Southern All Night Soccer Tournament

 Zachary played softball intramurals at Southern, and the culmination of the season is an all-night softball tournament.  Yep, all night.  Crazy, but they are young and energetic!  Amy and Karis hadn't been up to see him since he went to school, so we watched the weather carefully (because it almost appeared that a hurricane may decide to come!) and when we decided it would be safe we booked tickets the Thursday and flew up on Spirit via a direct flight (awesome!) to Chattanooga.  Our dear friends the Hicks graciously took us in for the weekend - and Erick (their son) graciously let us have the bed when he also showed up for the weekend as a surprise.  Thank you Erick, you are so kind!

We enjoyed touring the campus with Zachary on Friday, and then went to Hicks to have supper and celebrate Kayley's birthday.  Happy Birthday Kayley!

We miss you kiddo!

The Advent Health nursing building on campus.  The whole campus is so beautiful!

We even crossed paths with Jake, Zachary's roommate!

Kayley trying on her birthday gift clothes

Enjoying some snuggle time with Dad

It was quite funny because we went to the cafeteria to help spend some of Zachary's food credit (he eats off campus way too often in order to get the pre-requisite amount of protein that he wants for body-building!) and ran into the FLA Senior Class who is on their Senior Outbreak tour!  How fun to see all of the kids that we know from home!  Amy took pictures with all of the kids and sent it to their parents as a proof of life picture - so awesome!

On Sabbath, we went to the Crosswalk Church, where we enjoyed the service and were able to see even more students - it is a very well attended church!

Zach, Blake, Luke and Cristian

Saturday evening, we headed out to watch the games.  The old fuddy-duddies lasted until 12:30, but the next game wasn't until 2:30A so we packed it in -- and that was a fair decision as they ended up losing that game and were out of the tournament.  It was a lot of fun though - lots of teams dress in matching crazy outfits, such as wigs, matching t-shirts etc - lots of fun team spirit

Zachary at bat

The fan club!  Jennifer B and London came up as well to watch Blake play in the tournament

We were sad to say good-bye, but we enjoyed seeing Zach so much, even though it was brief!

Zachary's softball team

Kevin graciously took us to the airport the next day where we rented a car, drove to Atlanta and then hopped on a direct flight back to home - arriving at 5P.  It really was a pretty easy experience through the whole with direct flights!

Counsellor in Training & Boy's Soccer

Addison is loving little kids, and has been serving as a special needs helper at Children's Sabbath School for kids who are on the autism spectrum.  She has a gift with kids, and it brings her joy - so she has now joined as an Adventurer Counsellor in training - super proud of her service and finding her purpose in life!

Taking the oath to become a counsellor in training

And the day of induction

In order news, Kaleb's club soccer team is nearing the end of the season, and one of the players' girlfriends took a bunch of pictures of them playing, which is always fun to share.

We enjoyed an evening over with the Hollands and Ellis' families on Saturday night when we went to hang out with them - the kids played a game that combined acting and Taboo, very fun!

Random pictures:

Luke D is up at Covenant, which is very close to Southern, so the group of guys went out for breakfast together - fun!

Very "cool" group of girls at school! Addison is third from the left.

Hamilton & Girl's Soccer

 Kaleb has long been a Hamilton fan, but Addison now that she is getting older also has become a fan, and for the 10th anniversary, the Broadway show was brought to the big screen.  We decided to go and see it, and it was wild because we couldn't figure out how to all get a time that worked for us on Sunday between Kaleb's soccer and Addison's una voce - so Amy took Addison and Lily to the movie and then Kaleb went later with the Cochrans.  It worked, but isn't life schedules just nuts!?

So cute, the girls inadvertently wore their matching Kulaqua hoodies!

Addison tried out for the FLEC co-ed soccer team this year and had a good time playing on the team.  There were 6 girls on the team, and she was able to play center defense most of the games, so she was very pleased with that.

She has been growing like a little weed lately, and surpassing some of us that are on the petite side - she has now surpassed Miss Jennifer, as evidenced by the picture below!  She was quite delighted!

A water pipe issue caused school to be cancelled one day - could you hear the kids celebrating!? so Miss Addi-cakes got to hang out with Dad at work for a little while.  Fun times

Random pictures:

Look at this golden picture that turned up of Zachary and Dr Sadie at Christmas years ago, so precious!

