Oh Canada

We had the fun of going to the farm in July this year, along with Korey & Rachel's family, so it was super fun to all be there together during the warm weather instead of freezing cold! :)

We did some family group shots outside this year - nice to do seeing as it isn't 40 below outside - yahoo!

The whole family

Grandkids

The Core Z Family

And we did our height comparison picture.  Nik is just about to take over Addison.  And Kaylie decided this was not the year for her to be in this picture, so we respected her wishes.  She is the perfect height, whatever that is 😊

Um, Gianna is just about to pass Amy up in the dust - bet it will be at Christmas time!

Minto bowling is always a must while we're there - 5 pin candlestick bowling - very different from what we're used to in the states and much easier for the little kids to handle the ball.  They also have an arcade and bumper cars there!

Love this picture - must capture these moments!

How long will it take for Zach to notice that his father is staring at him?!?

The small bowling balls are fun to play with in any manner!

The Kinsman Water Park was a lovely diversion one afternoon - it is quite a nice water park for a small town complete with a few water slides, a pool, loungers etc.

This year we enjoyed learning a lot of new card games - a new one every day!  We played Crazy 8s, Hearts, Rummy, Scum and who knows what others - they all began to bled together!  In addition to cards, there were of course other board games - such fun times to sit around and visit!

Quirkle

Chess is a favorite of Zachary

Stockticker is never to be missed!

And we took some time out to run into town for a movie, and then we also watched Shrek the Musical one evening as well

The summer has several birthdays with Nik, Kaylie and Addison celebrating another year of life so we enjoyed some birthday cake.

No trip to the farm is complete without the male joy of a project.  This year's projects included running a pipe for cold water to the house to cool it down like air conditioning (Dennis is amazing!) and then over at Kent's place the men dug out the cement and installed weeping tile in order to get rid of the moisture in their basement.  Nothing makes Karis happier than a project 😃

We coerced Zachary and Conner into helping with the cold water pipe

Kent and Emily

Addison is our go-getter, always ready to lend a hand.

And the boys, less enthused, did come over and were very helpful!

Throwing the dirt that they dug out of the perimeter to make room for the weeping tile and the drainage rocks -- throwing it out the window.

Being there in the summer meant that there was an opportunity for the tractors to come out.  Adison was super excited to be able to drive one around the fields.

All forms of driving vehicles was a hit this summer around the farm yard - Addison came up with any excuse to drive across the road to the other house (always with a parent, and there is very little traffic of course out in the country, so driving from one driveway to the other was a hit for her).

We had the opportunity to wander around in the evenings a few times, and saw some wildlife (coyotes and deer) and some beautiful sunsets

While we were there, we located some of Karis' old high school ID cards.  Look at this heard of hard, tinted glasses and mustache!  He was a man already in high school!

Any time that we're there, Amy takes any moment to just take pictures of everyone together so that we have these amazing memories to look back on, so here are just a few moments captured.

Hard working brothers!

Ready to do our bidding at the grocery store!

Zach's buzz is fun to rub his head!

And even a little snuggle time!

Our visit is always over too quickly.  We headed home after about 10 days, and as you'll see in our next post (a little suspense), we came home with an extra person much to our delight!

Fourth of July

 Fourth of July is always a fun time to enjoy some downtime, time off of work and school and some fireworks!  We enjoyed hanging out with Cochrans on the 3rd for the evening, playing games and then on the 4th we had some small fireworks in the driveway before watching some of the various neighborhood fireworks.

Karis and the boys went to the soccer game on the 4th with friends, so it was us ladies hanging out! 😊

Throwing these small "caps" down that then make a big BANG when they hit the ground.  Who knew that could be so entertaining?

Addison (with close supervision) enjoyed lighting the fireworks this year

All lined up for the show!

We have an agava cactus in the front foliage that suddenly grew a 40 foot spike that flowered -- apparently it only does this ever 30ish year and then dies.  So, the plant is now dead.  Thankfully Kent's truck came in very handy and and they were able to pull the dead stump out of the ground.  One job down!

Drug it to the burn pile - big strong men!

Speaking of strong handy men, Kent also knows how to work with cars and Zach's van window was no longer working properly -- so Mr Kent showed Zachary how to take care of it!  Now it works like a charm!

Thanks Kent!

Sailing Camp

 After coming back from Tahoe, Addison dove into a week of sailing camp up in Eustis.  Erik joined her this year and they had a good time, although they are ready to advance next year to the adventure sailing!

Not a lot of wind this day but she did great sailing the boat!

Part of their class for the week was to master the ability to tip the sailboat and to be able to then right it.  She passed with flying colors - good girl!

Congratulations sweet pea!

With the summer we have had some fun out on the lake, both with just our boat as well as with our new friends the Hollands.  It has been a fun summer and Addison has enjoyed wake-surfing!