The Wonders of the Tampa Zoo!

We had a super fun experience last week when we headed off to the Tampa Zoo on Friday for a field trip. Amy was able to take the day off to join the boys, and it was well worth it!  The day was beautiful (except for the very EVIL pollen in the air!), and we were joined by Bergherms and Biris.  The Tampa Zoo is AWESOME for anyone who hasn't been there before, it has all sorts of interactive activities as well as a section of small children's rides.  At most places you have to be BIG enough to ride the rides, but at the Tampa Zoo, you have to be SMALL enough! :)

Isn't this just an awesome picture!

The giraffe literally LICKED Zachary's hair in this picture!

Zachary and David having a little rest

Feeding the birds

Bumper boats - Kaleb barely made the "small enough" requirement!

 There was a ride called "Gator Falls" that Amy went on with the boys - as you can see it was a water ride, so she expected to be a little moist when she got off.....

And instead we were DRENCHED like we've never been drenched before.  Shirts like 2nd skins, pants entirely wet, hair like a drowned rat!!!  The boys loved it, and needless to say Amy did not accompany them again on this ride! :)

 

The boys on the field trip, although Jonathan (David's brother) was missing in this picture.

After concluding our time at the zoo, we raced home (or shall we say inched our way home in stop-and-go traffic, adding almost an hour to our commute home in comparison to our drive there) - we had friends from out of town - McFaddens and Slikkers over to our house, along with the folks that they all knew from Michigan (this is all Karis' group of friends from Andrews University days) - the Deiningers and Cochrans.  It was fun to visit with them and catch up.

The boys had a fun experience as they were able to head out to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather with Miss Jenn - although Zachary said that he was quite cold after being in the water.

 

A little sandy we'd say!!

Sand even on his eye lashes!

The allergy season continues here, making all of the Z family suffer (except Addison so far).  Even poor Kaleb who hasn't had that much of a problem with allergies slept in until 10A last Sabbath after the day at the Zoo, and when he got up, his eyes were so swollen from allergies that he didn't have any eye definition left!  Zachary's ailment has improved from when we lived at the old house now that we have wood floors, but we're beginning to wonder if his frequent, severe headaches may also be allergy related.

Last week, the Z adults took the plunge and upgrade our phones.  Amy had a smart phone, but it was cracked badly and Karis just had a regular cell phone.  Verizon was running a "deal" and we both ended up with iPhones.  After having an Android, Amy is having a hard time making the switch but is slowly getting used to it, and Karis never having one before is just having fun now that he has all of this power at his fingertips! :)

 

Phrase of the week:  When he realized that it was taking so long to get home from Tampa and that our visitors would most likely arrive at our house before we could get home, Zachary was so dismayed that he said "I'm re-thinking this field trip business to Tampa!!"

Addison showing that it is never too early to learn how to play hockey!

For the Love of Skating

The boys have been in ice skating lessons this winter (third year now), and have been loving it.  Zachary is actually in 'hockey' skating lessons and we have been quite impressed with the level of skills that they're teaching him for skating.  Kaleb has been in just regular ice skating lessons, but we intend to move him over as well next year.  They have been loving it so much, that all things this year seem to be "skating" and we have been going to the public skating sessions on Wednesdays as well.  Several times the Bergherm boys have joined, and that has been just precious.  Kaleb and Kieran have been very good at helping Evan go along on his skates, and it is so cute!  Blake has been doing pretty well on his own, so no need for Zachary to hold his hand! :)

Kaleb and Kieran holding Evan's hand (love Kaleb's tongue sticking out!)

In addition to this, Zachary and Kaleb also went through a phase where they would give us nightly skating performances - as they had seen in the Olympics.  They were a "doubles" pair, with Kaleb taking the female part as he was the smaller of the two.  It was hilarious - Zachary of course was always so serious that he looked like he was grimacing (making the parents slightly uncomfortable!) - but it was always worth a laugh.  We taped one particular performance - this one you can see Zachary's face grimacing, you can see him drop Kaleb's head on the ground (poor Kaleb!) and then at the end when Kaleb flings himself over, there is an unmistakable sound of a "low flying duck" being let loose before thankfully the video cuts itself off!! :)  Ha ha!

 

We also went last weekend to the local fair, it was a small affair, but the kids had a fun time on the rides.

On the ferris wheel - and the brick building behind them is actually where Amy works!

Impossible to see, but this is Zachary and Kaleb on this ride (at the top, kind of right over where the sun is shining through the opening).  They did this ride 6 times!

Daredevil Addi was only allowed on the tame rides, so she had to make do with the train!

