Legoland

 Last year, one of Kaleb's birthday presents was a trip to Legoland.  With Covid, that didn't happen so with this year's birthday, he added a hotel stay to the Legoland trip and this year we were able to make that happen.

We stayed at the Legoland hotel in a themed room - it was a fun kid experience (although for the adults, it was a very crowded experience as there were kids crawling all over the lobby - in the light of Covid, it was hard not to think about all of the germs!)  But Kaleb and Addison were delighted!

Zachary decided that Legoland was too baby-ish for him, so we let him stay at home with Grandma overnight.  Good thing, because even Kaleb was too big for the bunk beds that the hotel had for the kids.   He kept hitting his knees all night whenever he would turn over!

Throughout the day at the park we rode all of the rides -- thankfully with being there early we didn't have a lot of lines so it was easier to be able to do all of the desired rides and still leave before the park closed that day!

No park day is complete without a blue slushie!

This little girl could not have been more excited about getting her "driver's license"!

The water boat ride

Leaving after a happy day together!

The kids did a golf summer camp - Addison adores summer camps, the boys are so-so.  But they did learn some of the technique and tips of golfing, as well as just having the ability to practice which is a good thing.  Zachary really enjoys golfing, so it was a good opportunity to help him hone some skills.

For father's day, we went out to Crepevine - yum, yum!  We are blessed with an amazing father!  We love you Daddy!

We also recently had a fun games night at Cochrans - swimming in the afternoon and then Skip-Bo and Pit in the evening. Lots of laughter and fun!

Skip-bo

Raucus Pit

Playing chicken on the Dads' backs

Zachary is doing a great job of learning to drive - we are doing a few driving lessons to help with core skills and then practicing his driving whenever we go out together.

Great job kiddo!

And in a random picture, what is sweeter than some snuggle time with Daddy!

Sweetness!

Summer Camp!

After the school year finished, the summer madness began -- with the boys most favorite Kalaqua summer camp.  It was cancelled last year due to Covid, so it made it even more special this time.  Zachary at 15 likely only has 1 more year that he can go (16 is likely the cut-off) so he is thinking he wants to go for 2 weeks next year! :)

We travelled up with Bergherms, it was their first time to camp so we had a fun time telling them all of the tips and tricks!  It was nice to have some adult conversation on the way back as well for the two hour drive! It was a new process this year for the drop-off because of Covid, but it worked pretty well!

Every year in January, the moms all get together and try do coordinate cabins to the degree possible so that the kids have as many friends as possible.  This year Zachary ended up in a cabin with Erick and Blake, so that was perfect and his other close friends Cristian and Aiden were in the next door cabin.

The teens get to stay in the camp hotel, so they were in high style and nice beds/mattresses and lots of space!

 After dropping Zachary and Blake off, we headed over to the Gopher cabin to leave Kaleb.  His entire cabin were full of his friends, so that worked out perfectly!

Sam, Kaleb, Lucas in the back, then Nolan (Evan's cousin), Evan, and Kieran in the front

After dropping off the boys, the parents all headed out for the drive home -- with a little twinge of sadness to be leaving our kids behind, but excitement because we know how much fun they were going to have!

The first thing that the kids had to do was do their swim check to ensure that they could all swim in the springs.

Throughout the week, we as parents have the ability to send an email each day as well as looking at the photo gallery to catch glimpses of "proof of life" pictures throughout the week of the fun being had!

Thankfully the boys had a tremendous time and did not catch Covid (which was one of my fears!).

While Addison was at home, we tried to do some fun things with her over the week - she enjoyed having the attention all to herself and in her words "peace and quiet!" 😀.  That Sabbath we had a fun crossing with little Sadie at church - Addison was so delighted!

And we headed over to Reiner's that afternoon for an afternoon out on the water and then supper together.  This group of ladies is part (not all) of our Bible study group.  Speaking of Bible studies, if anyone wants to have a GREAT bible study - try out the Jesus & Women study by Kristi McLelland - it is absolutely amazing!

Jessica (pictured above on the right hand side) has a little one (and an older one but she is not in this picture) -- Addison loves to "mommy" little babies so she had a delightful time holding Taryn!

