Grizzlies fun

For a little family fun over the holidays we took the girls to a Grizzlies game on Friday night. We had great seats thanks to a discount offer from First TN bank. It was Grizz girls night which means that everyone got a free poster of the Grizzlies Girls....not sure we needed that but the girls thought it was fun. The best part of the night, besides the fact that they won was that we ALL got on the dance cam. Gary was so embarrassed....I thought it was fun and the girls were beside themselves with joy. It was a little surreal to see yourself on the big jumbotron dancing away but all in all so much fun. Our phones were lighting up with messages from friends that saw us. Go Grizz!!

proud of their grizz girls posters

gary and the girls ready for the game to start!

Christmas Wrap Up

We had a different kind of Christmas this year. This was the first year that I would not see my dad or any siblings for the holidays. Kind of strange and different but it was still a great time for the Zyrieks. My dad and stepmother made the trip to Dallas for Christmas. I love that they were able to spend Christmas with my brother and his kids. That was the first time they have enjoyed that. They stayed for 10-12 days which was a fun visit for them.

The kids were in school through the 21st of December. Sounds late, but for working parents it was great.  We enjoyed the weekend before Christmas and then the kids were so excited they could not wait!

We had my mom and stepdad over for Christmas Eve dinner. We enjoyed the Candlelight service at Hope together and then came home and let the kids make their cookies for Santa. It was an enjoyable evening. Gary and I watched Christmas Story while waiting for the kids to go to sleep. Santa finished up about midnight at our house and the kids were up bright and early at 6am!! We were tired to say the least.

The kids had a great Christmas morning. Anna got an ipad mini and many things to redecorate her room once we get the new paint she will be ready to go. Caroline got a new bike as well as the "Caroline" American Girl doll. The girls were thrilled and were having fun at home for quite a while. We headed over to mom's house for most of the rest of the day.  The girls favorite present over there were skates! They skated for hours inside and outside (small amounts at a time since it was so cold!!). They even acted like the girls at Sonic on skates taking our drink orders before dinner.

We enjoyed brunch at mom's and a lazy afternoon. We came home and had dinner with the family and my parents came over so they could see all the girls haul from Santa and us. All in all a very fun and good day. Both Gary and I were off work the next day so we definitely enjoyed sleeping in and enjoying our very messy house!!

the happy bakers on christmas eve

last shot of the girls with all the presents actually wrapped!

caroline with her caroline doll

anna with her ipad mini....she was over the moon!

caroline with her new bike

gary with his new harding cap and auburn shirt

crazy sweaty girls after roller skating all afternoon

roller derby queen

sweet skater

Enchanted Forest/Festival of Trees

I cannot tell you how many time I have been to the Enchanted Forest. We used to go every year growing up and I remember that it was at Goldsmith's downtown. Such fun. I laugh because the characters are the same and they just keep getting older and older looking, but the kids still enjoy it. The Pink Palace is a good host for it and incorporates it into their Festival of Trees and their two Imax films that are related to Christmas. The girls always want to go and do the scavenger hunt and pick their favorite tree. We had a good family evening there and took in an Imax movie as well.

Anna with her favorite "Peace Sign" tree

Caroline with her favorite, the tree was made to look like a snowman

my favorite, the Charlie Brown tree

the girls on their scavenger hunt

our favorite gingerbread house from those submitted for judging

Breakfast with Santa

Caroline's school had a pancake breakfast with Santa the week before the holiday break. The kids were excited to be in non-uniform, have tasty pancakes for breakfast, get to tell Santa their wish list and enjoy sleigh rides in the parking lot! I was excited to have breakfast with Caroline that day and see her eyes sparkle as she confided in Santa what was on the top of her list. I had a 9am training class so had to miss the sleigh rides, but a fun new treat at school to enjoy this holiday season!

caroline was a little shy but enjoyed talking to santa

enjoying our yummy pancakes!

caroline and her friend marshall....they are a trip and have always been a little sweet on each other!

