J Baptism & Aunt Ev Visit

 The J family, near and dear friends of ours, had a joyous occasion this year when their children made the decision to be baptized together at their lake home.  It was a lovely event with perfect weather, and Pastor Matt Smith baptized Erik and Pops (grandpa) baptized Elin.  There was a supper served afterwards and the kids enjoyed some playtime in the pool.  

The special participants!

All the kids enjoyed watching from the dock

The J family

Hanging out in their pool afterwards - Addison sadly had a headache so she hitched a ride home with Zachary after the baptism so she is not in this picture.

Our dear Aunt Evelyn came down for a visit to see her family Jeff, Niesha and Sadie - we enjoyed having the family over as we held the family birthdays for Zachary and Kaleb!

These turtle ride-ons have been a Z favorite for many years!

Yummy blueberry lemon bundt cake for Kaleb and a delicious peach crisp for Zachary

Random pictures:

Snuggle time with Daddy - never gets old

And now a new snuggle mate with Aria!

Junior Class Trip to Washington DC & Surf Safari

The time has come, Zachary is a junior and headed off to the Junior Class historical trip, which went up to Washington DC and Charleston S. Carolina.  Zach wasn't super excited about the trip as he doesn't like to be tired and doesn't like museums but we had already signed him up, so off he went.

And thankfully when he returned, he gave the trip an 8 out of 10 rating - that's pretty great!  He enjoyed hanging out with his friends and loved the historical facts about the first submarine that he learned.  It's a win!  We missed him of course, but we were happy to see him enjoying some independence.   We didn't get a lot of texts from him unless we texted him first, other than on Monday when he thought that he had mistakenly eaten pork and was waiting for the severe allergic reaction to start like he had back in Munich.  Thank the good Lord that didn't happen, so we're thinking that it must have been turkey bacon instead of real bacon that he ate.  He did take several Benadryl to be safe, so he was in bad shape after not getting to the hotel the night before until 1A and then being up by 6A! 😄.  He shared a hotel room with Jake E and Blake T, so he was a happy camper -- and seeing as they didn't want to share a bed they somehow bribed/paid Blake to sleep on the floor! Poor Blake!

We missed you buddy!

Junior Class

Holocaust museum

Surf Safari weekend happened at the same time, and Karis took Kaleb and Addison out for the overnight experience, while Amy stayed home to welcome Zachary home.  The weather was beautiful and they had a fun time!

What an incredible sunset!

It was hot, so Karis took Blake H and Addison out for a smoothie!

Random picture:

Aria graduated from her first round of dog training.  First round because she still doesn't do well with stay, come, or quiet (although she doesn't bark a ton thankfully)

Freshman biology class requires a bird project, so Kaleb and Amy headed to Lake Eola to capture the pictures of the famous swans and ducks down there - beautiful afternoon with a great kiddo!

A New Vice President & 25 Years of Wedded Bliss!

 Kaleb has been heavily involved in leadership since middle school and has been serving as a Senator this year as a high school freshman.  He'd like to serve in the different roles over the four years of high school, so for his sophomore year he tried out for vice president.  This time his slogan was "Don't be left feeling sour, vote Kaleb for Sophomore Vice President." (thanks Auntie Kelli for helping craft that one!).  He carefully did his speech and practiced it......and he won!  Congratulations Kaleb!  Out of all of the freshman officers, only 3 were voted in again for next year, so it was a bit of a nail-biter.  He is the only male on the class officer council so now his voice is even more important to represent the male perspective for his class!

This year, Amy and Karis celebrated 25 years of marriage!  Wow, it is amazing how fast it has gone by.  We are blessed to have been in a happy marriage for this long, and we don't take it for granted.  We decided to check out something new this year, and went to Bosphorous for dinner.  It was fun, and we tried out several items that Amy's finance director had recommended - thanks Art, they were delicious!

April is a month of a smorgasbord of activities, a little of this and that, so the following just shares a few highlights:

Fancy birthday party for Leticia (not in the picture) - Lily, Becca and Kaleb pictured above.

Playing soccer

And Addison playing soccer

And the moms watching soccer......could we have planned this pink color any closer?😂

Deanna and Amy

Addison's team had some nice professional pictures taken:

And a random picture of Addison and Aria

Turning 16 & Gaining Independence!

 Kaleb of course turns another year old just 6 days after Zachary, and this year we ended up having their friend birthday parties on the same weekend -- just the way the calendar ended up working out.  Kaleb turned 16 this year - another major milestone!

For his birthday, he decided to go try out an Escape room with a co-ed group of friends for the first time.  All in all, it was a good success!  They had fun which is all that matters.  First, they came over to the house when we fed them, ate cake and then headed down to the escape room and afterwards we went to the Sugar Factory.  Amy was naïve and thought that we'd be done quite early, but the Sugar Factory was SLAMMED and even though we ate outside to make it faster, it still was 11:30 before we got home.

Before they head in.  Kaleb was gracious and let Addison join in. 

The group was successful in figuring out how to escape - good job!

Sugar Factory - waiting to get the sugar comatose 😂

That's a lot of ice cream boys!

The girls shared a cookie dough sundae.  

Erick Hicks was visiting us for the weekend - son of our long-time college dear friends Kevin and Rhonda (Karis in fact lived with them for a short while when they first got married and were working in Ludington Michigan).  Erick is in the Navy as a chemical engineer and is stationed in Jacksonville, which is just a short drive away.    In true honor to our long-standing friendship and traditions with his parents, we played lots of cribbage.

Please please let someone get skunked so we can write down Erick's visit on the board!  I don't think anyone was sadly.

While the kids went into the escape room, Karis, Erick and Amy headed next door to Denny's.  The food is just as "mid" (how about that for a teen term!) as it always was.

We're smiling with our delight of having Erick here, not because of the food!

We always do a very small cake on the actual day of their birthday - this year Kaleb decided he didn't want cake at all but rather wanted a large Jeremiah's ice cream -- so no putting candles into that 😋

Kaleb has been hard at work learning to drive for the past year.  He did the FLVS online driver's education and therefore got 6 free hours of behind the wheel training.  He did great, was a very careful driver and we did a pre-test with the County the same day as his test so that he could tune up any final little adjustments and he passed with flying colors.  Only 1 more Z child to go - both boys have been very responsible careful drivers, so let's hope the third one is too!  We will not jinx ourselves with any jokes at this point in time about the likelihood, or unlikelihood, of that!

Congratulations!

Hello gorgeous is right!  This little doll is quite cold though - ice cream and the crisp April night air made for shivers!

AHHH - Another Adult in the House!

 Blink your eyes and 18 years pass - not sure how it is possible but Zachary just turned 18!  In some ways it is like nothing changed, but in others all of a sudden you don't have access to your kid's health records, or they have to do a background check in order to volunteer with the kids at church - each time there is an "oh, ah...."

Congratulations Zachary - you are a young man that we are very proud of.  We love you, and know that God has plans for you.  You are a responsible young man who has made wise choices along the way and we will continue to support you, to love you, and to cheer you on for many more years!

We took Zachary and his friends to Top Golf for his birthday party - thankfully all enjoy golf!

Peanut butter chocolate pie from Costco - rich and yummy!

Addison came along with us this year, and enjoyed having the chance to swing a golf club.

The whole golfing gang, including Evan, Erick Hicks, Daddy and Addison (with Mom behind the camera!) 

We enjoyed some peach crisp as well with the family birthday- it isn't possible to celebrate too much!