Our very special niece Emily graduated from high school up in Canada.  Due to Covid, we weren't able to go up there but they live-streamed it.  She was the valedictorian - congratulations Emily!  We are so proud of you!  Their ceremony did not march in the cap and gown, it was formal wear, so that was interesting to see how different school handle their graduation ceremony

Valedictorian speech

In other updates, our children's church gave out kids Bibles and Bible Bears.  There is a list of Bible verses to read to your Bible Bear and Addison has absolutely been so excited to do this!  She finished all of the Bible verses and turned in the booklet before we left on vacation in July so that she could get her "prize" (not sure what the prize is, but we'll get that when we return to town)

And in super excited news, Zachary got his braces off!  His teeth look great, so it is just a matter of wearing his retainers nightly for life (if you stop, apparently your teeth go back to crooked!).  Within the first weekend, we accidentally threw his retainers out as they were wrapped in a napkin at a restaurant so that was not a positive start to the retainer journey but thankfully it was easy to replace (although painful for the pocket book).

Random pictures:

Addison is following her brother's footsteps with soccer and was in the back yard practicing doing side kicks into the net

Sleepovers at Grandma's during the summer is always a highlight, and they had great fun playing games during the most recent sleepover

8th Grade Graduation Weekend

Zachary Austin Zbaraschuk is now officially finished with middle school.  Congratulations kiddo - we are proud of you!  He graduated with high honors - even though he didn't always love keeping his grades up, he put in the effort and finished with very good grades, as well as participating in soccer and basketball sports.  FLEC was a great experience for him, and we are thankful for the Christian education that he received, along with great friends that he made along the way!

Graduation was on a Thursday, and on Wednesday we went out to the Kraft Azalea park and did graduation pictures with the family.  Such a handsome young man if we do say so ourselves! 😀

Sibling love for the most part mixed in with sibling rivalry! :)

On Thursday, we went out before graduation to dinner with the Bergherms seeing as we are daytime family since Zachary and Blake were each about 1.5 years old! 

How can they be old enough to be high schoolers? 

The graduation ceremony started about 7P that night and went until 8:30 - they had a great problem with awards handed out for high grades (all of the kids in this particular grade -- except for 7 -- got honors or high honors.....now we understand why Zachary always said that this class was super smart!).  

For each graduate they announced the student, shared a baby picture and current graduation picture and the student would then take a rose to his parent along with a tribute letter -- very touching and sentimental moment to be sure.

Then of course was the handling out of diplomas.

Cords for high honors and a medallion for the sports he played

Afterwards they milled around outside, taking pictures with family and friends.

Love these two - they are like brothers!

Soccer buddies - Zach, Luke, Blake, Aiden and Adrian.  Cristian had already left so isn't in the picture.

Miss Esther, Zachary's voice lesson teacher (she has done amazing things with this young man's voice!)

Love you buddy!

David, Zachary and Blake

And our very loved cousin Kelsey!

And their soccer buddies - Coach Billy and Cole, then Adrian, Zachary, Aiden and Luke

Love Braelyn's "lei" of money flowers - so creative!

We are proud of Zachary and are excited to see what the next phase of life brings - but we don't want to see it TOO quickly - time is just going by too fast for sure!

The next day on Friday, we hosted a get together for Zachary's 8th grade buddies before everyone headed out on various vacations etc, and some to new high schools.  In addition, the church hosted an end of the year bash that Addison and Kaleb enjoyed for a few hours!

After boating and basketball, we invited the parents over as well to have a pizza/salad/watermelon supper.

Aiden, Luke, Cristian, Zachary and Erick

Graduation was over Memorial Day weekend, so it ended up being a packed weekend with the graduation festivities starting on Thursday, then the friends coming over on Friday, Sunday was the beach and then Monday we had the family over for a celebration supper!

The beach graduates included Calleigh, Blake, Zachary, Braleyn and her cousin from Denver.

Colby, Addison and Brady

Such a fun event!

On Monday, we went out on the lake with Amy's cousins and her Mom/Lyle.  We took them in tubes, and Grandma Bobbi and even little Sadie went out there - it was sit up tubes so not as much danger of flipping out!

And in other random pictures:

Playing games at Grandma's house

And Addison went to pay her respects to Frannie, part of Addison's "Old lady gang" that sadly are starting to slowly pass away -- they have been meaningful to Addison and it always hurts her heart when one passes away.

Bonding moment with Kaleb and Addison