Crazy Day

Hi, my name is Clint. This is my first attempt at blogging, I hope I don't mess it up!

I'd like to fill y'all (a throwback to our Georgia days) in on what is going on in the Z-family these days. Rather than starting at the beginning and trying to explain the last few weeks, I decided to just tell y'all about today. I felt like today was a microcosm of our life: busy, fun, and a little crazy!

December 17, 2009: I started work at 6:45 AM, I love Thursdays because they are my half-days - I only work until noon (I work 7 to 6 the other 4 days of the week). Today was a busy day - I had a crazy hour where I somehow ended up with 5 patients at the same time, 3 of them in various phases of rotator cuff repair rehab. It was a fun group of patients (one of which was a professional baseball player and played on the Atlanta Braves with Dale Murphy!) and it actually went quite smoothly.

Then just before I left I got a call from the Bishop and he wondered if I could go make a visit with him to a family that was having some issues. It turned out that the family was unable to meet with us at that time but the Bishop went with me to Costco for lunch and returns. I had a bunch of returns to make: Costco, Old Navy, Target, Kohl's - apparently Santa bought some gifts too soon and some children changed their minds in the eleventh hour!

Then it was off to pick up JT and Brevin from school. Kadie was unable to pick them up as the windshield in our Pilot had finally been replaced and she wasn't supposed to drive the car for a few hours to allow the glue to dry. We'd had a crack in it for a long time and it was growing - we wanted to get it done before our trip to Idaho and Utah. We can't wait for our Christmas trip!

We got Brevin's report card in the mail: 2 A+'s, 1 A-, and 4 A's. We are very proud of him, he works hard and is doing great. JT is doing great also, he told me he got to be the teacher today - teaching the other students how to do some kind of art project. Zack is starting to read! (At his recent parent-teacher conference his teacher gave him "Outstanding" marks in every aspect: reading, writing, math - which she said she has very rarely done in the past).

I then had a short moment at home and read Brett's blog - what a great story - and I guess that was my inspiration for doing this now. Then it was off to the Batting Cages. Brevin, JT, and Zack will all be playing baseball this year and tryouts are January 9th. They all were hitting the ball well.

Then I came home, changed into my church clothes and made the visit with the Bishop to the family in need. Which I was only able to do because my doctor's appointment was canceled at the last minute (nothing wrong, just a check-up). The visit went well, but it made me a little late for a tennis game with some church friends.

The tennis match was the first that I had played in since my surgery and there was no problems. Then I left early and went back to the apartment and picked up Kadie and the kids to go make a visit to a less active family and then to my home teaching family. In the meantime, Kadie had received a call from our realtor that our offer on the house was accepted! We're excited, but not counting our chickens yet.

Our visits went well, and then it was bedtime for the boys and I finally had time for dinner. Kadie had made some homemade noodles that tasted delicious over mashed potatoes. A great way to end a busy day!

Merry Christmas from Jeret

Here's Jeret preforming at a Christmas Concert at Saint Mary's. This is his favorite Christmas song that they play. Merry Christmas everyone!

What's going on?

I haven't made the time to update our blog lately. So here's a little info for you all. We have sold our home, which means that we are packing like crazy. All the paper work should be completed this coming Monday. We have to be out by Dec 4th which is the week after Thanksgiving. We will be moving into a 3 bedroom apartment while looking for a new home. We were hoping to have something already but we haven't found "Our" home yet. The boys are not looking forward to the change and to be quit honest I'm feeling a little sad leaving our home. This was our first home and have lived in it for almost 8 yrs now. I will miss the raspberries and grapes that Grandpa Minick planted for me. I will miss all the other things that we have done to make it our home. We know there is a bigger home out there so we look forward to when we find it.
We love you all and hope everyone has a safe, fun, joyful Thanksgiving!

Halloween Day

We began our Halloween very early in the morning. Brevin was up at 5:20 getting ready to be picked up by his coach at 5:50. He had a baseball tournament at Twin Creeks in north San Jose. Luckly his coach gave him a ride so that we didn't have to have the whole family ready that early. We got him out the door and then got ourselves ready. Brevin played very well and pitched 4 innings between the 2 games they played that day. Between games we did a little birthday shopping(he got money for his birthday and it was burning a whole in his pocket). We went to a fun baseball store and he left with a really nice baseball glove. It's been quit cute, he has that glove in his hand constantly trying to break it in. He even lays in bed with it on. After some shopping we made it back to the fields for another game. They didn't win either, but still had a great time. Hopefully this weekends tourney will go better.

I thought this was a really cute picture of Brevin. Sometimes he looks so grown up it's scary!

After baseball we made it home in time for our ward Trunk or Treat. Zack had fun collecting candy from all the trunks. He also came back with these funky eyes, kind of creepy.

Here's the group. Just in case you can't figure out the costumes, Zack is Darth Varder, Jeret is a tree(funny), Clint is a pirate, and Brevin is a MLB player.

We decorated our trunk with the boyz pumpkins. They all came up with their own designs and dad helped with some of the craving. Note the glove in Brevin's hand! :)
What a fun Day!!!

