Spokane

The day after Kaleb graduated from 8th grade we packed ourselves up and headed out to an Alaska cruise with a group of 51 people -- but our first stop was Spokane to visit with Korey and Rachel, Gianna and Nik.  

Last year the weather was quite cool but this year a "heat wave" was going through (can any temp be a heat wave when you're from Orlando??).  We enjoyed the outdoors a lot while we were there, which is always nice to be outside.

Playing on the trampoline

Out walking the dog out in the park that backs up to their house - such a nice walk each day

On Sabbath we went out to Riverside State Park.  It was a bit toasty that day, so we walked a 2 mile loop before calling it quits.  

These two love to climb!

Discovered a little treasure along the trail

The whole group

Standing right by the river is quite cool location

Back at the house, we enjoyed a slip and slide, and some croquet!

Doing some slime

On Saturday evening we had the pleasure of visiting with our high school friends Clayton and Tracy Ganson.  It was super fun to catch up with them and see how they have been doing - it has been since high school for us to catch up!

Saturday and Sunday was Amy and Karis' birthday and they gave us the most delicious cake - lemon raspberry - WOW that was yummy!!!

On Sunday afternoon we had the fun to go and watch Gianna and Nik's piano recital and then afterwards we went over to the Deininger's home where we had an especially amazing treat - sitting out on the soft grass - we could even lay down on the grass without fear of the fire ants!

Prettiest tree above us - Kaleb and Amy were enamored - this is our attempt at an artistic picture!

We enjoyed our time with them immensely - such a nice chance for the brothers to reconnect and the cousins - thank you for your hospitality and the yummy meals!  We can't wait to see them again!

Monday morning, we jumped into the van that we had rented on Sunday and started the drive to Seattle to get onto the cruise with the rest of the folks.  It was sunny as we left Spokane as evidenced by this picture but we soon found Seattle to be cloudy!

Graduation!

End of May brought the final weeks of Kaleb's time at FLEC as he neared the 8th grade graduation. Hard to believe.  He enjoyed several days of field trips the last week - Busch Gardens and Islands of Adventure. In addition to the theme parks, there was also a beach outing on Friday afternoon with a bunch of kids from the class out at Pone Inlet.

Enjoying the beach

Their chaperone group at the theme park

Thursday evening is the 8th grade graduation at the Forest Lake SDA Church.  We started the evening off by having dinner with Bergherms and the Bond families, along with of course Amy's Mom and Lyle.  We enjoyed Italian food at Carrabas before dashing over to the church.

Evan, Sam and Kaleb are the 8th grade graduates

The whole group

Kaleb's class had about 83 kids with only 9 receiving high honors (very different from Zachary's class who had 90% that were all high honors).  We were proud that Kaleb had extremely high grades - he is very driven to do well in his grades and he was able to see the fruits of his labor which is always nice.

He was only allowed to wear 2 medals - so he chose his NJHS and Uno Voce medals (although he could have had also had soccer and high honors medals if he had been allowed to wear all 4).

Congratulations Kaleb on high honors and to the rest of the class!

Kaleb auditioned for the opportunity to do the family tribute with his friend Leticia, and they were the ones chosen -- the teachers saying that they had done a great job of both writing the tribute as well as delivering it with both ample eye contact and the articulation.  With 600-700 people in the graduation audience though, we weren't sure what to expect but they totally knocked it out of the park and did a fabulous job - no nerves at all!

Kaleb gave flowers and a letter to Grandma & Grandpa as well as to Amy & Karis

With the last name of Zbaraschuk, Kaleb was the last one to get his diploma 😀

Afterwards Kaleb had the opportunity to take pictures with his various friends and mentors from his time at FLEC - we have been so blessed by FLEC, it was a great experience. 

Our immediate family

And our extended family inclusive of the Johnsons who came to watch Kaleb graduate as well

Kaleb, Jonny and Evan

Lily and Kaleb

Emma, Lily, Kaleb, Becca with Lena in the front

Our other very special graduate is Miss Sadie who graduated from pre-K.   She is just as adorable as one child can get - we love you Sadie!

Camp Kulaqua Joy, Soccer Winners & the Very First Vocal Recital!

The Spring is aways a busy time in the Z household and this year is no different - the FCSL soccer league at FLEC launches and Karis has now multiple years been the coach.  He thought this year that he wasn't going to be needed for either child but in the end various coaches weren't able to do it so he ended up once again coaching both kids' teams -- which seemed fitting seeing as this was Kaleb's very last year at FLEC in FCSL.

And wonder of wonders, both kids' respective teams won first place in their grades!  Yahoo! That was a fun ending to the year.  What was even crazier is that Kaleb's team ended up winning always in penalty kicks - how stressful can that be?  And he was the one who got the goal that tied up the semi-final game forcing it to go to penalty kicks - really happy for him as he often in the past would play defense so didn't have the chance to get goals, so it was fun to end his run with some goals both in the Varsity soccer as well as now in FCSL.  He also scored in his respective penalty kicks, so that was an added bonus!

Kaleb's winning team

 Very happy Father and son!  Congratulations!

Addison and her team ended up winning their final game in penalty kicks as well.  She played both goalie this year as well as out on the field.  She was super excited to win first place. 

Addison's team

Goalie at the ready!

While out at the field, Amy ran into these two handsome boys and couldn't resist getting a picture of them -- glad they came out to support their little siblings!

This time of year is always Camp Kulaqua the first weekend of May with our Forest Lake SDA Church.  It is always fun to go and reconnect with friends and spend some time out in nature.  This year for the first time Amy's mom and Lyle came out for the weekend so we were able to cross paths with them as well.

Always happy to see Grandma and Grandpa

This year for Sabbath school they brought in animals from the zoo, which Addison had a fun time.  During the sermon she ended up though getting very snuggly on Dad's lap and fell soundly asleep, complete with her mouth open 😁

Every Sabbath afternoon our kids stay around the camp rather than doing the river float, so there is always a trip to the zoo and to the canoe.  The water and trees make such a lovely cool trip that it is just wonderful.

Sabbath evening we congregate for a potluck supper with anyone and everyone who would like to come - over the years it has grown....and grown....and grown... to the point this year where we had about 100 people!  The more the merrier and there is always a ton of food.

Saturday evening the Spikeball games came out and the men remember their younger years and come out in droves!  So fun to watch and cheer them on.

Sunday morning found us at the horse barn going on a trail ride.  Erik, Elin and Addison were excited about the chance to ride horses while Kent and Amy tagged along.

Addi was riding right behind Amy so it was hard to get a picture!

We scampered home from Kulaqua to head very quickly that evening to the final Spring piano and recital concert.  This was the very first time that Kaleb has ever participated by singing a song!  We were super proud of him - he sang the song that he practiced the first 18 months of voice lessons - it was a Christmas song!!  Thankfully he has moved on to other songs in recent years. 😂

Kaleb and Miss Esther

Even Zachary came to this recital - and Grandma and Grandpa never miss an event for the kids

Addison did a piano piece - deciding that she wasn't quite ready to sing a song in front of everyone - she did a great job on her piano piece.