Kieran and Kaleb enjoying a ride together

The true highlight last weekend was being able to celebrate Braelyn's 7th birthday!  She had a bike ride party and then wrapped up the festivities with watching the movie Frozen.  As we had taken Addison, we bid our good-night when the movie started, much to the boys' horror - complaining all the way to the car "Why do we ALWAYS have to leave first!??"  It is hard to be a Z-child, what a life - little did they know it would be so rough when they were born to this family!? :)

The birthday girl!

Enjoying a few minutes of the movie - even Addison ran up and got on a chair!

We have had a couple of marathon sleeping episodes - last weekend Addison slept in on Sunday (after being up later than normal at Braelyn's party) until 9:37A!  Amy was beginning to wonder if she should sneak in there and make sure there wasn't a medical emergency!  This Saturday, Kaleb returned the favor after a particularly long and fun Friday (more on that in next week's blog post!) - he slept in until 10:05!  These two are great, it makes a parent feel a little less guilty about keeping them up later at night on special occasions because they will actually sleep in and catch up on the missed sleep (unlike the older brother who will remain nameless....)

Addison is continuing to struggle with getting in her 4 new teeth - the terrible runny nose continues to come and go, sleep coming and going (multiple trips to rock her in the middle of the night, which is highly unusual), and fevers to top it all off.   She is precious as we're putting her to bed, she will be drinking her bottle and will always turn Amy's face so that their foreheads are touching....so sweet!

Where there is a will, there is a way - Addison wanted to sit higher in her little bus toy so that she could see over the dash, so she figured out that shes could put this stool on the bus seat and sit up on it and voila - problem solved!

Phrase of the week:  "My eyes are droopy!" - this was Zachary's phrase as he looked at himself in the mirror after being sleep deprived and saw the bags under his eyes!  If only you'd sleep in, it would be so much better!

Kaleb's 'phrase' is more of a story - he drew a Valentine's day story with Jennifer's help, and it was all about how he and his Mom were walking to church and came across monsters, and their adventure in evading the monsters and still making it to church! :)

 

It's Magic!

How does this keep happening?  Our lives usually are pretty quiet, but all of a sudden in the last six months there has been enough going on that we keep getting behind in our blog posts!  So, another catch-up post to be had....

In February, we had a couple of sporting outings - the first actually was when Z-parents went sans children to the Tampa Bay Lightning game - it was a work event and as it was 2 hours away, we decided that we would go without the kids and save the super late night (It was midnight before we ourselves crawled into bed).  It was in the box there, and it was super fun as it was right before the Olympics, so we talked about how several of the players were heading out the next day to the Olympics. 


Karis outside of the arena as we walked in

Later that month, we accepted four tickets to the Orlando Magic game - taking the boys to make up for the fact that they had missed out on the hockey game.  We realized right before leaving however that this too was going to be a work event - us along with 12 of Amy's coworkers!  The boys were very well behaved though and it worked out nicely.  One of Amy's bosses, Terry, sat down beside Zachary and started quizzing him on math questions, using the scoreboard as the source for numbers - Zachary surprised him by being able to quickly and accurately do all of the double digit addition and subtraction immediately in his head and come up with the right answer!  Good job Zachary!

Watching the game with their front row seats in the box!

We are slowly trying to recover from the trip to Jackson Hole.  The kids have been sick this week, so it has taking a long time.  With the fact that we "sprang" ahead, we're feeling it here!  One night, TWO of our smoke alarm batteries decided to die, so they of course went off two hours apart, waking up the adults in the family - that day was not a good one, to say the least!

We had another strange night in which we woke up at 4A (Karis accidentally woke Amy up as he got out of bed to go to the bathroom), and we realized that the house at the back of our property (in another subdivision) was rhythmically turning their lights on and off - every few seconds (so too quickly to be a motion light we're thinking).  It kept doing that for quite a while - we laid in bed discussing this for about 15-20 seconds, beginning to worry  - what if this was their signal for help and we were ignoring it?  Karis finally called 9-1-1 and they headed out to determine if there was a problem, but we never heard back as to what happened.  Odd.

A few weeks ago, we had Adventurers Sabbath at the Apopka church - we typically don't attend those events as we go to our normal church, but Zachary was a deacon so we went over there.  Kaleb was indignant that he didn't have a part in the service, so hopefully next time he gets chosen!  At least he got to march in with the group, so that was a good thing!

Beautiful smile!

Kaleb and Jonathan marching in

Brother bonding time:

Playing on the I-Pad together

Playing with their dinosaur collection - trying to keep baby sister from wrecking it!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last month (ahh, the time to be in Florida EXCEPT if you have allergies - if you have allergies, you want to chop your head off every time you go outside for any length of time!!)  We have enjoyed playtime outside on the driveway, and Addison has been playing with chalk etc.