Happy Birthday Brevin

Brevin decided that he would like to go to the Exploratorium in San Fran for his Birthday. We couldn't go on his actual Birthday so we went the Saturday before. He had his friend come with us and went for it. We spent about 4 hours there and needed more time. :)

Yes this is Zack drinking out of a toilet. It was pretty funny, he was laughing so hard I don't think he actually drank any water.

The thing I love most about the Exploratorium is that the boyz can touch and do everything. It's so fun to be able to try everything yourself. They had hours of fun and would of kept going except that they closed :(

After hours of exploring fun, we were all starving. We got on the road and found a Chevy's. The boys ate very well and even had room for some Birthday Ice Cream.

On Brevin's real Birthday, we celebrated with a caramel apple. Yummy....
Happy Birthday Brevin!

Boardwalk

We were lucky enough to have some friends that had extra passes to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. They offered the tickets to us during the summer and never had a chance to go, crazy I know, but true. So anyway I got a phone call saying they were going to expire soon so I better use them. We kept checking the calendar and decided we could go after Brevin's flagfootball game. Clint couldn't go because of Scout Training stuff :(, but we decided we could go without him. We did really miss him, but still managed to have a lot of fun. The boys went from ride to ride and we never stopped until we went home. The only time someone was sad was when Zack wasn't big enough to go on the big roller coasters. I'm always amazed at his lack of fear!

I love the Fall!

I just love going on Field Trips. Zack's class went to the Pumpkin Park today in Morgan Hill. It was so fun. They got to ride the train, learn how pumpkins grow, go through a corn maze, and pick out their own pumpkin to take home. Does it really get much better then that for a Kindergartner? I forgot to mention the whole thing about riding on the bus...So exciting!

Who is that?

This was only about half of the hair that I actually cut off Jeret's head!

It took me a couple of days to get used to seeing him with short hair. I think it's been at least 2 yrs since I've seen the back of his neck. I think he looks so cute and way older.

Families are Forever

We did it!!!

This was our group.....

This was our goal......

This was the Mist Trail with what seemed like a million steps......

This was the sign that wasn't very encouraging.........

This was when I felt like the view was good enough from the sub dome.....

This was when we finally made it to the top.......

This was when I dared putting my feet over the edge......


AMAZING!!
Thanks Annie, Julie, Tammy, and Keri

Frosting and Heat!

You would think after many years of baking, one would know that frosting will melt if it's too warm. We'll I guess I didn't think it was too warm in the house, because I made 50 cupcakes for Pack Meeting tonight and frosted them and put little sprinkles on them, and they looked so yummy. Well............I came back into the kitchen later in the day and found these. Pretty sad looking, huh. Well after much debate, I took the ones that looked half way edible and placed them in the frig. Hopefully I have enough!? I think I'll tell my family to take last, they can have the ones at home. :)

Back to School for 2-1st Day for 1!

I bet all you wish your kids were this happy the 1st day back to school! I can't believe our summer has gone by so fast. I don't think any of us are really ready for school to be back in session, but they seemed pretty happy and ready to go this morning...we'll see how long this lasts. :)Brevin is a big 6th grader in middle school, JT is 2nd grade, and Zack is a Kinder!
I want you to notice how big Zack's backpack is, he should not be going to school....this is crazy!

Zack was so happy to have is bestest buddy in his class this year, LUKE!!!! I think having Luke in his class is the only thing he's been excited about(except maybe the cool spiderman lunchbox he picked out). I'm not sure that Zack and I are ready to be parted, good thing it's only 1/2 day kinder. I love that they both have their super hero t-shirts on!!!

So this is Zack in his new classroom. I'm not sure who was more dazed, mom or Zack!?! :)

Lake Tahoe Trip

The first stop of the trip was to visit Dr. Duke and his lovely wife Morghan in their fancy new digs in Reno. The highlight for the boys may have been Bocci Ball. Duke and Zack beat JT and Brevin in the matchup seen here. We also enjoyed the pool and good food and games.

Then it was off to Virgina City - an old mining town Southeast of Reno. This picture was taken from a scenic lookout point overlooking the "Biggest Little City" (Reno).

This is Clint and the boys at Virginia City. Clint has kind of "let himself go" lately!


We took a mine tour while in Virgina City. It wasn't much. However, leaving the mineshaft was very exciting. When we emerged from the shaft, we discovered that it was raining and hailing! We decided to make a mad dash to the car and we got all wet and muddy - and about 2 minutes later the storm was over - we could have just waited it out!

Next we arrived in South Lake Tahoe, California - just across the stateline from Nevada. Just outside our hotel there was a Gondola that takes you up to the top of Heavenly Ski Resort. This picture was taken during our ride to the top.

This was taken from the observation deck half way up the mountain. You could get off the Gondola at this point, look around, take pictures and then get back on for the ride to the top.

After we got off at the top of the Gondola ride we took a hike. It was a pretty easy one (for everyone except Zack - not pictured here because he had turned back with Mommy). There was a rock wall at the top of the Gondola ride that Brevin and JT rock-climbed. They were both really good at it - it helps to be long and skinny!

