Record High Today

So let’s catch up, Christmas was wonderful, we once again had the family over here but this year our parents took all of us to see Cirque de Noel with the Grand Rapids symphony which was a lot of fun. Sara was down for that but had to leave Christmas Eve; although it was short we loved having her. Ben was home for the entire week, but left a few days after Christmas to spend New Years with his girlfriend and her family down in Chicago. Mariada had a party at a friend’s house, busy kids we have!

Usually when I’m telling you ski racing stories you know I’m talking about Sara, that’s still the case as we spent weekends away watching Sara rock it this year on the slopes! But guess who joined her high school ski race team?! Yup Mariada is learning to not only ski, but race :) She’s having fun and everyone is impressed that someone that has only been on skis maybe 10 times in her life is now trying to run gates. It’s been fun and she is really enjoying it. She is also training for soccer indoors on the weekends and is still maintaining her all A report card, she continues to impress us with all her hard work. Not to say that we don’t have our challenges, she is still a teenage girl and with that comes drama, but we are working hard on that as well.

div> Ben and Libby, we adore her.

Mariada racing GS, she's doing great!

The SL ski team! GO LAKERS!

Sara getting it done! She is having a great season!

With winter coming to an end (smiles all around) I have been planning TRIPS! We owe Sara a non ski trip and she would love to visit Uncle K and Aunt C in Cabo, so we are working on that, Mariada has spring break in April, but she’s not sure she wants to go anywhere for very long, since she will miss soccer practice. But the big news is that we have booked tickets for all five of us to Albania in June! We told Mariada we would all go before high school was over and she really wanted to go this summer since she plans on having a summer job after she turns sixteen. We are so happy that Ben and Sara will be able to go, we wanted to bring them when we went to get Mariada but it being during the school year and the Holidays well it just didn’t work out.

As is the case with everyone the Gezon house is busy, but blessed. Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy!

Michigan Fall

One of Michigan’s best kept secrets is fall. Summer is and always will be my personal favorite, but fall is a beautiful time of year. Much like summer our fall has been busy. Mostly driving Mariada everywhere, swim meets, swim practice, soccer practice, soccer games, school, friends, youth group, you get the idea! But she is doing great; she has decided this year that swimming is NOT her thing, so next year (when she could drive herself) she will not be getting up at 5AM to go to practice ;) But she does still LOVE soccer, sadly it’s over, but her team did end their season undefeated and will be moving up to the second best level in the state next year! She is now working out with friends every day after school and working very hard at maintaining her all A’s report card. BIO is an issue ;)

Ben was home for as long weekend and it was great having him home. Things are going great and he enjoys school. We are very much looking forward to the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Sara is in full skiing mode, she spent the last two weeks out west trying out for the national development team, and although they have not made any decisions yet they have invited her to return to another camp in a few weeks. She’s home for this week taking tests and making up school work, but leaves again this weekend for Maine.

Since the last update Bob turned 50, but he’s not recognizing his birthday, so I took him to Paris and London for a non-birthday, birthday celebration. Really we used a trip that we had won in an auction last year that was about to expire but since he wasn’t recognizing it anyway… Needless to say the quick getaway was perfect, we had a blast and if we had taken more than 15 pictures I’d share, but it was more of a just hang out see what we could see after sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast type of break! It was wonderful!

So now it’s all about the upcoming holidays, weekends are starting to book up and we are really looking forward to Thanksgiving at my mom’s house, jingle bell parade’s and holiday parties with friends!

Lakeshore Premier soccer! U16 girls, they rock :)

At least she made a few friends in swimming!

She loved everything but the dance at homecoming this year. Apparently high school kids "grind" she was not happy about that!

Box of crayons for Halloween! Fun times!

Summer 2011

What a summer!

It’s been so long that I had to read my last post just to see where I left off!

