Zyriek Family Olympics Challenge

It is time for the summer Olympics and I borrowed a fun way to keep up with the games from my friend Rachel. Gary took 64 of the events and split them up randomly between the four of us to make it be a challenge among the family for who could stack up the most medals throughout the games. The assignments were random and were based on events that would probably be televised and that we had some interest in.

The scoring is as follows: 5 points for a gold medal, 3 for a silver medal and 1 point for a bronze medal. To have extra credit available, for any sport in which an American sets a new Olympic or World Record, there would be a bonus of 1 point and if any Auburn athlete medaled in your assigned event, even if they were not American, you earned an additional point.

The winner will have the choice of a fun family event for us to enjoy together and celebrate the fun of the games! Let the Games begin or as they say in The Hunger Games...let the odds ever be in your favor!

Road Race Series

I am running the Memphis Runners Road Race series this fall and am up for the challenge. I have been running consistently for over 9 months and working with a running coach, which has really helped to increase my endurance and push me to what I really am capable of doing.  The races consists of 2 of each of the following distances: 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile and half marathon. The series started on July 8th and the second 5k was on July 22nd. I ran solo for the first race and surprised myself with a 28:01. That was a 9:01/mile pace. Really excited because I have always been a 10:00/mile person and felt resolved I would be stuck there. With speed work thrown into the mix, it has really helped. The second 5k was on Sunday and I ran with my friend Lauren. She had been on vacation for 2 weeks in the mountains in New York with her family and so we ran and encouraged each other. It was very warm and over 90% humidity. I finished just a few seconds slower and was happy to have maintained a near 9:00/mile pace.

On to the longer distances. I am excited about this series and the hopes that it will keep me accountable and challenging myself. My friend Rachel has a few pictures from the first race but I have not seen them yet. As of now...just imagine very sweaty runners in the hot Memphis heat!!

St. Jude Peoria Run, Take 2

I was asked to join the first day of running on the St. Jude Memphis to Peoria Run. I did this run last year and ended up running around 7 miles. It was projected to be a little cooler this year but still in the upper 90's with the heat index over 100. I still thought it would be great to join the group of fundraisers and see if I was stronger this year since I have been consistently training and running since December. I am a lot stronger! I felt better when running and could tell my endurance has increased. I got in over 9 miles this time and felt good. It was a very warm day indeed but we took our turn running a little at a time and took breaks to rehydrate which was essential!

some of our crew waving to our cheerleaders before we left

jeff, me, cecilia, chris, sara and robert all joined in on the run. missing is rick, our ceo who was speaking to the fundraising runners before we all headed out.

at the end of our day. hot, sweaty and worn out but we all had a great day!

Arts and Crafts for Anna

Anna is definitely a creative child. She has really taken to sewing and between her classes at Bumbletees and her sewing camp at Harding really has a lot of confidence in her abilities! Her latest creation was an elastic waist skirt. She really did a great job and had extra fabric that she wants to sew on a white t-shirt to have something to match her skirt. So proud of her!

She joined Sophie, Lainie and Katie for a kids paint day at Art & Soul yesterday. The girls painted a peace sign with a zebra print at the top. They all turned out cute and enjoyed hanging out with each other. Anna told me that girls her age don't have "play dates" like Caroline does but rather they "hang out" with each other. Hilarious. Oh my, she is growing up on me!

love bumbletees!! they do such great classes for kids...now to get brave and take a class myself so i can catch up with anna!!

anna modeling her skirt and headband that she made!

katie, lainie, anna and sophie with their creations from art & soul

Mud Camp

We had heard about "Mud Camp" for 2 years and finally signed Anna up early enough to get in. Mud Camp is the fun term for the camp held at the St. Columbia Episcopal Center out in Bartlett. It is held 3 weeks during the month of July each summer and is limited to 130 campers per session. The camp is famous for its mud hole as well as the lake and other water sports. The campers are told to wear clothes they don't care about and all you bring with you is a towel. I was expecting the worst each afternoon as I trekked out to pick up Anna. She did not look bad any of the days because they hosed the campers off and let them air dry before pick up time.  Anna really had a good time.  She was brave and attended the camp without knowing anyone and enjoyed it. There was a time of worship/praise each morning along with crafts, a yummy lunch served by the camp and fun times around the beautiful wooded campus.  We will definitely be back next year with both Zyriek girls. Caroline was hooked when she was told by Anna that the lunch on the last day was nachos!! The mud hole sort of scared Caroline but then Anna told her how fun it was along with swimming and canoeing and she was in. Not many pictures but just a few.  Never got any of Anna because she mostly looked wet each day. She was worn out and after her shower upon coming home, she was wiped out for the night.

entrance to the beautiful wooded site for mud camp

hard to see much, but the slides entering the mud hole. rainy week, so it was prime time for mud camp!

Cousins Camp

Blake and Drew were in town for their annual week in Memphis with the grandparents. Anna and Caroline had been anxiously awaiting their visit. With July 4th in the middle of the week, it was great for me to take off Monday and Tuesday from work and enjoy a long weekend plus some with my kids and their cousins.  They arrived on Saturday and we had dinner at the Zyriek house. The kids had a great time playing afterwards. After joining us for church, Gary and I took all the kids to our swimming pool for the afternoon. Between the heat and all the playing they did, it should have definitely worn them out!!! On Monday, mom and I braved the heat and spent the morning at the Memphis Zoo. It was pretty warm by the time we left, but the kids enjoyed it and the boys loved the dinosaur exhibit there.  After lunch and a time for us to recover from the heat, we took in open jump time at Pump it Up.Tuesday we enjoyed Shrek at the Summer Movie at the Malco along with an afternoon of bowling. The kids did a great job and I'm glad we had the bumpers up so we could boost their egos just a tad!! At least they all got a few strikes and/or spares which made it fun.  Wednesday the boys switched houses to stay with Dad and Julie for the rest of the week. They enjoyed a block party in Blair's neighborhood with a slip and slide and we met them all for fireworks in Germantown. Dad took them to the train museum on Thursday and we joined them for dinner on Friday. The kids had a very good time and I was glad they were in town to spend some time with everyone!!

ready for the zoo....miss hollywood (caroline) in the middle

enjoying the dinosaur exhibit

cooling off with an icee

headed to the air conditioned polar bear exhibit

mimi with her 4 grandkids @ teton trek

enjoying a day off with the girls

having fun at pump it up

ready to knock down some pins

snow cones at the germantown fireworks

dad and julie with the kids