Turkey Day in the Black Hills

The Zyrieks loaded up and headed out to Rapid City, SD for Thanksgiving with Gary's mom ("Gammy"). The girls were so excited and talked about the trip for weeks. Anna was thrilled that we had a trip to Mount Rushmore on the agenda. Caroline was just excited. Gary and I were ready for some downtime. What none of us were excited about was the 8 degree temps when we got off the plane!! The first two days were very cold with wind and below zero wind chills. It warmed up nicely by the weekend. We had a nice Thanksgiving meal with just the five of us. Gary and I headed into town to watch the Iron Bowl on Friday since Gammy does not get local channels (I even called Directv and tried to beg but still no dice!!). The girls saw "Tangled" with Mary during the Iron Bowl. Saturday was our trip to Mount Rushmore. Anna had learned about it during their postcard project in her 2nd grade class and was ready to see it in person. We had a very nice trip. Lots of good family time. Lots of naps and lots of smiles from the girls as they enjoyed Gammy. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend!!

6am is EARLY, but all are ready to go!!

caroline is ready for some snow!

a little snow was big fun for a bit for the girls

snow angels on the deck

gary and caroline on turkey day

playing around while the chefs prepare lunch
anna sharpening her dance skills with the new kinnect

gary during the first half of the iron bowl...stressful!!

the happy auburn fans AFTER the iron bowl!! war eagle!!

sweet girls ready for mount rushmore

the zyrieks at mount rushmore...showing some auburn pride

the girls became junior rangers at the end of our visit

2nd grade open house

Anna's school held their annual fall open house this week. As organized as her teacher Mrs. Kolznak is, I knew that the room would be a show for all of us to see! Anna wanted all her grandparents in town to attend. Dan and Mom came for the first half (last names A-M....we decided to split it up and give Anna time with each) and Dad and Julie attended the second half. Anna is doing wonderfully in school and had many great things to share. She is very independent and smart and loves to please her teacher! Caroline met up with her friends and hung out in the reading corner and read many books. She was quite content! Kudos to Anna and her class for showing off their talents!!

anna is thankful for many things.

spanish picture of the family...love daddy's hat and my LONG hair.

anna's favorite Bible stories

anna with papa and mimi

grampa and gramma with anna

the proud second grade parents!

Feast with the Princess

Caroline hosted Gary and me for her Thanksgiving feast today at school. The teachers and administrators serve the parents a wonderful home cooked Thanksgiving meal and we dine with the children. Last year, Caroline was a pilgrim and this year she sported her Indian princess shirt and headress. She was excited to have us join her for lunch. Love that Harding makes this an annual event and will miss it next year when she is in Jr. Kindergarten!

caroline gave herself the name princess lily

sweet forest friends: presley, jonathan, caroine and ava

miss ann with caroline after the feast

full tummies for all of us!

A trip to the Plains.....finally!!

It has been so hard this year to be at home watching Auburn run up the score all over the SEC!! Now that soccer and cheer are over and fall break at Disney had come and gone, the Zyrieks were headed to Auburn for the Auburn/Georgia game. This is Auburn's longest standing rivalry dating back to 1892. I believe they have played just about every single year since (except during WWII). When I was in school and I was glad to hear it was still a tradition all the Greeks build floats and have a "Burn the Bulldogs" parade the Friday afternoon before the game and then build a bonfire to burn the floats in which launches the pep rally. It was always such fun.

The girls were so excited to be headed to Auburn. Gary and I went to Starkville back in September but seeing the Tigers in action on the Plains of Auburn is much more fun. We went to the spring game in April and so now the girls think we can always go on the field after the game and pose for pictures and autographs with the cheerleaders, players and Aubie. That was a rude awakening!!

It was great to see my college roommates and their kids and catch up a bit in person. Gary and I enjoyed taking the girls to Tiger Walk where the players and coaches walk down from the athletic complex to the stadium 2 hours prior to kickoff. We got the girls on the front row. Anna was really wanting to see Cam Newton in person. She has been watching the games this year and has learned how it is played and who plays what position. Such curiosity in our oldest!! All the players were so excited to be heading to the stadium.

We got settled in our seats, watched Bo Jackson be given a 25 year Heisman award (he's got 2 kids at Auburn currently so he has been on campus a lot this season) and cheer as the eagle flies over the stadium prior to kickoff. All the fans were thrilled to see Cam Newton as the starting QB. Way too much controversy and media coverage of him this season. There is so much there it is a whole blog post in itself. I'll have to work myself up to that one. The game was great....started off shaky in the first quarter but in classic 2010 season style, Auburn roared back to victory by the third quarter and stayed in front for a 49-31 victory.

