it a little longer.

We had a fun visitor - Matthias V - who came to help Sophia drive back.  Amy and his wife Stephanie have been friends for years and have stayed close over time, but we haven't seen Matthias in a long time so it was fun to catch up!

Matthias was joking around in this picture and we just loved his expression so we kept it!  He is always so fun to visit with!

Random pictures - well, Aria is part of the Z-fam and we caught a few moments of her snuggling with various family members!  She is a very extroverted dog who loves people, so is always coming to be close to her favorite peeps!

Carmen Comes to Town, a Baby Dedication & a Farewell

July had a lot of fun, and mixed emotions, of activities.  Amy's bestie Carmen came down to visit with her younger kids Ava and Andon for a little Florida sun - spending time with Amy for the weekend and the weekdays with the Lunde family.  It was a lovely time to catch up, so Amy took Friday off and we enjoyed some shopping and eating time!  It is always hard to be able to truly catch up on each other's lives, even though we Marco Polo regularly!

Carmen is very good at decorating, so on Friday Amy availed herself of Carmen's skills and we hit several home decor stores to look for items for the back patio to elevate its homey-ness!  She did not disappoint, and we made great progress over the weekend on this space!

Hard at work shopping on Friday!

On Sabbath baby Emery was dedicated at the Whole Life Church, so we enjoyed coming over to watch the ceremony and to say hi to the extended family - so nice to be able to cross paths!

Addison of course loves baby Emery!

And a nice picture of us while we were still in our church clothes!

That evening we hosted the Lundes and Harter families over as well as Carmen's crew for dinner and after that we headed over to FLEC cafeteria to set up for the Harter farewell event the next day (boo, they are moving to Chattanooga!).

Argentina was playing that evening so Alex was all set to cheer for her home country!

Balloon brigade!

The set-up crew

The event was lovely on Sunday and a nice turn-out.  We grabbed a quick photo of several ladies that have either known Alex since Ohio days or have gotten to know her down here in Orlando.

In other news, Addison joined the church middle school outing at the local ice-skating rink.  It was great fun and she enjoyed helping a little friend Emy learn to skate too!

Addison, Lily and Alison

Emy (Alison's little sister), with Alison, Penny and Lily coming up behind.

And in random pictures:

This is a dark picture but Amy loves coming home to a driveway full of parked cars - that means our kiddos are socializing with their friends!  Zach's friends have been coming over to play soccer in the back field, which just delights our souls to see him enjoying his friends and enjoying soccer - it has been several years since he has really touched a soccer ball, so this is fun for us to see.

Hard to see but it is a long row of taillights in the dark parked over on the side of our driveway

And Amy was looking at old pictures and came across some gold-ie oldies of Zach.

Who wouldn't want to wear underwear as a hat!?

Coming in for a smooch to Auntie Kellie - that is a mouth WIDE OPEN kiss! 😍😂

July 4th Weekend

 With July4th this year, we were in town and decided to make use of Zachary's Summer Top Golf Pass - we took Blake B and headed over there Friday afternoon.  We were in Bay 218, this is important as this is the first and only time that Amy has done well at Top Golf - and it is because one of the yellow targets was in front of our bay, so she didn't have to hit it very far or in a different direction in order to hit the target and get double points!  Yahoo!  It was a fun family afternoon although it was hot and humid to be sure!

That evening we had a lovely time when we invited Shepherds over (Lyle's daughter) and the family.  Amy of course worked with Stacy and thoroughly enjoyed her so it is always nice to be able to catch up when they are in town.  Their kids are growing so big!

Won't be long before they catch up with Addison!

The next day the four of us (sans Zach) headed out to the beach with a new group led by the Phelps - it was fun to visit with them and to meet some new people!

One of the new folks that we met shared the "secret" to Apopka fireworks - park at the back and dash out during the firework finale.  We did just that, accompanied by the Cochrans, and when the finale started to go we sprinted back to the car and it worked like a charm - we made it home before the Cochrans even made it out of the park (although they did stay for the full finale and lingered a bit to chat).  The Apopka fireworks were nice, not overly crowded which was lovely.

We are grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy, and take largely for granted, in the United States.  Thanks for 250 years of granting people a second chance, freedom to live and worship!

Kaleb Returns!

End of June saw the return of Kaleb from Camp Kulaqua.  He had a fantastic time - made new friends, enjoyed some independence and had a blast with the junior camp counselors!  We talked to him several times on the phone throughout the month and of course texted.  He got a tick bite on the 4th week but thankfully caught it so quickly that it didn't have time to attach more than maybe 1-2 hours max.  He also got sick on the last Sabbath, so had to spend the last night in quarantine in a cabin by himself - boo!

We were excited to have him come home and managed to time it just right so that we were in the driveway when he arrived home - at least Addison and Amy were!

Welcome home!

That weekend was his friend Lily's birthday which they celebrated out at the beach, so Kaleb was able to join a group of his friends out in the sun - happy birthday Lily!

With Kaleb going into his senior year of high school, we had to get senior yearbook pictures done.  Amy ran out looking for clothes options buying 500 things.....only to have him ultimately choose clothes that he already had! 😂  Oh well, saved us some money in the long-run!

And here are a few of the finished product pictures!

Addison had a shopping mall outing with her friends, although Elin was out of town so it was just the 5 of them.  They enjoyed Barnes & Nobles, getting cotton candy in the same of a flower, and of course shopping for clothes and accessories in the various stores.

Waiting for the cotton candy

And voila! Lily, Addison, Lele, Alison and Penny