Ski Trip 2022 - Solitude & Brighton

This year the CFO Conference was a week earlier than the kids' spring break, so Amy went out to Utah for the Conference by herself and then the rest of the family joined her at the end of the week and we stayed the following week to ski as a family.

The first week as there was no family there, Amy decided to tackle the buying of new ski boots.  She had bought ski boots shortly after getting married, and then spent the next 20 years hating those boots - they were uncomfortable and took an act of Congress to actually get into them each year! :)  But she couldn't justify getting new boots when they still worked and were in good shape, but 2-3 years ago they finally broke (much to Karis' delight as he had been telling her for years to just buy new boots)... so with no family to ski with during the first week, she just went from store to store (7 in all) and finally got new boots from the Park City Ski Boot store and was super happy with them - yahoo!  Time well spent for sure, and they better last another 20 years as they were expensive!

Friday afternoon Karis and the kids flew out, and we were together with the usual gang - Js, Cs and of course our family.  On Sabbath we headed out to Salt Lake City to join with the Cs who were staying in SLC (they were originally going overseas for Spring break but that trip was delayed due to Covid restrictions so they ended up joining us out for skiing, but our condo at Solitude wasn't big enough to fit them so they had a condo down at the base and just drove up each day).  Anyway, we went down to SLC to go hiking up to a lookout memorial where you could see the whole town.  The weather was warming up a little, so the hike was extremely muddy (yeah for waterproof boots!)

What we were hiking to....

Snowball fight with the Dad on the way up

That one looks like it is a split second from hitting Dad's backside!

A group shot at the top oft he hike overlooking the city of Salt lake and the lake itself.  Very pretty view and a pretty easy hike if it wasn't for the very slippery, muddy trail that you had to be careful not to fall on.

The whole group at the overlook

Building a snowman at the top of our hike while the parents looked at the view

25 years of friendship with Kelli - thanks for being an amazing friend!

Afterwards, we went downtown to wander around the Mormon Tabernacle area and then walked up to the State building, where there was a large open area perfect for the kids to run around and play.  There was a HUGE snowman that others had built that was fun to see.

While the little kids played in the snow, the older kids and parents sat on a bench and enjoyed some fellowship.

Big snowball fight as they ran around - super fun!

Afterwards we ate supper at Cafe Zupas (yum!) and then went to the famous ice cream store (listed as one of the top in the country apparently) for dessert!

For the skiing part of our trip, we spent our time at Solitude (where our condo with the Js was) and at Brighton.  We are soooo thankful to report that there were no injuries this year as Addison has hurt her knee the last two years ---- she was told this year to avoid jumping, to keep her speed under control and if she didn't, she'd be spending the whole week in ski lessons (where she'd be forced to keep herself at slower rates of speed) instead of just 2 days of lessons.  She did well, and made it through with no repeat knee injuries thankfully.

Our little 'no-fear speed demon' 😂💗

It was fun skiing Solitude and Brighton this year, both are very nice mountains and were easily accessible from our condo.  The weather was nice, with several days getting new snow (which made visibility a little hard those days but always great to have fresh powder!)

The whole group

And the Z clan

We skied in groups, with the ladies sticking to the trails and the dads with the kids heading into the trees.  A friend from Orlando (Amy's finance director) was there with his kids and his son is friends with Zach, so Zach skiied a lot with them as well which allowed him to be independent of the gaggle of little kids for a bit each day 😂

And that's a wrap for this year's ski trip - it was a success and lots of fun memories!  The rest of this post will just be random pictures taken throughout the ski trip

Missing one kiddo, but he must have been with the other group at this point in time....

The girls doing the hand clapping games as we drove one night - fun to watch the little girls learning these games from our childhood!

National Junior Honor Society & Adventurer Sabbath

We are so proud of Kaleb, he has done so well this year in grades and he has always been a super well-mannered kid, and with those combined he was invited to be inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.  He filled out the application with his leadership and community service and was accepted.  The sad part was that his induction was during the week that Amy was out in Utah for the company's annual CFO conference (which did not coincide with spring break this year unfortunately, but more of that in our next post).  So Amy had to watch the induction via facetime from Utah!  So glad for technology though as she could actually see him receive his acceptance and be part of it from afar - yay!