After the game we walked around a bit and even watied for some players to exit the stadium. We saw Bo Jackson exit on a golf cart with his family...several players walk out and grant pictures and autographs including one of Gary's favorites Darvin Adams and then we laughed as we saw two black Yukons exiting. The first had Jay Jacobs the athletic director in the front seat looking worn out. The second we assumed would have Gene Chizik, the head coach, in the front seat but were surprised to see a smiling, excited and enthusiastic Cam Newton instead. He is always so happy and loves the fans. Anna was thrilled!!

What a weekend. Fun times seeing good friends, good football and great memories! War Eagle!!

view behind us at tiger walk...last of the season!

the girls with elyse's kids olivia and johnny

my roomie elyse

the zyrieks and the burtons...together a LONG time!!

caroline is ready for kickoff

cam in the stands after the awesome game!! 49-31!!

my graduate school roomie, kara

Kolznak's Pack hosts chapel

Anna's class hosted the chapel program this week and she was so excited!! They had been practicing for over 2 weeks and several of the parents decided this was the most organized chapel program we had seen in a while. Kudos to Mrs. Kolznak for keeping the kids energized about the program! The theme was dinosaurs and each group had a different theme. We had the "friendosaurs", the "prayerasaurs" and then we had the 'lazyosaurs" and Anna's group was the "greedyosaurs". Each showed different traits and how it was best to be good friends and to honor God with our prayers and our time. The class then led the school in the school song and a few other songs. Well done!!

Anna's a bit anxious prior to the start of the program.

the greedyosaurs in action (kennedy, logan and anna)

proud mimi and papa and little sister caroline after the program

anna did a great job!!

anna with mrs. kolznak

Harding 5k

We all signed up to participate in the Harding 5k this year....Caroline was part of the 5L (5 laps for Little Lions). Anna really wanted to run but as the day approached was hesitant about how much she could run vs. walk. Last year I ran with Anna and Gary stayed behind at the finish line with Caroline. We had a time of 43 minutes. I even came in third in my age category (must have been a lot of slow moms running with their kids!!). I told Anna that we should just work to improve our time but have fun as well. She ended up shaving 6 minutes off her time and coming in closely behind her buddy Kennedy who took a 3rd place medal in the under 9 category. Of course the winner in my age group, a friend from my fantasty football league, had a sub 30 minute time and was so embarrassed to claim her medal. A lot more serious moms this year!! It was our first really chilly morning of the year and when we arrived on campus it was near freezing!! Caroline was our little burrito all bundled up in the jog stroller. Gary was brave to try the run. He is working toward a half iron man in April and is having some adjustments to his knees to be able to run. We were thrilled with our finish and that we improved so much. Caroline was on the hunt for prowler, the school mascot, and was excited to have a picture with him afterwards. The race starter was Joe Birch, local tv anchorman, who is an avid runner. He participated in the race and cheered those on who finished after him (which was just about everyone!!). Caroline's "race" was fun as the kids had 5 laps of different themes including run backwards, run through the bubbles and run with mom or dad. Caroline was worried beforehand that she was not going to win but afterwards forgot all about that and enjoyed the moment!!


After the 5k was Anna's last soccer game of the year. In a way it is sad but it will be nice to reclaim our Saturday mornings!! Gary has worked hard with the team this year and saw definited improvement in the kids over the course of the season. Anna made an awesome goal and was thrilled. For a while it was the go-ahead winning goal of the game but we were excited to have another goal tacked on for good measure by a teammate. Great season....thinking about spring soccer now!!!

the freezing zyrieks are ready to head to the start line!

anna and kennedy are excited!!

caroline with prowler after the 5k
gary running with caroline during the 5L

excited with my race finisher!!

proud coach gary with anna, the soccer star!

Yabba Dabba Boo!!

When we returned home from DisneyWorld, in the mail was a package with a Halloween costume in it. I had no idea what was going on....Gary had ordered Flinstones costumes for us to wear on Halloween. I was excited because it had been a long time since we had dressed up and the kids thought it was so awesome.

It was a little chilly, but we managed to trick or treat for a while. We took the kids to mom's house as well as dad's house, where the kids got to trick or treat with their cousins for a bit. We then finished up by stopping by to see the DeSouzas who had been out for a long time and had loads of candy.


A great time and we are already thinking of what we are going to dress up as for next year. One good thing that came of the costumes was that we got to introduce the girls to the cartoon, The Flinstones. We now TiVo it and it is their choice for cartoons! Love an old classic!!

wilma and fred ready for candy!!

the zyrieks...fred and wilma, the go-go dancer and cinderella

the cousins!!

luigi with fred