First Day of School, Including High School!

 Once the kids enter into school age, it just seems to fly by.  How can it be that we have a high school aged kid (9th), a 7th and a 3rd grader!?  Boo!  But time still seems to be flying by no matter that we'd like it to slow down.  

We started school with Covid very much a part of our lives, so while masks were technically optional, the Zs are all masked up for safety seeing as Addison isn't  (which is a little frustrating when we are in the midst of a massive Delta surge in Orlando, but the mask issue has become such a lightning rod for people that it is kind of sad how divisive it is).

Addison is in Mrs. Sorenson's class, which is the teacher that she really wanted, so there was lots of joy about that!  One of her besties - Sebastian - is also in the class so that just made her over the moon.

All ready to go!

With having 2 kids at FLEC and 1 at FLA now, the morning routine is a little tighter, so we have to leave the house very shortly after 7:30.  So far, so good.  Sad to only have 2 at FLEC now though!

As they drive to FLEC, they were playing together the Stack the States game - it is always nice to see when your kids are having fun together!

Dropping off the high schooler at orientation - he was a little hesitant going into high school as everything is so new, but he has acclimated extremely quickly.  Two of his closest friends didn't come this year, but he is blessed with other best friends still there so it has been a positive experience thus far.

Aside from school, we also had a fun visitor at the beginning of August - our Andrews lifelong friend Randy Grove and his fiancé Maggie.  We enjoyed our visit, but it was definitely just a quick one on Friday evening to celebrate his 50th birthday!  May you have another healthy 50 Randy!

Zachary is creeping up on Karis.....you see how Karis is stretching his neck as far as he can go - ha ha, we will see if Zachary surprises Karis or not.  Hard when you have to look up to your kids 😀

Celebrating Addi, Community and Friends

After we got back from vacation, we had some fun events with celebrating Addison's birthday, along with a Serving Sabbath event at our church and Amy's lifelong friend Carmen came down to see some friends, so we had the chance to connect.  Orlando is a great place to live because it seems like people are always coming through town, so you get to see a lot of people compared to where Karis and Amy grew up, which people just don't come to visit.....😂

We have a tradition that Grandma B always makes the cake for our family birthdays, and Addison got to help make it again this year much to her delight.  She choose a soccer cake this year seeing as she is loving soccer so much!

Hard at work

The finished product, complete with chocolate soccer balls and soccer candles!

Happy Birthday sweet girl - may God bless you mightily over the next year!

Our church started a serving sabbath the year prior to Covid, and they decided to have one again this year as the church began to welcome people back to in-person church.  We signed up for packing food boxes for Taylor apartments, but there were LOTS of different activities you could do.

We used the church lobby to set up tables with all of the food items.  Grandma and Grandpa were helping organize

And there were folks making the boxes!  Thanks Johanna and Kaleb!

Ready to go!

Two of our helpers - Matt and of course Zachary

And Addison roamed around helping out in various tasks.

The whole group - thanks for serving!

At the same time downstairs there was a blanket making room - this is where Grandma and Grandpa helped for most of the day - we went down there after we finished our box making.

Amy's high school bestie Carmen came down to visit a newly re-located family from Kettering where she lives, so we went out for tapas at Bodegas on Thursday night after FLEC open house.  It was yummy, but even better just to catch up and visit for a long time that night!

That Saturday evening, we actually got together to welcome the Lunde family to Florida with some of Carmen's other friends - the Tkachucks (whom Karis knew at Andrews, so it is always fun to catch up with them as well) along with the Harters (who also moved down from Kettering).  We found out that Addison's birthday was shared with Vickie Tkachuck, so we had a joint cake and sang happy birthday!

Teresa, Amy, Vickie, Kim, Alex, Carmen

That Friday, Amy took Addison out for a special Friday afternoon birthday outing as is our tradition, and she chose to go to Defy this time with Devin.  There was lots to do, and lovely couches for Moms to sit on while Amy waited!

And in other random pictures:

A fun outing on the boat with Cochrans and Bergherm kids

And with the arrival of school and Fall, came the arrival of soccer practice again.  The hamster wheel starts again - and this year Addison will be on her very own club soccer team, so now we chase three kids around in soccer balls. Good exercise, good friends, so it is a worthwhile investment of time and energy. 

The boys' practice is together for a while, so it is a single drop off which is nice for a bit until their teams split off again.

Valley of Fire, Las Vegas & the Hoover Dam

 After the 2 nights in Hurricane/Zion, we headed off to Las Vegas.  Truthfully we would have been happy to just hang out in Hurricane for one more day, but who knows these things ahead of time?!