I’ll just keep it to the highlights….
Mariada is a permit carrying teenager…that’s right she can drive with an approved adult…currently her dad is the only one that will drive with her! I find this to be funny since when it was Ben the only person that could teach him without incident or argument was me….I don’t know what that says about parents and kids but I must say that it’s nice to not have the stress of teaching another child to drive on my shoulders! OK still a bit of stress, on our way to church last Sunday there was a forgot the car was still in reverse and almost went through the fence moment that was a bit stressful!
Days after drivers training ended Mariada was off to Wisconsin for a soccer camp, she LOVED it and wants very much to go to the even longer camp next summer in Boston. Then she was home for a few days and we left for a two week boat trip, one week with good friends and the second week with Ben and Sara. It was warm and sunny both weeks but the waves really kicked up the second week and Sara and Mariada get sea sick so we decided to not go as far as planned and stayed in Michigan this year. Swimming and soccer started while we were still on the boat so Mariada missed a few practices. Since being back she has been very busy with both, she has already had two swim meets and a soccer tournament. I really wish fall sports would start in the fall, but no one asked so I guess it’s just me that doesn’t like summer to end ;)
We also had a big day of laser tag and beaching it with a gaggle of girls for Mariada’s 15th birthday. She had tons of fun and is thrilled to be starting high school in a week! High school was much of the discussion at the birthday party and its fun to listen to the chatter about how different it’s going to be this year! Cute.
This week I take Ben back to Ann Arbor, he’s going to be a sophomore in collage, and I cannot believe that he turned 20 years old this past month! After returning from California he helped around the house building me a beach shed and just hanging out with friends. Since he didn’t have an official job he came on the boat trip for a week with a friend and it was really fun to have them, listening to the conversations of your 20 year old son and his friend was quite something for Bob and I. I know everybody says it, but they really do grow up fast!
Sara is so busy with her summer jobs and training, but it was great fun to have her along for the boat trip as well. She has her race schedule for next winter and will be spending a month in Montana training. She is thrilled to have a sponsor this year ( as our we) much of her equipment will be given to her, which is really great since this year they changed the kind of ski’s you can race on and she was looking at having to buy all new ski’s.
We had such a fun and busy summer and I still can’t believe it’s coming to an end. We had many great weekends on the beach with friends and even had a few perfect weather nights to go down to the beach a build a fire to roast hot dogs and smores!

Lewis had a blast on the boat trip! I have to download the pic's from the camera, so maybe the next post :)

Mariada showing of her mad skills at camp.

We took the kids to see U2 at Spartan stadium, Mariada was blown away, along with the other 72,000 people!

Summer is finally here!

Let’s just jump right in to updates, oldest to youngest…

Ben wrapped up his freshman year in late April and I went and helped him move out of his apartment, it was a beautiful day and he was really ready for school to be out. He ended his year still in the engineering school and is planning on staying with it next year. He is planning on moving next year to a different place and living with more people to bring down the rent. Bob and I both noticed a more mature son but for the most part he’s still our Ben! He was home for two days and left to go to Illinois to work on one of our rigs, this was pretty big news since up until now none of our kids have ever shown an interest in working for Dad! He worked out on the rig for three weeks, came home for the a weekend and has been out in CA fulfilling his ROTC duties for a month, so even though he’s been out of school for a while we haven’t really seen him much. He will be home in a week until he goes back to Ann Arbor in late August.

Sara, busy like always! She ended her ski season happy with her performance and looking forward to next year. She added a few more credits with school and is enrolled in classes this summer so she can graduate on time. She’s working two jobs this summer saving up for all that training next fall and continues to do dry land training this summer. She’s driving now and is so happy that her wonderful uncle gave her a car for a VERY good price :)

Mariada, continues to “grow” she ended her school year with all A’s which was so impressive, she really worked hard. She ran track and played for her travel soccer team all spring both of which she enjoyed. School ended on a Friday and on Monday she started drivers training, which she is currently doing, she has driven twice now and according to her it’s no big deal! (Dad has taken her up and down our dirt road a number of times) She is also babysitting quite a bit and is REALLY REALLY looking forward to soccer camp in July!

As always we continue to be so blessed and are enjoying staying busy with work and kids.