We had a group of friends over for Sabbath lunch in February, so all of the kids were outside on all of the "vehicles" - although Zachary and Esi were playing football instead!

Impossible to see, but Zachary is hiding in the box on the driveway - didn't realize it when this picture was taken until he started to climb out, and then we zoomed in on the picture and can barely see his arm where the 'lid' is open! :)

Addison is recovering from a terrible cough that began while we were away last week.  She is getting all 4 of her canine teeth, so the poor child has been quite clingy and temperamental this week.  She is a big fan of course of Daddy, so they have had some bonding time.

Big helper - loves to sweep the wood floors!

Phrase of the week:  Karis asked the boys where Addison was this week, and Kaleb's reply was "maybe getting into 'mis-drift'"  Ha ha, love two things about that phrase - how Kaleb says mischief, and the fact that she probably WAS getting into mischief!  He knows her well!  This child continues to amaze all of us with her "tornado" tendencies - running from one thing to the next - and she is so crafty (and we don't mean artistic!) - Miss Jennifer uttered the very true words the other day "Oh Addison, use your powers for good, not evil!" as we watched her little mind spinning on what she could do to accomplish her goals at the time.....  Karis one day remarked that Addison appears to be the most mechanically minded of all of our children - the youngest, and the girl!  You go girl! :)  She definitely has the ability to think through a problem and get it solved so that she can continue on her merry way - regardless of whether she is SUPPOSED to be doing any of that! :)

Steep & Deep

 

Steep and Deep - that is what Jackson Hole is known for, and the reputation is well deserved.  The Z-family, minus Addison, headed out to Jackson Hole Wyoming for the week on Amy's annual conference.  The boys were beside themselves with excitement.  On Monday, we headed over to Grand Targhee, which was an easier mountain and very enjoyable.  We had a good time other there, although the weather was not cooperative and socked in the upper part of the mountain to the point where at times the males said that it was hard to even see their feet, and that they were struggling with vertigo.  After that, some of the party decided to join Heather and Amy on the lower part of the mountain where the visibility was better (although the runs were not as challenging as they might have liked!)

The boys took ski lessons all week, and did great in terms of having a lot of fun and gaining new skills.  We were at Jackson Hole the rest of the week, which was a very difficult mountain.  Their blues seem to be the equivalent of black runs at other mountains, and their greens are very short and limited in number.  The weather was odd - it was snowing almost every day and then the last day it was RAINING!  Who ever has heard of skiing in the rain!?  We did it though as we had taken the kids out of ski school that afternoon to actually spend the afternoon skiing with them, so we just stayed out and got drenched!

The week was full of very fun memorable moments - a few of which we wanted to share:

1.  Karis, William and Rob were skiing down the mountain when Rob stopped to wait for the other two on a relatively flat area.  A man flew past him shouting "There is a moose coming!  GET GOING!!"  Sure enough, Rob turned around and a mother moose was racing towards them.  Needless to say he got himself in gear quickly and skied about 200 yards down the mountain and turned back to see what was happening - the mother moose got tired of the chase and turned back at that point.  Karis and William were behind Rob, so they just stopped skiing and watched this all unfold below them!  On the topic of moose, we literally saw 1-2 moose every single day that we were there - we've never seen that many ever!  They were on the outskirts of town along the roads, in the rivers etc. Pretty cool.

2.  On Wednesday, Amy and Heather were picking up the kids when we noticed a mother and her son sitting on the snow playing together.  The little boy was black, and the mother was white - which caught our attention as we walked by - thinking that perhaps the little boy was adopted.  Anyway, in a moment the mother got up and walked right by Amy and spoke to her companion - Amy's mouth dropped open as she realized it was SANDRA BULLOCK!  Heather didn't believe her, so Amy followed her into the ski school to get a second verification, and yep, no doubt about it - it was Sandra Bullock!  She apparently bought a home outside of Jackson Hole.  Amy actually saw her again a 2nd time the next day.  Both times Amy was "cool" and did not gush or ask for an autograph - figuring she probably wanted her privacy - but inside Amy was screaming! :)

3.  On Wednesday, we went to a nearby tubing hill - which was super fun as there were two runs and we could race each other.  Zachary and Kaleb were racing each other one time, and the men at the top (the ones that worked there) gave each one of them a huge push to get them really going - well Kaleb wasn't situated on his very well - and he literally flew off the tube and began to slide down the hill!  The man realizing what had happened dove through the air to catch Kaleb, and managed to grab him before he got too far.  Kaleb would have been fine as the hill wasn't that long or steep, but it was certainly dramatic!