While driving to Las Vegas, we went through the Valley of Fire - super interesting landscape -- you're in the middle of a brown flat dessert and all of a sudden these huge vibrant red rocks just spring up out of the ground.  It was so incredibly hot that we didn't get out and walk around, and instead just drove through the park.

While we stopped to use the restroom, Addison found a rock to climb!  

We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations on the Las Vegas Strip, and it had a 2 bedroom condo with a kitchen/living room.  That ended up being a blessing as we were ready by this point just to have some down-time -- plus the Olympics started and we love to watch the Olympics!  We didn't go out to eat in Vegas other than once to our favorite Cafe Zupas, instead we just did the Door Dash / Uber Eats etc and had Maggianos and Chinese.  The restaurants on the trip weren't anything amazing overall, although in Sedona we found a restaurant called the Wildflower Cafe which was DELICIOUS, and is similar to a Panera etc but way better!

On Friday, Karis and Zachary got up and did a round of golf in the morning, while Amy, Addison and Kaleb enjoyed some quiet time in the hotel and then went out to the pool where Addison and Kaleb ganged up on Amy the whole time -- we laughed and laughed, so it was a fun way to spend the morning.

the two attack monsters 😀

That afternoon, we drove down to the Bellagio Resort to look at the fountains, and to try some of their gelato. We went early, as we didn't want to be there at night (no need for young eyes to see all that Las Vegas is known for at night.....so we went at 4P and STILL there were things that we wish the kids didn't see!  Ach, Las Vegas is just crazy).  But the gelato was yummy and the Bellagio was lovely to see.

The store where you got the gelato had a chocolate fountain built into the ceiling and wall - whoa!!

Instead of gelato Kaleb got a raspberry macaroon

It is a little challenging to eat

The flower gardens inside, incredible!

Watching the dancing fountains set to music

The next day, we took a drive over to Hoover Dam as that was on Karis' bucket list.  It was beastly hot, and the visitor center is closed due to Covid so we just got some pictures, walked over the bridge, and then headed on back to the hotel to play some more in the pool and then start to gather ourselves for the trip home the next day.

Amy had a mask, she apparently was just the only one who took it off for the picture

Massive dam!

The white part of the cliffs is how high the water used to be, it is incredibly low during the drought

We made it!

Our vacation came to a close - it was 10 days of a ton of fun, we are so glad that we could do it - such great family memories that we created.  Even Zachary our home-body had fun!  We asked each family member what their top favorite things were -- listing them below in no particular order:

Karis: Grand Canyon Helicopter ride, Sedona Slide State Park Jumping off of the rock, Off-roading/Schnebly Hill, Golf,  Xbox family games, Hoover Dam

Amy:  Antelope Canyon, GC Helicopter, Off-roading, Narrows, Devil's Bridge

Zachary:  GC Helicopter, Antelope Canyon, Golf, Lake Powell, Watching Olympics, Playing Xbox

Kaleb:  GC Helicopter, Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon, Bellagio, Watching Olympics

Addison:  GC Helicopter (this was on everyone's list, so it was definitely the highlight!), Off-roading/Schnebly Hill, Lake Powell, Ooh Ahh point, Taking pictures, Xbox

Zion Utah -- Hiking the Narrows

After enjoying the Page Arizona area for 2 days, we jumped back into the car and headed over to Zion, where we would stay in an amazing house in Hurricane - the community had a pool with a lazy river and a slide, club house with pool table, and the house itself was a really nice house complete with an Xbox for the kids to play with.

We arrived in Zion on Wednesday, and enjoyed driving through the park.  Two weeks prior, there had been a flash flood there that caused significant damage, but it was hard to even see the results of those flash flood in the places where we were - so we were thankful that we could still visit.

We went and rented the special boots, socks and walking sticks the night before to start our adventure of hiking the Narrows bright and early the next day.  The Narrows for those not familiar is basically a frigid river through a slot canyon that is narrow with extremely high walls on each side - very unique and beautiful. 

We got up at 4:45A the next day (as Hurricane was about a 30 minute drive) and arrived at 6:15.  We were fortunate, other friends had gone a few weeks prior and said that they arrive at 5:30A and had to wait an hour to get on the shuttle and couldn't find a parking spot.  We were later in July which is perhaps why we lucked out, but we didn't get there until 6:15, had no problem with parking (although let's be clear, the lot was almost full) and we got onto the first shuttle after about a 5 minute wait -- so we were thanking our lucky stars!!