Spring

Ok it’s finally starting to feel like spring here in Michigan! I would have to say that we are about a month behind, but since we have had about three days in a row of rain free weather I am not going to complain ;)

So time to catch up a bit, I had a very busy April spent all over the country. We had our spring break planned months ago, which was great since things don’t normally work that way around here. We had planned on going to Mission Ridge Washington to watch Sara race in the western regional’s. I had found us a house to rent up on the mountain, Mariada had invited a friend, since Sara is so busy with races and what not we thought a friend would be a good idea. Everything was worked out, life was good. All we had to do was wait to find out if she was going to qualify. Three weeks before we where to leave she received the conformation, she was in! So I get online to book airline tickets and something tells me to recheck the dates of the races, yup they were pushed back an entire week!! UGH, really!? So now if we want to go Mariada and her friend will have to miss a week of school? Well that’s’ not such a great idea, so what to do? I had started to look around on what we could do for Spring Break with three weeks’ notice, after a few hours we decided that I would take Mariada and friend with my mom to Disney! Yup Disney over Spring Break, I am crazy :) There was no way Bob could take two weeks off and he really doesn’t like Disney so much so I figured I would knock it off the list now rather than later. An added bonus was that our school band was going to be down there which meant Mariada had lots of friends to hang with giving my mother and myself a break every now and again. Mariada had a blast she loved it and although it was crazy busy it was so great seeing her reaction to the magic of Disney. We covered some serious ground that week seeing all four parks and one water park, as well as a cirque du soleil show! Once back she started track and soccer, so now we are in full sports mode. She’s doing great and has a very full summer planned.

I literally got off one plane and walked to the other side of the airport and got on another one with Bob and Sara headed out west. I was tired but so happy that I had the chance to see Sara race! She raced against two girls that represented the US in the last Olympics and a total of nine girls from the US ski team! Not to mention the other 90 girls that qualified! She struggled in GS but ended in the middle of the pack in slalom. That ended her season this year and she is now working hard at washing boats as well as waiting tables in order to save for summer camps and fall and winter trainings!

Easter was nice and quiet, we went to my parents and grilled out in the brief moment of sunshine and just hung out, Mariada worked on a piñata for Spanish class while mom and I watched the sound of music. It was a very relaxing day.

Last Friday I went to pick up Ben! He ended his year well and enjoyed the weekend at home, but is already in Illinois working for Dad. He will be back in a month for a few days before he has to go on his “summer cruise” to fulfill his ROTC duties. Then he gets to lounge for about 5-6 weeks before heading back.

So I don’t know about you, but I am ready for summer!!!



Spring Break with friends! Does it get any better?
Love that mouse!
On the plane home , Mariada looks at me and says, "Mom Disney is magical!"

What?! It's March

Yikes, who took February?! Man have we been busy, since I last updated this, we had our winter fest weekend here in our great little town and once again we were in the cardboard sled race, first the kids and Mariada made the local news which was lots of fun. The kids however came in second to last place so they didn’t move on, but when it was the old peoples turn with the sled, well we of coursewe kept winning our heats and ended up in the finals where we took fourth! To be honest we almost threw the second to last heat, because we were all pretty tired of carrying that thing back up the hill!

Just after that Bob and I took a quick “just us” trip to the Dominican Republic, it was wonderful to spend some time together just catching up, surfing and playing in the 83 degree sunshine! We came home and spend the following weekend taking out a gaggle of teenage girls to pizza and bowling to celebrate one year of having Miss Mariada home! Her first time bowling, she loved it. Then it was off to Springhill for a youth retreat for a weekend of skiing, rock climbing and concerts!

A few days after that and we took Sara out west for a big ski race, got to stay with some dear friends as well. She really held her own. Then back home for Mariada’s volleyball games and exams. And in the middle of it are indoor soccer trainings two days a week, profession of faith classes once a week, consoling once a week, volleyball games twice a week and youth group every Sunday as well as Bible Study for Bob and I! Oh and a sleepover just about every weekend! Yup our newest and youngest loves to stay busy.

Mariada is doing so well, it’s crazy how some days it seems like our trip to bring her home feels like yesterday, but she fits in our family as though she’s been here forever.

Off to pack for a weekend “up north”.

Sweet Sixteen

I cannot believe that Sara turned sixteen this month. But besides the actual shock of another child driving, we are so happy at the wonderful and beautiful young women she is. We weren’t sure when we would be able to see her, but because of a pretty tough fall on a practice run she skipped a race in Minnesota and came to visit us instead. Not to worry she is doing fine and even came in 1st place in last weekend’s race! So far she is having a very strong year.