Anna's Christmas program

Much to Anna and a lot of other 4th graders dismay, the 4th grade talent show was turned into a Christmas program. In the past, the 1st graders did a Christmas program and every other grade did something different. Anna was excited about the possibility of working on something with her friends for the talent show. We have a new principal this year and we have new things on the horizon for the kids. One of which was to switch up the grade level programs. This year the 3rd and 4th graders combined to present a Christmas program. Anna ended up being the narrator which made her happy. She did sing one of the songs with her friends, Jingle Bell Rock, and did the dance that went along with it. They had a good time with small groups being the focal point for each song. It was cute and made everyone in the Christmas spirit.

anna with grampa and gramma after the show

mimi and papa watched the show as well

the zyrieks with our awesome narrator

anna with some of the 4th grade girls

anna with girls from her class

Gingerbread Houses

I signed the girls up to make gingerbread houses at the Children's Museum. That was such a great idea!!! The museum employees did such a great job with the activities. Each family had its own table with supplies arranged neatly on the table. We were all given aprons to wear, the girls were given elf hats to wear and take home and snacks to eat during the building process. The girls really enjoyed it. I loved that I did not have to clean up and we left with two great houses in boxes for transport. The girls sang Christmas carols when they were done and heard the story of the gingerbread man read by an employee of the museum. Great activity and we will definitely do that again.

my little elves are ready to get started

anna enjoying her own creation

caroline working hard on her house

their finished products

St. Jude Memphis Marathon weekend

So happy that the St. Jude half marathon week is here. I have been looking forward to running the race for so many months. I have already done three half marathons this year and was hoping for a personal record with this race to cap off a great year of progress. I started working with my running coach, Lesley, around the first of the year. I could not do anything she had set up for me to do. I started out way too ambitious. I got in a rhythm and became very dedicated to my schedule and my workouts. I was frustrated at first with my lack of progress and realized it would take some time to get a good base of running under my belt. I did the Germantown Half Marathon in March. Mentally it was not a good race. I did the St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon at the end of April. It was a very challenging course with lots of hills and high temps, but I pushed through it and did well. I then started the Memphis Runners Road Race series in July and built my way up through the 5k, 5 miler, 10k and 10 miler and was thrilled to finish the half marathon in early November at 2:06. My best ever time in a half marathon is 2:05 and that was many years ago. I got my sights set on a PR for St. Jude but the weather had different ideas. The temps at the starting line for my November race were in the mid 30's while at the St. Jude Memphis race it was nearly 60 degrees. That really does make a difference physically and mentally. I pushed through glad to see Gary along the way several times as he was one of the official Race Crew members. He met me at mile 12 and ran me into the finish line. I was so happy to have him with me for the last mile because it was getting hot and I was certainly tired. I finished in 2:13 which was slower than my goal, but I felt like I had really made great progress throughout 2012.

Now just working through what I want to do in 2013. I want to take December to really cross-train and keep up some basic running and then figure out for January where I want to be and where I want to race. Hoping for a second year of great results!

I have no pictures from the race unfortunately of myself! There are race photographers but I did not really want to order any of the shots they had. I don't run with a phone or an ipod so I did not get any finish line pictures. Oh well!! Just picture a tired runner ready to rest!! :)

Thanksgiving in Dallas

My brother planted the seed this summer for us to come to Dallas for Thanksgiving. He threw out the idea of watching the Cowboys play the Redskins on Thanksgiving afternoon in Cowboys stadium. With RGIII (my fantasty QB) and former Baylor player and Heisman trophy winner at the helm for the Redskins, it became very tempting!! We took the plunge and headed to Thanksgiving. I have only missed 3 years of Thanksgiving in Memphis with my parents. While I really did miss being with them, it is always fun to mix is up and do something spontaneous and different.