4.  That same day, Luke got hit in the face with a snowball which resulted in much crying and wailing.  As we drove home, the boys all said they wanted to play snowball fights again - Amy said "No, someone has already been hurt so we're not going to be playing that again.".  Luke turns around and says to her "Auntie Amy, it's okay, I was just being overly dramatic and a little crabby!"  Ha ha ha - that's the first confession we've ever heard of its kind! :)

Zachary, whether excitement or sheer obstinacy, got up super early every day - even earlier than he did at home even with the time zone change.  He got up at 3A (5a our time), 3:50 (Mommy, I slept in today!) and Amy in desperation came with a bribery system - $10 for sleeping in until 7A, $5 for sleeping in until 6A, and $1 if you wake up earlier than that but yet don't wake up Kaleb (who was sleeping in the same room).  It worked one day as he slept until 6:15 but the next day he could only make it until 5:20 (although I suppose that's better than 3:50!). If we had stayed longer, the incentive was then going to shift that if you didn't sleep until at least 6A, you'd have to PAY US money!  Alas we didn't make it that far!  Kaleb had no trouble time shifting, so this continues to boggle our minds with Zachary.  We're re-thinking our summer trip to San Diego, and whether this may be an adults-only trip! :)

Addison enjoyed her time home with Grandma, and sprouted 3 of her canines!  She came down with a cold, so unfortunately woke Grandma up pretty early at least one day.

Kaleb and Kieran in ski school (Kaleb at the back).  Notice the grey weather!

Following Kaleb and Kieran down the mountain run (Kaleb in front now)

Zachary in ski school (in the red, black and white jacket at the far right of picture)

The Z-family at Grand Targhee

This was a sleigh ride at the National Elk Refuge (elk in the background)...

Pretty close to this big bull....

Kieran and Kaleb - awesome skiers!

Deiningers, Cochrans and Zbaraschuks after a "train" ride down the tubing hill

 

Another family picture moment!

The boys on the trip....(except for Erik and Elin, as they were too little to join the tubing fun)

Enjoying the last few runs the last afternoon!

The boys desperately wanted poles, so we let them finish the last run with the adult Z poles.

The last night we took a group shot - the Johnsons had left to see Kent's sister, we we're missing them but otherwise it was the Deiningers (Jr and Sr), Cochrans, and Zbaraschuks

 

Phrase of the week:  Why do we have to go home?  Why don't we live here? (Kaleb) Oh good, it is only 51 degrees at home - I hate to sweat! (Zachary)

Outings, Parties & Dates!

We have had a lot of fun outings going on over the last several weeks, so this entry is trying to recap all of the fun things that the family has done - how is it that we get behind so easily!?

The kids went with Jennifer to the Science Center, which of course is always a big hit.  Addison in particular loved the water attractions!

I love how Kaleb sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating! :)

Good times!

Lounging around - it's hard work!

Then Heather H and Jennifer threw a Valentine's Day party where they had crafts, the trampoline, fun pictures, goodies etc.  The kids stayed for as long as they possibly could playing and came back with great tales of playing all sorts of games!

Very handsome men!

With the news with Addison - she is a thrillseeker and mischief maker if there ever was one!  She was giddy with delight when Uncle Kent turned her upside down and swung her to and fro!

Does not appear to have any head rush.... :)

The point of this picture was to showcase the fact that Addison managed to unravel her brand new tights on the very first day by pulling on a loose string.....but isn't the expression on her face just priceless?  Look at that little Miss Attitude!

Growing up with four older brothers,  Addison had very little chance of not being tomboyish - and the boys love her so much that they'll let her do just about anything she wants....and this day she decided that she wanted to do a dog-pile and be on the very top! :)


Ride 'em cowboy!

Amy began a new tradition this year of taking the boys out individually on a date night once a month.  It has been fun to spend some one-on-one quality time with them.  We have done it twice thus far with Kaleb choosing Chik-Fil-A (they get to choose!) and Yum-Yums Chinese food and Zachary choosing Perkins and Yum-Yums (two weeks in a row.....Chinese lost a little appeal the second time around! :))

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb was wanting to have something from another room and was demanding that his mom go and get it for him....when she answered "I'm not your servant" to which he replied in an adamant voice  "Yes you are, you're my mom!"

Zachary's funny conversation came with deciding on which restaurant he wanted to go to - he said he would pick something closer next time but this time (the first time we went) it was all about his belly and his belly decided he wanted Perkins!