Longboat Key Club

We had the pleasure of attending another physician retreat related to Amy's job over on the West Coast this time at Longboat Key club resort.  The resort was smaller than the one that we went to in August, but it had a lovely view of the beach and allowed for us to have a pool and sand within a very short distance.  They even let us have an hour free of either a paddle board or a kayak, which we took advantage of both!  The kids really enjoyed both, so I imagine that these will likely be in our future  some point!  The Gulf Coast is very calm, so it was easy for them to do the paddle board without big waves crashing over them.  The water was perfectly clear as well, so it was nice to be able to play in the water and not worry about what might be underneath.....

We had a two bedroom condo, which we realized how spoiled our children were when the boys balked at sleeping in a double bed together with Addison sleeping in her bed with "towel bumpers" to keep her in bed.  Apparently a double bed just didn't suffice, so we gave them the option of sleeping on the couch (without being pulled out) and Zachary decided that fate would be better than having to sleep with his brother in a small bed.  Apparently we need to go on a weekend away and all sleep in the same bedroom so that they remember how fortunate we are!  On well, life moments.

Look how clear the water is!!

Finally managed to somewhat get a french braid, although not perfect, into this child's hair!

WOW - ice cream mom!  There were three ice cream stores in this city circle - so we took our time exploring before settling on gelato - yum!

The CEO was going fishing, and caught bait fish, so our kids had fun helping to put them in the water bucket.

Balancing on the paddle board.

Chugging along, even with a passenger along for a free ride.

Kaleb really liked standing on this thing!

No landmarks - just three trees with three special kids!

Snuggling up to her brother

We went on a dinner cruise on Saturday evening, it was fun although not much for the kids to eat!

When we got back that Sunday, we had the fun of celebrating Kennedi's birthday at My Gym - Addison was very excited and wasn't shy at all before jumping into the fray.

This was a game where they were run and slam into this mat "called a door" and then it would flop over with them on it - surprisingly this was Addison's favorite activity.

The birthday girl!

The Z-men are all playing in a fantasy football league - and Karis got them NFL collector books where you get stickers of the players and put them in by team.  The boys were having a fun time doing this, with little sister looking on!

Phrase of the week:  Well, it finally happened.  Zachary was disgusted with us that we won't allow him to have his very own phone/device etc even though many of his friends now do.....so he said to Karis "I wish XXX were my parents, they'd let me have one!  All of my friends have one!" Poor kid, he truly is hard-done-by.  His father didn't have much sympathy and simply brushed it off, with his Mom saying "Well, you can go live with them then!"  Poor kid didn't follow through (which his parents are of course glad as that wouldn't be an acceptable option!)

Addison told Karis this week "Why are you so bossy!?"  Ha ha - being a kid is tough business!

Labor Day "Work-cation"

For Labor Day this year, we decided that because of our more frequent work / physician retreats for Amy's new job that we didn't need to also go away to the beach for Labor Day, so we decided to take the leap....and do a WORK-CATION!  We were almost giddy with delight - we have always talked about doing this at some point - just to be able to get so many projects done around the house that have sat dormant.

Amy took off Friday from work, and so it began - we cleaned out all of the kids rooms, sorted and cleaned the laundry room, organized the toy room and donated toys, started making shelves for our mud room, cleaned and organized Kaleb's room and bookshelf (Amy wasn't sure she would ever emerge from his room...), went through our main kids bookshelf to donate books, went through Amy's clothes to take to goodwill, cleaned out our office, hung a picture, took all of the purged items to Goodwill, vacuumed part of the garage, and had both of our cars detailed!  The parents worked so hard that we were actually exhausted by the end of Sunday - what a great feeling!!  

We did have some moments of fun though - on Saturday we had the family over for Addison's fourth and final birthday party.  Addison thought at this point that she was turning 5! :)

On Monday as a treat for all of our hard work, we went to SeaWorld in the morning with Grandma and the Cs.  It wasn't as hot as it could been, so we're looking on the bright side!  The Mako roller coaster opened up, which gives you a crazy weightlessness feeling as if you're flying.  Zachary is a big fan of roller coasters, so he went several times.  After one time, Amy decided her head had enough so we tag-teamed with Daddy!

About to go on Mako!

Here are the other two little sharks!

We then headed to the Penguin exhibit - it used to be one of Amy's most favorite places at SeaWorld, but they have absolutely ruined it.  There is a super long line that you have to wait in before you go into a room that shows a little video about a penguin, that isn't that educational, and then you go into yet another long line......during which several times now the ride has broken, so now you've just wasted your time trying to go see the penguins at which time they'll let you just go and see the penguins FINALLY which is what you really wanted to do the whole time......and then when you go in there it is so cold (vs before when it was just all behind glass and you could stay in there to your hearts content!).  Yes, apparently Amy is bitter about this dumb ride!!!!

Shiver me timbers....too cold to stay long.  BOO!

We eventually made our way over to the Happy Harbor where the kids rode their small rides.  Happy Harbor, happy faces!

On the carousel....

Addison for the first time (apparently waiting for Mommy!) became brave enough to go on the baby roller coaster.  She did great, and seemed to have a fun time so hopefully she'll be up to it again next time!

Another favorite of the boys that she tried out was the nets - she had a great time climbing up there and running around - Zachary used to love doing that all the time.