Mariada finished up swimming and is already on to volleyball. Swimming was not her favorite sport but she wants to do it again next year because she says it keeps you in very good shape. Overall she did really well considering this was her first time and we are happy that she wants to swim next year. We had her in a fotsball training this past month as well, ever Tuesday and Thursday night which she really enjoyed; her coach has asked her to practice with the girls from Cornerstone collage (he trains them as well) in Grand Rapids so we are trying to fit that in as well. She also enjoyed a retreat with her youth group last weekend and had “the best time of her life” with lots of eighth graders. In English last week the teacher had everyone write an essay for a contest and Mariada’s was chosen to move up to the state level, she was so happy since English is her hardest class, she’s been working really hard and we are so proud of her. She’s also taking profession of faith classes; needless to say she and we are keeping busy.

Ben is doing great at Michigan and is working hard to move his GPA from 3.5 to 3.7 so he can apply for a dual major program. He is also planning a trip out west with some friends for his spring break, we are happy for him but also a little sad this will be his first spring break without us. Bob thinks maybe we should just go with him! HA, I am sure that five college guys would love a set of parents on their first spring break! Although if we offer to buy dinner maybe they wouldn’t mind so much ;)



The retreat at camp Geneva! It was really cold that weekend, but they still had a blast. She has made some really great friends.

Go Lakers!
Sara is SIXTEEN !!! Time goes by so fast!

Christmas, New Years and the New Year...

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did. It was full of friends, family and lots of memories. We were so blessed to have all the kids this year, even if it was for just a few days. I drove over to Ann Arbor on the 21st to get Ben and Bob drove up north on Christmas Eve to pick up Sara! They got back just in time for Christmas Eve service, after which we went back north (just north) to my parents Christmas Eve party. When we all got back home around ten, it was hit the coach for some Christmas movies and off to bed for a good night’s sleep before a long Christmas day! My parents, brother and Grandmother were here bright and early, I made breakfast while the last “kid” rolled out of bed and was quickly told to get to playing Santa! We opened to many gifts (Grandma to blame) and started dinner. After dinner we said goodbye to my side and loaded up the truck to drive south to eat some more and sing carols with the Gezon side. Honestly we ate so much that day I am full just thinking about it! We spend Sunday going to church and having lunch with the kids, then Sara and Mariada took off to the ski hill and Ben went to visit friends! I think Bob and I came home and took a nap on the couch :) Monday morning Bob loaded Sara up and drove to Canada for a FIS race. Her first race against world cup skiers! She did great, came in about the middle of the pack which is pretty awesome for a 15/16 year old. When I spoke to her that first night you could hear the amazement that there where racers from around the world, even girls she and her coach had just watched on TV the month before. Bob says she just continues to get stronger and stronger. Mariada had swim practice so we had to stay home; she also had a babysitting gig for that week watching the cutest little 18 month old, she loved it.

New Years Eve Mariada was oh so happy to be able to go to her girlfriend’s sleepover party, but there was zero sleeping! She had so much fun, with exception of Monday morning coming way too soon. She’s had two swim meets this week along with indoor soccer training on the other nights, needless to say she is one busy girl this month. I left the camera sitting on the kitchen table for both meets, so next week I will put a post-it on the door!

I gave Bob a stand up paddle board, he had to try it out, we watched from the house.
Sara doing her thing in the big leagues!

Sara with her new purse and Ben reading one of the many books he got.
Mariada was so happy, she has been wanting a guitar since she got home. She would always ask Ben if she could play his, but when he left for school it went with him. She begged but I told her she was way to busy with school and sports! She loved it!

Life is wonderful!

Over the last moth we have been busy, really the last year has been a blur, and it amazes us that it has been a year since we left to go to Albania to meet our amazing Miss Mariada. Since we left on Thanksgiving Day last year and had a Christmas apart from each other we made sure to do it up this year! My mom had Thanksgiving at their house and we are doing Christmas here. Thanksgiving weekend we took Miss M to pick out a tree and put it up that Saturday, we usually wait a week or two but we are feeling the spirit this year so why not?!