We drove down mid-day on Wednesdsay. The kids were so anxious to see their cousins and enjoy the long visit we would have. My sister-in-law Lydia had her parents in town overlapping our visit for a few days. When we arrived Lydia and her mom were putting the final touches on the beautiful turkey they had been cooking. I got to work and made my southern cornbread dressing so it would be ready to cook the next morning. The kids picked up like they see their cousins every day!!

We had a great meal and headed out to the Cowboys game for the afternoon. It was unseasonably warm that day, reaching almost 80 degrees which made the walk in from the car a little sticky!! The kids were amazed at how big Cowboys stadium is and the huge screen that is 60 yards long!! The Redskins had a great game, with my QB throwing 4 touchdowns but the Cowboys tried to make it interesting with a 4th quarter comeback, but fell a bit short. We were all tired and headed home for the night.

On Friday, we skipped all the shopping and let the kids have fun. We took everyone to the Dallas Arboretum for the afternoon. A great place to let the kids play and run around and enjoy the beautiful scenery. They were having the Chiluli blown glass exhibit which was absolutely beautiful. The kids even commented how cool some of the sculptures were to see. Nice weather made for a fun afternoon followed up by some great Tex-Mex for dinner.

Saturday was lazy for most of us. Gary and my brother went to the Baylor/Texas Tech game back at Cowboys stadium where they were in my brother's company suite. Very nice!! Lydia and I took the kids to Jump Street which is like SkyZone in Memphis, a trampoline place. The kids got their jump on and then we headed for Slurpees (my brother won a year of free slurpees at an auction!) and then home to play outside some more.

We headed home on Sunday. The drive home was not too bad, especially because Caroline slept for 2 hours! Always love the quiet from being asked "Are we there yet?" every 20 seconds!! Nice Thanksgiving with some of my family and really enjoyed the time together.

The kids love to keep it real with Gary and asked on the way home if he would put up the Christmas lights that night! He of course politely declined. : )

the zyrieks, the perrys and the newfields before our awesome lunch

gary and i before lunch

the kids are ready for the cowboys game!

the zyrieks in their cowboys gear

crazy stadium and screen!

having fun at the game

one of the glass exhibits at the arboretum

the cousins at the arboretum

sunny day for the zyrieks at the arboretum

sleepy caroline gave us some peace on the way home!

Lunch with Princess Laughing Brook

Caroline's class had their Thanksgiving "feast" on Tuesday. Of course for senior kindergarteners this means Chick Fil A party trays and lots of chips/dip and cookies. It was definitely their kind of feast. The kids all made their own shirts to wear which were so cute and selected their own native names. Caroline was Princess Laughing Brook which is pretty well suited for her. She had a good time and they were all ready for the long Thanksgiving break.

Princess Laughing Brook with her parents before lunch.

Caroline and me. Yes, I am wearing a Dallas Cowboys shirt! It was NFL day at St. Jude because the Play 60 bus was coming on campus with pro players and cheerleaders and we all were to wear NFL gear that day. It was so fun!
 

Waiting patiently for her turn to get some food!

Sophie, Caroline, Nina and Brooke. We definitely missed Ava that day...home sick!

Gary and Cam reunion

For Father's Day I gave Gary a trip to see the Carolina Panthers play the Denver Broncos. Gary has been wanting to see Cam play professional football ever since he got drafted. Gary was reminicisng about the national championship game from January 2011 and was so excited about the game, even though Cam is not having the greatest of seasons. We flew to Charlotte on Friday and enjoyed a nice and relaxing weekend with nothing, absolutely nothing, on the agenda other than the game. We slept late, ate some good food, went to see a movie at a posh movie theater (where you can pick your seat and order gourmet food delivered to your seat), got in two great runs, met a friend for dinner at a yummy mexican place, enjoyed the game and just relaxed.  It was such a great weekend. I cannot say that we toured all over Charlotte, but we learned that it is a big NASCAR town (the Hall of Fame and National Headquarters for NASCAR were across the street from our hotel), they have sold out 100 straight Panthers games, Uptown is a great and nice part of town and the sports fans are fun. The Panthers did not play that well and Peyton Manning led his team to victory, but we still enjoyed the game. We had never seen Peyton play either in the pros, so that was pretty cool as well. Overall, great weekend. A getaway we really needed and a fun time.

after our saturday 10k off-road run...beautiful day and scenery!

gary trying on a jersey for kicks....he loved it!!

in our gear and ready for the game

4th row seats....great weather and a fun game!