Apparently it was a trip of past favorites, because we introduced Addison to the sting ray tank, and she was brave enough to actually touch them!  She did it so much that her jacket (which we put on just to keep her dry) was completely drenched through to her shirt by the time she was done.

The boys actually decided to try feeding the sting rays, which did in fact take a bit of bravery as it is so weird when they suck it into their mouths and you feel like your fingers are going in there with them!

Apparently he inherited his mother's desire to sit....soon this stroller will be gone-zo and then what will he do?

We decided to try and get a family picture on the crab ride, but it was raining and Karis didn't join, so this is the picture that could have been.....

But he saved himself and we cornered a park worker to take a picture of our family to commermorate our fun morning!

The males in the Z family have joined a fantasy football league.  The boys have had fun when Karis got them an NFL book where you put in all of the stickers of the players etc - this is something that both of them can enjoy as Kaleb loves the stickers and finding all the pictures, and Zachary just loves everything to do with sports!

Phrase of the week:   Addison and Karis were going about their afternoon one day, when Addison decided that she did not like being told what to do and very seriously said to Karis "Daddy, why are you so bossy?!"  Ha ha - that child knows all about being bossy, for being the youngest child in the Z household, she does as lot of bossing around!!

Back to School!

The moaning and groaning, the wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Yep, school has started again at the end of August (so we're running two weeks behind on our blog, but hey, at least it was updated this week instead of a complete miss, so we'll catch up on a slow week!).  Zachary is in grade 4 and Kaleb is in grade 2 at Champion Prep.  Kaleb has Ms. McRee who we love dearly and Zachary has a new teacher that he likes very much, Mrs. Jaramillo.  

Zach - grade 4, Kaleb - grade 2, Addison - still our precious little one!

Can't believe another school year has begun!

Settling into his classroom

Hmm - hopefully these two pay attention!

Addison decided she wanted to do "school" at Miss Jennifer's - so she is busy at work too!

With it being back to school, there was the usual bowling outing - of which Karis did not get any pictures of the boys, just Addison!  Whoops.

Positioning herself

Let 'er roll!

At the beginning of each school year, Jennifer has been organizing a Mom's Night out - this year we went to an Italian restaurant in College Park - it was very good, but the company was even better!  It was a fun evening with friends.

We also had the fun of celebrating Evan's birthday with him before we left on our cruise at Rebounderz - the kids just love bouncing all of their energy out there.

Evan, Johnny, Kaleb (wearing a competitor's shirt....), Addison and Ethan

Keep an eye on her, she could get lost in all of those foam cubes!

This year Zachary decided that he would continue into Pathfinders at Forest Lake church (we had considered taking a year off) - so he has joined his friends there, and it seems to be going well - not so many crafts and coloring....two of Zachary's least favorite things!

Zach, Blake and David

The pathfinder group

Getting his candle....sadly the wax dripped onto his new sash but we were able to get it out fairly easily!  Whew!

That night the pathfinder group had their first lock-in sleepover - we weren't quite ready for a sleepover as we have never had the kids sleep anywhere else, so we let Zach stay very late, picked him (and his friends) up and then took them back first thing in the morning.  In the picture below, Blake is still at home the next morning sleeping, David is looking bright-eyed but Zachary is very definitely a little heavy-lidded! :)

Speaking of Pathfinders, the Apopka Adventurer program has started now - and we are like nuts involved in now two different church programs.  We'll see if we can manage the crazy schedule or not.  Addison has joined this year, so she is "getting bigger and bigger and bigger"....in her own words!  Mommy always responds "Stop that, no more getting bigger!!"

Addison is hiding behind Devin int his picture, so you can just see her head and the back of her blue shirt fourth from the bottom of the picture with Grandma Cochran teaching.

The kids are also back into intramurals now with school starting - Zachary is in indoor soccer and Kaleb is doing kick-ball.

Kaleb is in the yellow vest WAY out there...

In mid-August, we had the "friends" gathering for summer birthdays in which we celebrated Adam (sick, so wasn't there), Kieran, Devin, Elin, Addison and Erik (in order of picture below) birthdays.  These kids are getting big before our very eyes!

Getting ready to open their loot!

Zach and Kaleb are learning how to play cribbage, so they conned Uncle Kent and Uncle William into playing with them!

Random pictures:

Addison is our biggest helper - let's pray we don't wreck this - here she is helping Daddy wash all of the plastic bags!

It is hard to see, but Kaleb is twirling a gold beaded rope in the air, like a rhythmic gymnast he tells us - you can see the gold outline in the air of the beads...kind of cool actually!

We were cleaning out the toy box to get rid of toys that are never played with when Addison discovered the ABCs that Zach just adored when he was a baby....so she sat down to start playing with it immediately!  So that toy didn't make it into the "donation" box!

The kids were given the chore of washing baseboards at the house...Kaleb Mr. Creativity and Mr. Avoid the Job, decided that he needed to have a garbage bag on in case he got wet....and then somehow Addison ended up in the bag with him!  Not sure how clean those baseboards got, but cute nonetheless!

Zachary has now begun to drive the riding lawn mower - much to his chagrin as he'd be happy now to have the job of cutting the grass.  Amy cut grass for her dad on a riding lawn mower at 10 and Karis of course was driving much bigger farm equipment by this age, but apparently he didn't get the same genes.... Oh well, one step...or one Sunday....at a time.

She is doing "weights" by lifting her apple up and down.