The day after our Gondola ride, we took another hike. This hike was 1 mile downhill to Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay. Emerald Bay was one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. It was truly spectacular! This picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see Lake Tahoe's only island out there in front of Brevin. Hiking back up after was a little tough for Zack but he was a trooper - as was Kadie who carried Zack piggy-back style off and on the way back up.

This picture is from the same spot in Emerald Bay, but looking away from the water. Behind the boys you can see "Vikingsholm" - which is a mansion built in 1929 by a rich lady who owned all the land around Emerald Bay at the time. The house was built without moving or displacing any trees - so the house takes some interesting turns to avoid the trees. The house also has a sod roof in places and is made completely from granite and wood found indiginous to the area. Pretty cool, eh?

Visiting Teaching

So my visiting teacher called me up and asked when she could come visit me this month, I said I was open almost everyday this week, so she asked if I would like to go to the beach? We'll that's a no brainer....so we went today. It was so wild! We went to 26th because it's a smaller beach and really easy to walk to and they have bathrooms. So we show up and you can see where all the waves have been washing up, so I tell Liz lets just put our things here and see how things are looking. We'll it's a good thing we did, because about 5 minutes of watching waves, a huge waves washes over the hill and starts flowing down our side of the hill. We run back to our things and everyone is grabbing flip flops, clothes, sand toys, you name it and throwing it out of the way of the water. Other peoples belongings were getting washed away, we saved one guys flip flop and his apples from his cooler. Crazy! So we end up parking ourselves on this cemet slap where people can park their bikes. It was the only safe place.:) So this is a video of some of the AWESOME waves we witnessed today. It wasn't exactly a relaxing day at the beach, but a very exciting day at the beach. It was Fantastic!!! Thanks Liz for the invite!

Hot Summer Night!

I have heard about ice blocking ever since I was in the youth program but I've never actually witnessed it before until.....now! The Hale's called us late yesterday afternoon to see it we wanted to go ice blocking. We had some things we had to get done, but with it being so hot the boys were determined to go because it sounded a lot cooler than being in the house. So we got our things done and met the Hale's in Morgan Hill to try out ice blocking. It was tons of fun, the boys loved it. So here's a short clip so that if you're like me you can see what it's all about.

All Stars!!!

This is Brevin with his buddy JT(our JT loves that there's a JT on Brevin's team). They were also on the Rays together. They had all their All Star games in Santa Cruz and ended up getting 3rd place out of 10 teams. Not to shabby, considering they lost the 1st 2 all-star games last season. So maybe next year they'll be champs? Brevin had a great time...I was amazed at how much he learned in these last few weeks of All-Stars. He played 1st base and pitcher, his favorites. He played very well defensively and batted .417 for the tourney and struck out some of the other teams best players.

Of course Brevin had his faithful fan club show up to every game. Clint was so happy to be feeling well enough to make the trip over almost every day this past week. Clint and I enjoyed the games....JT and Zack enjoy the great concessions. :)

Here's a look at Brevin's whole team. It was a great group of boys! Brevin really enjoyed the players and the coaches. Great Job Brevin!!!!

Summer Vacation Plans Changed...

So a week before our trip to Utah and Idaho, Clint hurt his back, which has become a normal thing over the past 12 yrs...so he starting iceing it, taking meds and resting it....but it just kept getting worse instead of better. By Sunday night he couldn't move without major pain. Monday he stayed home in hopes of resting it one more day to help it....but Tues we ended up in the ER. The MRI showed a major L4L5 disc bulge and a floating disc fragment. We met with the surgeon on Weds and surgery was scheduled for Friday, the day before we were to leave for our trip. To say the least, we never even starting packing our bags.

Although we were disappointed, we're grateful that Clint was able to get everything taken care of and is home recoverying. Thank goodness for modern medicine. This is Clint's normal spots during the day. To say the least he has plenty of time to check and respond to emails. He has a long way to go for a complete recovery, but each day is getting better.
After surgery you usually always come home with some cool new gadgets.....I think the boys will play with the back brace more than Clint will use it:)

A great upside to the story is that my brother Duke and his beautiful wife Morghan came to visit us. It's Morghan's Birthday today so we had to have to cake!!!! Happy Birthday Morghan! Mom and Dad we'll eat a piece for you too and honor of your Anniversary.
We're adjusting to not going to Utah and Idaho....that just means more beach days and more baseball (pretty rough, eh?).

End of School Fun

Last Day of School...Finally!!

I'm not sure if they're more excited about school being over, or getting a gift from Mom and Dad? Either way, mom is really HAPPY that school is over. Yaah for summer!!

This is Brevin and Jeret with their violin instructor. They had their Spring Concert along with 45 other students. They got to perform 3 songs(just the 2 of them) at the beginning. They did such a great job! They have learned so much these last 2 years of lessons.

At Brevin's 5th grade promotion he received the Gold President's Award for Educational Excellence. There was only 1 other student that achieved this award at their school. We are very proud of him for working so hard this year.

Jeret received an award for Excellence in Math. He really does enjoy Math and loves to be challenged. Good Job Buddy!