After getting onto the shuttle, it is about a 20-30 minute drive up to the Narrows parking lot, and then you walk another 30-45 minutes before getting to the actual river where the hike begins.  The night before, the rental store predicted that there was a high chance of a flash flood in the afternoon that day, so Amy set her alarm on her phone for us to turn around in time to be completely out of the canyon by no later than noon -- we were not going to take any chances!  Thankfully there wasn't any flash flood that day, but we just felt better knowing that we weren't at risk.

When we arrived, there weren't a lot of people there so we were able to enjoy our walk (although walking on bowling ball-like rocks takes concentration!) and the water was pretty clear so we could see where we were walking.  The way back, there were so many people that the water was completely murky, so it was fun to see the difference!

Ready to go, see how clear the water is!

Along the way, there were some interesting sights to see and things to climb - you would be sometimes on the side of the river and other times in the water.

Ants on a log 😂

Big boulders to lean on in the middle of the creek

And we found another one to wait beside

This trip the boys really made good partners, staying together and hiking -- whether it was at the Grand Canyon or here at the Narrows.  They are in such good shape that they would often get far enough ahead but would stop before getting out of eye sight to wait for us to catch up.

Waiting for their slow parents 😀

More waiting...

Sensing a theme here..

As you would walk along, the water depth would vary quite dramatically, from sometimes just being about the top of our walking boots to being up to hip height on an adult.  Addison of course in those spots was in a little deep, so Karis would put her on his back.  Unfortunately, Amy had heard how cold it was in the water and knowing that Addison is so thin, she put Addison in quick dry pants thinking that the extra layer would keep her warm.  Addison fell a few times early on, completely drenching herself and with the fact that there is very little sun in the mornings coming into the canyon (which is great for cooler temperatures), it meant that she just did not dry off very well and stayed cold on her whole body from the water -- big mistake on Mom's part.  Addison ended up being quite cold and not having a fun time, so we will have to try and go back sometime to have a do-over! 

The trail crosses over and of course through the river, so at some points you are actually on dry land.

Pretty shallow here Mom!

Thankfully for the most part she still had a smile on her face

And one of the deeper spots.  The deepest spots she just jumped onto Daddy's back

And at the end, tired, cold and "hangry"

Along with variable height water, you also had variable speeds of the river flow - making it a fun experience to try and keep your footing.  You felt like quite the conqueror!  In this video, you can see how handy the sticks are as you walk along!

We hiked until just before the beginning of "Wall Street" at which point it was our pre-determined time to turn around to avoid the potential flooding.  Addison was tired and cold enough as well that we decided it was just the wisest to save our energy to make it out.  Amy, Zachary and Kaleb hiked just a little further to make it to the Wall Street entrance while Karis and Addison started to hike back.   We didn't realize they had started to hike back, so we were worried when we got back and they weren't there, but thankfully there isn't any way OUT of the canyon other than back, so we just started hiking hoping we'd catch up to them, which we did after about 20-30 minutes.

Here is half way point!

So cool with how the walls are wavy around you

She is hiking back, getting out of this place! 

Hiking buddies!

One of us would always stay with Addison to help steady her on the rocks to try and avoid having her fall and get cold again

We made it!

Looking into the area for Wall Street

The three amigos still trying to catch up with the rest...

As we caught up to them, we found Daddy and Addison hanging out on a huge bolder waiting for us - thankfully there was enough sun in that area that she had warmed up and was no longer cold. 

Daddy and Addison both look tired and a little crabby!

So we took lots of breaks walking back to give her a rest

Thankfully there were some areas that had trees and foliage -- because there are no restrooms along this very long hike.....so the boys had to use some wooded areas to excuse themselves a few times.  

Here are just some general scenery pictures as we walked along - it is really amazing how high the walls are, and how close as you walk along.

We made it to the Orderville branch-off - this is looking down that particular trail

We mentioned that Zachary hurt his neck at Lake Powell, and could barely turn his head without turning his whole body.  You can see in some pictures how his left shoulder is higher than his right shoulder even...poor kid!

He just looks so stiff and his neck position is a little off

This picture too....

And at long last after about 4-5 hours of hiking, and about 4.2 miles (round trip mileage in the water itself), we made it back!  You can see at this point how murky the water is with how many people were in the water at this point stirring up the silt.

We made it!

Super fun - we'll have to do it again sometime when Zach's neck wasn't hurting and Addison would not be as cold

After finishing our hike and returning all of the gear, we headed back to Hurricane where we enjoyed a very quiet, relaxing afternoon out by the pool.  The house had an Xbox, so the family had fun playing car racing games as well - everyone got involved!

Not cold, tired or hungry anymore!