 

Wrap up of the Road Race Series

The final two races from the Memphis Runners Road Race Series were the 10 mile race at Shelby Forrest and the Half Marathon along Singleton Parkway.  I had heard lots of folks say the 10 miler were tough due to the hills but that it was their favorite race. I was a little worried but was trying to stay confident. The hills were brutal and it had turned a bit cooler which helped, but I did it and was felt great about it. I tried to stay under 1:40 as that would be 10:00/mile pace and figured that was decent based on the terrain. I finished less than a minute from my goal, so I was thrilled. It was definitely a workout!!  The half marathon was flat and and out and back course. I was ready and hoping for a good showing. I was shooting for under 2:10 and finished slightly over 2:06!! I was super excited. My fastest ever half marathon is 2:05:27 with Gary at St. Jude so really thrilled. My work with my coach is paying off and I am hoping I can shave a minute off that time and beat my personal best at St. Jude on December 1st. Such a great running series and glad that I did it. I ended up doing 7 of the 10 races and did one of each distance.  Bring on the St. Jude half marathon!

Rachel and I at 6:30am before the race started!

At the finish line for the 10 miler!!

There I am finishing up the half marathon!!

Trunk or Treat and Halloween

We joined our friends at Highland Church of Christ for their annual Trunk or Treat on Sunday night. The girls were excited to see their friends from school and of course get lots of candy. Such a nice community event the church puts on every year. They serve hot dogs for dinner and then the kids go from car to car and trick or treat. The cars often have themed decorations and everyone gets very into their costumes.  Anna thankfully took my suggestion for costume idea #2 (no more trying to dress up like Justin Beiber!!) and dressed like a marathon runner. Caroline changed from Pochahantas that she wore at the Fall Fun Fest at Hope and wore her cowgirl costume that she wore to school for Western Day. Love that we did not spend a single dollar on Halloween costumes other than sweat bands for Anna to wear with her running gear. It was a little chilly so they started the trick or treating early and Anna quickly put on her long pants and jacket. Fun night and the girls have plenty of candy!!

On Halloween night, the girls trick or treated at Mom's house first and then we drove out to Collierville to trick or treat at Dad's house and the girls decided to walk around their neighborhood a bit. Blair and Kim were there as well with their 3 kids. It was pretty chilly. We had to go and visit the house of the "candy man" that lives in Dad's neighborhood. He works for a candy company and gives the kids "1 of each" that he has out. It is a huge haul and the girls have enjoyed it in years past as well. Fun night. Hard that it is a school night, but still a good time and way too much candy.

We usually just leave our candy out while we trick or treat. We have wanted to set up a camera to see how many people actually just take a few pieces and who actually pours our basket of candy into their bag. We always come home to no candy. We got home around 8:30 this year and had the girls take a shower before bed. We turned off our lights and were getting things ready for the next school day when we started hearing banging on the front door. There was a group of 16 kids/adults all wanting candy. Hello, did they not understand the rule about not going to a house that has its lights off? Ridiculous. A good way to get rid of some of the stuff the girls did not like from their own baskets since we were out of what we had bought. Kind of crazy!!



anna the marathon runner and caroline the cowgirl (with 4 less inches of hair!!) at highland's trunk or treat

the gang at trunk or treat....katie, sophie, lainie, anna, caroline and sophie



showing off their stuff on halloween night

the girls with mimi and papa on halloween night