We have already had a Christmas party and been to the Jingle Bell parade with party afterwards at a good friends house, we have a few more to go to over the weekend, so needless to say Miss M thinks Christmas in America is great, she loves to stay busy and for the “no Kid” parties well that means babysitting money! She has picked up a few extra clients and is saving for “high school” her big brother Ben told her that things get costly in high school and she wants to be prepared ;)

As far as school goes, that all A report card she was working so hard for came true, she aced every exam and ended the tri with a 4.0! She is so very proud (as are we) when picking her up from school she got in the car and said “Mom, did you know of the paper on Principal E’s window, honor roll, I am on it!” Yup, honey you made the honor roll! Just think how happy she was when I told her it would be in the news paper as well! She also went to the 8th grade Christmas dance she did the entire girl thing, got ready at a friend’s house, spent the night at another friend’s house and had a great time! Now we get ready for swimming, she can’t wait!

Another week we will have Ben and Sara and it will be Christmas, all together :)




After Dance Fun!

8th grade girl power!



Yes, Life is Wonderful!

Another month in the life...

I thought for sure once school started and summer was over that things would surely slow down, and we would be in a sort of grove. I was surely mistaken, but although things are busy things are good. We have moved the boat into storage, put away the summer furniture, traveled to our last soccer game of the season and I have moved my closet from summer skirts to winter sweaters. (Sigh) OK get over it, there are plenty of good things about winter.

It was a bit choppy but taking the whole day off to spend with just Bob was so wonderful!
See you next summer PPI!

That’s right; Miss Mariada played her last soccer games and guess what! Her team was undefeated! The last four games where a few weekends ago all in Detroit and the girls played their hearts out, beating the last team 10-1, that after playing two games the day before and an earlier game that day, and traveling more than 400 miles! They really are a great team and Mariada is so happy to be able to play with them! She cried after that last game and is still riding her bike down to the high school after school to train. She starts swimming in a few weeks and she is really looking forward to that, to be honest so are we, it’s a school sport so the travel is a whole lot less and meets are after school, rather than whole weekends! I don’t think I could do the every weekend and the holidays! She is also doing amazingly with school, the tri is over in three weeks and it looks like we may have a report card filled with all A’s! She loves her school and we could not be happier with how well they have helped her with the transition.
Coach Wright (best coach ever!) Mariada already misses him.
Before each game they hug and yell heart, coach tells them to do everything with heart, he even gave them each a bracelet with a heart charm displaying their number.
Mariada, going for another goal.
What a team! They even made the front page of the paper!

I think I told you that Fredi and Prenda where in the states and we really wanted to see them, they were in Kentucky, but that was the weekend of the four soccer games, so we had to catch them the following weekend, which meant a trip to Atlanta. Farther, but we really wanted to see them and this also meant that we would be able to see Roger and Cherie, the American head of Hope for the World. What we didn’t know at the time was that this was also the time that Kristina would be visiting Fredi and Prenda. Kristina was Mariada’s roommate back in the orphanage she was adopted about a year before Mariada and Mariada had just found her on face book about two weeks earlier. Oh the tears! Mariada was jumping up and down when I told her that she would be seeing Kristina, Fredi, and Prenda, their kids and Roger and Cherie! We went down from Wed. – Sun. and had a blast, it was wonderful to see everyone and meet Kristina and her parents. We went to the zoo and the aquarium, where I heard “MOM LOOK!!!” about a million times  cute. Roger and Cherie even had the girls spent the night at their house two of the nights so they could just hang out together.



Kristina and Mariada they had so much fun...
All the kids had so much fun..


Bob showing off his Snow White capabilities!

Other updates, Ben was home for a long weekend a few weeks ago and he is doing great, although he is having to study for the first time in his life, he is enjoying U of M and is excelling in the ROTC program. We even had a chance to take him out to dinner in Ann Arbor; Mariada’s last game was right down the road from his apartment. We are looking forward to him being home for Thanksgiving.

Sara, is staying in Michigan this year and training with Cary Adgate, former Olympic downhill racer, she is taking high school classes at a local collage and training during the day. She leaves for a race clinic out in Big Sky in just a few short weeks, and by the time she returns we will be in full race season. She hopes this will be her year! We continue to pray that she stays safe ;)

Lewis, he’s adorable and I can’t wait until he’s about three!