Good for you Kaleb!

Getting some love from his sister

And of course Grandma and Grandpa don't miss any of the kids important events - we are blessed by them!

At the end of the year, Adventurers club always hosts a Sabbath and the kids are allowed to take part in various elements of the service.  Addison and London did the announcements this year - there were a lot of them so they tag-teamed it!

Practicing beforehand

And doing it live!  London is hidden beside Addison in this picture but they both did a great job!

With our long history with our extended daytime family the Bs, Jennifer always does a "memory" gift with the kids for Christmas as we all exchange gifts, and this year the girls went for pedicures and the boys went for Top Golf!  She texted to say that she was so happy to have all 6 of her kids back in one vehicle again -- so sweet and nostalgic!

And to wrap up this week's post - a few soccer-related pictures!

FCSL at FLEC has started, and Addison has decided to be the goalie of her team.  Always nervewracking to be the goalie, but she has done a good job of stopping a lot of shots.  Ultimately their team came in 3rd out of 5 teams, so good job girlie!

On our FLEC city club team, Addison has really enjoyed playing and getting to know the other girls better.

Addison's team and Coach Cole.  Girls: (L to R): Lele, Shelby, Stella, Jeniyah, Kamila, Addison, Josephina and Olivia

Tuckered out after playing hard!

Special People & Caring For Others

Friendships are just so precious and this week Amy was able to spend some quality time with really special people in her life.  What a treat, and something that we don't spend enough time doing!

Her first outing was to go to the Spanish tapas restaurant - Bodegas - with Erika and Kelli.  We just sat and talked for several hours - laughing, sharing - it was a special treat as Amy often doesn't just go out with girl friends, so this made it even more special.  We have gotten to know Erika through our camping trips, and it is so fun to see a friendship develop through common experiences.

One of Amy's most dear friends and mentor is her old secretary Phyllis - and Phyllis comes down to Orlando once a year to visit and so we always get the chance to go out to eat (mostly Positanos as it is conveniently located) and catch up.  

Thanks for all the advice over the years!

Having the chance to serve others is something that has been a blessing for our family over the years, and thankfully there are opportunities to do so that we can participate in.  As the sad war in Ukraine continues, we had the chance to go and pack meals for the families in Ukraine -- 1 million food packets were put together over the course of a day through a local church - it was an incredible experience and our prayers as we worked was for each family that would partake of that meal -- and that the war would end quickly.  

The very next weekend, we had a chance the Pathfinder Global Youth Day to go and pack food packets for local folks in need, which was a similar concept.  We encourage anyone who hasn't done it, it is an easy process and only takes 2 hours of your day (that is a typical timeslot) and you know that you are helping to ensure no-one goes hungry!

Zach and Amy were on the same packing line, who can resist taking a picture with her son!?  Not Amy! 😂

And here is Kaleb!

It was a whole family event for this outing

Aunt Ev Comes to Visit, the Frozen Musical & Soccer Tournament

End of February we had two really special events in the Z house - after a long Covid hiatus, Aunt Ev was finally able to come back to visit her son Jeff, Niesha and grandbaby Sadie!  We love to be able to see and catch up with Aunt Ev, so we actually had the chance to have her over twice as she stayed for about a month, and then Amy's mom and Amy always take her out for a separate lunch with just three of us as it is nice to have a very quiet chance to catch up without the kids distracting us! 😊.  We love you Aunt Ev!

And in a rare treat, we decided to take Addison and Elin to see the Frozen musical at the Dr. Phillips center which was just an incredible experience.  The little girls loved it and even us Moms were wowed by the whole theatrical features and of course the music.  We took them out to eat at Olive Garden first and then off to the play we went!

Playing games at Olive Garden while we waited for the food

And making our fun weekend even more full and crazy, that weekend Kaleb's team had a soccer tournament. They ended up playing in a bracket that was for older kids, so Zachary's teammates were able to come and play too - so Zachary came on Sunday to play after he got back from the Becoming spiritual Retreat that the youth pastor puts on every year (which we are just so blessed to have incredibly talented youth pastor here!)

It was really fun to watch and their team won - congratulations boys!

Karis helps to coach this team, so it was fun to see them all get to play together and win!  Great memories for the male Zs