Addison and one of her good friends Alison

Conference on Mission & Family Celebration

Every August, AdventHealth gets together to focus on our mission, and why it is so important to what we do on a daily basis.  Last year, after the Sabbath service, Erika hosted a haystack luncheon at her house, which was delightful!  This year, Amy offered to alternate with her and host it at my house.  We had a lovely group come over (no picture of the complete crowd unfortunately) and enjoyed visiting all the way until 9P! Yay!

The last of the group - Reiners, Vasti, Sendros', Browns' and Dawn

We grabbed a picture of Abel and Lorenzo before they went home for an afternoon siesta

We had a family birthday party for Addison, as always for the kids, and it was fun to have everyone over.  Steinke's stayed a little later now that Sadie is getting older, so that was fun for the kids to all hang out together

Join in on the "do a plank" movement!

And they played a few games after sundown

And in other random happenings:

Play date over at Salagubang's one afternoon with all her friends

Amy went to curriculum night at OCS and took a picture of Kaleb's name on his locker

This is before Addison's haircut day, but for years we bought the Juice Plus gummies and they have finally fully run out and we've moved on - good bye tradition!

This may have been the birthday boating event, but as we can't remember, we are just sharing the fun of the girls all sitting outside catching up!

And one last fun event was when Devin finished his summer camp at the local theater playhouse and put on a play at the end - Addison went to watch it and then they went out for supper afterwards - thanks for the invite! 😃

A New School Year Begins!

This year, we struggled with an important decision for where Kaleb would go to school - FLA or Orangewood.  

Unfortunately, when he was selecting classes for his Junior year at FLA, he was not able to take A/P or dual enrollment classes, and he ended up retaking an elective (digital photography) that he took in his sophomore year.  We tried to work with the school to figure out different classes as that just didn't make any sense, but it was to no avail for a variety of reasons.  With that in mind, we went ahead and switched him to Orangewood, which is another nearby Christian school.  He was able to take dual enrollment Bible, two A/P (college credit) classes, honors pre-calc and Anatomy & Physiology.  A&P is turning out to be a super interesting class for him, so that has been fun.

He has noticed a few things thus far- all of his teachers are good, fair graders, knowledgeable in their area of study.  The classes are challenging but doable, and he is enjoying learning.  He noticed that there is a lot less busy work.  On the other hand, there are more inter-grade mixers to build comradery at FLA, and the genders don't mix at lunch at Orangewood, which is kind of odd.  He is making friends, and happy with his decision.  He and his friend Becca (who also switched) were given/elected (whatever the right word is) to be the team leaders for the A&P class Armitage table

He started one day earlier than Addison (on her birthday), so this was his true first day, all by himself.

Js switched their two kids over as well, and Kelli sent us this picture as Kaleb walked in after parking (he can drive himself thankfully!)

The next day Addison also started school at FLEC, so we were able to get the requisite first day of school picture together!

7th grade and 11th grade

Special Day for a Special Girl

 Addison's birthday is on August 7, which thankfully often lands right before school starts.  Amy has a tradition of taking the day off for the kids' birthdays and we planned a very special pampering day for the special 13th birthday!  It was a day for whatever Addison wanted (within reason) of her favorite things!

We started off with a frappacino (no caffeine of course) at Starbucks

Before then heading over to Winter Park (fancy part of town) to get a haircut and style.  She wanted it dramatically shorter, so we went all the way to her shoulders in a bob.  Very cute!

We then wandered the streets of Winter Park window shopping -- because who can afford Winter Park prices - which was really fun.  We found a make-up store, which delighted Addison as she is allowed to start tip-toeing into the world of make-up, and did some in-store trials.  She was allowed to get some mascara and tinted blush/lip cream.

During our wanderings, we found some neat little stores that we enjoyed looking through

A store of PINK!  

And the Ancient Olive, which has all kinds of olive oil and balsamic vinegar varieties - we tried some and bought some to try at home.

That evening, we went out to eat at one of Addison's favorite Mexican restaurants - Garibaldis - with the grandparents and with Bergherms, as Evan was heading out the next day for GCA.  He will be missed!

After dinner, the ladies in the group headed over to Cherry Blossom to get our nails done - who doesn't love that!?

Playing Heads up while they waited for the rest of us to finish

The evening ended with Jeremiah's Ice Cream instead of cake, happy birthday songs and gifts.   What a lovely day! 

Zachary joined via Facetime

Addison - we pray that God blesses you over the coming year, and that you stay true to Him.  May you pursue the path He has for you, making wise choices that bring you joy and happiness.  You can achieve whatever you put your mind to, and we hope that you are blessed with friends, wonderful life memories and adventures, and that you never forget how much you are loved!