He still thinks he has the right to nap wherever he likes! Oh puppies!

Hope this update finds you all well and feeling every bit as blessed as we do. God is so good.

Saying Goodbye, for now....

It is with a mixture of joyfulness and sadness that I share that Dad Gezon has gone to be with his Lord. We have known for a while that Dad has been slipping away from us, but it is never easy to say good bye. Bob and I got to say goodbye hours before Dad past and for that we are grateful, Bob had been out of town and I called him while he was driving though Canada thankfully he made it back. Dad past on he and mom’s 63rd wedding anniversary, which is somewhat poetic seeing he told anyone that would listen that that was the happiest day of his life! We know that our loss here on earth is heavens gain and we feel so blessed that we had him for a father, father-in-law, and grandpa.

We got Ben and Sara back home for the service and they are both doing wonderful, we miss them both and it was nice to have all the kids for a long weekend. We spent time remembering Grandpa and spending time with family. Mariada had a soccer game on Sunday very close to U of M so we took Ben and his cousin back to school and having that extra time with him was great. It was also nice to see that he is doing well keeping his apartment clean! We also had a chance to spend some time with Sara taking her and Mariada into Grand Rapids to see ArtPrize and a free David Archuleta concert, we had fun.


We continue to take Mariada to soccer games, practice and school, which she loves and is doing really well at. All A’s right now, she does put a lot of time into homework, but for the most part she thinks it’s easy! She is even helping “coach” a team of five and six year olds. We are trying to plan a trip down south to see Fredi and Prenda, they are going to be in the states for a visit and we would LOVE to see them, praying that it works out.

Life is busy and we continue to try and fit it all in.

Endless Summer

Another very busy month has gone by and I haven’t done a very good job of keeping you updated, so hang on here we go!!!

We celebrated Ben turning 19, yeah 19! Yikes, I still can’t believe it. It was a quite night of grilling out with a few friends and watching yet another beautiful west Michigan sunset. After that it meant that move out date was inevitable and that I had better start getting things together. Ben asked us for only one thing for graduation, decorate his apartment! He knew that he was sharing an apartment rather than a dorm and he knew that it wasn’t going to feel like home if it had bare walls and zero dishes in the kitchen. So my mother and I put together an entire kitchen out of our old dishes with the exception of a slow cooker that Grandma gave him for a birthday present. (Doesn’t every 19 yr old want one?) So I hit Hobby Lobby and found some great Navy/Marine posters for the living room, and then found some fun linens for his bed, we then stocked his kitchen and gave him a cookbook with all his favorites. On the 26th we loaded up two cars and drove Ben to Ann Arbor, moved him in, left twenty dollars for he and Mike (roommate) to order a pizza! Until yesterday Ben’s truck was still in the driveway and it was hard to drive in and say, Ben’s not home, since Ben turned sixteen I would always have a smile on my face when I saw his car and say Ben’s home! It’s always the little things that get you!

On the Mariada front, well soccer, for her that’s really all that matters, she has been practicing with both her teams and had her first tournament this past weekend. Unfortunately she sprained her ankle in the first game and had to watch the rest of the weekend. She says that she will play this Friday, we’ll see. We had planned on back to school shopping this week, but with the ankle I don’t think the mall is a good idea, more sales next week anyway! On the 24th we had a party for Miss Mariada’s 14th birthday, it was a beautiful sunny day spent with three of her friends on the beach, then pizza, cake and presents followed by movies and a sleepover! She had a blast. We also had orientation this week and she has her new schedule for school this year, she can’t wait for school to start.

Somewhere in there we spent a day up at Great Grandma’s cottage for her birthday, Lewis spent forty eight hours in the emergency hospital, after eating 22 ibuprofen pills, and we had a few friends spent a few days with us :) Normally I look forward to fall, thinking things will slow down, but if you saw the soccer schedule we have you would understand why late November is looking like our first open weekend!

I wish I had pictures of Ben’s place but and I still can’t believe this, I forgot, the camera was there but I just forgot, so please enjoy a few from Mariada’s birthday and soccer game!



Ben took the girls tubing, they had a blast! I could hear them from up at the house, since it was teens only on the beach!

She told us it was the best birthday she ever had, what a great summer!