Showman Triathlon

Gary had the Showman Triathlon this weekend at Herb Parsons Lake. Only about 20 minutes from home which was great, but started at 7am which meant early rise times for us all. The girls were excited to see Gary race again and quickly volunteered to help at the finish line again like they did in Forrest City 2 weeks ago. Gary thought he would have a good day but of course was still nervous.

Gary placed first in the Masters' Age Group but did not feel great about his effort. Bike was hard and the heat really hurt him on the trail run. We have been having such oppressive heat and the humidity on top of the actual temperatures is making it nearly unsafe to be outside, especially exercising, for long periods of time. We were so proud of Gary and stayed around for the awards ceremony. The girls walked up with Gary to collect his prizes and were excited to then return to the a/c of the car for the ride home!

Go Gary!!!

 waiting on the swim (gary is the one checking his watch)

 ready for the swim! (gary is the third one in the pic)

 super fast transition from the swim to the bike

 hopping on the bike for the second event

 finishing up strong

gary with his proud girls!

Brushing Boot Camp

The girls were off to the dentist this morning for their regular 6 month check up. The dental hygenist and dentist confirmed what Gary and I already know....Anna is a HORRIBLE brusher and Caroline is an awesome brusher. Anna went first today for her cleaning and got sent to "Brushing Boot Camp" which means she had to go to the "education" center and watch a video of a monkey properly brushing his teeth. I thought the idea was novel but Anna thought it was a little embarrassing. They make it fun as to not make the patient upset and by the end of the short video Anna told the dentist that she knew she needed to do better. He said it was almost better for someone like Anna to get a cavity than to be cavity free. At least she is still without a cavity. Caroline had her first x-rays today and earned an A+ on her report card from the hygenist. Both girls will end up with braces at some point as Anna has crowding and Caroline will inevitably as well. Start saving those pennies...rather dollars!!

 anna getting her teeth cleaned

caroline waiting for her x-rays

Mighty Mite Triathlon

Gary competed in the Mighty Mite Triathlon in Forest City, Arkansas on Saturday. He had never done this race before and we were a little concerned that it was a "point to point" race which means you do not start in the same place that you finish. This makes it a challenge for spectators to see any part of the race. After we trekked over a half mile from the parking area at the State Park where the swim would commence, we realized that as soon as the first swimmer exited the water that the park would close until all the swimmers had left the water. That was not good news. We needed to hurry back to the car and either head to the bike transition area or the finish line or we would miss the race!! We luckily caught a ride down the hill to our car with the race photographers (not a good lesson for the girls in getting in car with a stranger!!) but saved them walking another half mile to the car. We decided to stake out our spot at the finish line in downtown Forrest City. Not sure what goes on in downtown Forrest City and why they chose to highlight it at the finish, but all was well. The racers hit the water in order of their numbers, so the first person that crossed the finish line was not necessarily the overall winner. We were anxiously awaiting Gary's finish and the girls decided to join the group of volunteers at the finish line. They were great helpers providing water and gatorade to the racers as well as cool towels and finisher medals to the beginners. This definitely helped to pass the time. Gary finished in 1:07:49 which was first place in the master's category (over 40 years old or as Gary calls it the "old man category) and he was pleased with that. Turns out his category was the fastest and several that finished ahead of him placed in the overall top 5! Not sure we will do that race again as a family since we did not get to see much of it but glad we could support Gary in his racing without having to travel too far!

Great job Gary!!

 giving daddy one final good luck hug before hitting the water

 the girls were making a friend at the finish line

 gary on the run

 coming through at the finish line

 caroline took pictures with her camera too

 anna volunteering at the finish

masters champion!

Countdown Cuties

Caroline is famous for asking "how many more days" when it comes to something she is excited about doing. She knows we are going to the beach and she knows her birthday is not too far away and so instead of her asking every day how many more days, we helped her make a chart that she can cross off the days until our trip and her 5th birthday. She has these signs on her bedroom door and asked me to tape a pencil on the door so she could do it herself when she wakes up each morning. She is very dilligent about it.

Not too feel left out, Anna wanted to make a countdown to the beach as well. She made a paper chain that she has hanging on the wall in her room and she removes a link each day.

My little counters....wonder where they get that from??

 caroline's beach vacation countdown

 caroline's birthday countdown

 dilligently marking off the days

anna's paper chain

Days of Summer

We have not been doing anything special this week but thought I would update on the Zyrieks since the July 4th holiday weekend.

Anna is attending All-Sports Camp this week at our gym. She is LOVING it. She said she is learning so much and can see how well she likes all kinds of sports. She has even received 2 "Good Attitude" awards this week. That is awesome for her. One of them was because she was the only one that did not complain during the outdoor sports portion of the day yesterday. Go Anna!! Anna also asked if she could try out a swim team this summer. Our gym has a low-key swim "practice" 2x a week during June and July called the Lil Gators. She wanted to try it for July and so on Tuesdays and Thursdays has been swimming from 6pm to 7pm. I am super impressed with her ability and her attitude. We told her she could decide at the end of July after working with the coach if it was something she wanted to do during the school year. It would require making decisions about what other things she is involved in as well as understanding the participation levels. There are several different levels of teams at our gym which should help her ease into it if she decides to take the plunge.

Caroline has been at camp at Harding this week but is participating in a "Technology Tots" class. It is hilarious to hear her talk about it each day. Luckily they send home a sheet each day explaining to the parents what they learned and what they did during their time. They have been working on both the computers and the iPads. She is used to the iPad from home and will have an opportunity to use them in the classroom starting this fall at school. She is growing up so fast and can't believe Junior K is a month away!

Gary has been training a lot for several upcoming triathlons, the first of which is in Forrest City, Arkansas on Saturday. The girls and I are going to go and cheer him on and are hoping that the heat will be manageable.

I've been enjoying my new job, loving time with the girls and trying to find some events to train for. I still can't believe I trained for the Germantown Half Marathon during busy season at Deloitte, however, that goes to show you that it can be done. Countdown to the beach is on in the Zyriek house!! Not too much longer!!

Firecracker 5k

I have been wanting to do some 5k's this summer and finally one fit into our schedule. I asked Anna if she wanted to join me and she enthusiastically said yes. She has not run a full 5k since the fall when the whole family did the Harding 5k. The heat was going to be awful, but with encouragement I knew she could finish. I was not worried about my time at all as I took this as a time to encourage Anna and hopefully help her enjoy running. She is a great runner and Gary says she has great form. She can be fast on the soccer field, but I want her to enjoy and endure the 5k race. We arrived early for packet pickup. Of course as soon as we got back to the car to pin on our race numbers, it started to pour down rain. It rained and it rained and it rained. Every time I thought it was going to stop, it just picked up more. Finally about 6:45, we all decided to go to the race start no matter the weather. The race was going to go on no matter what. Luckily for us we just endured a few sprinkles, but unlucky for us it felt like we were in a sauna.

The race started at 7pm and our goal was under 40 minutes. Anna had done 36 minutes at the Harding 5k but with the heat, we increased our expectations right before we started. The first mile went well. Anna ran for almost 8 minutes before starting to run/walk. She stopped for water at mile 1. Between mile 1 and 2, it was a little tough to keep the encouragement there. Anna was getting very overheated and sweating a lot. There were lots of families along the race path that had their sprinklers on and she enjoyed that. Finally made it to mile 2 and she was getting excited that we were closer to the finish than the start!! I kept her going through mile 3 and she took off once we got close to the finish line. She was all smiles at the end and so glad it was done. Not sure heat is her thing (not sure it is mine either), but so glad she finished. She got 4th in her age group and missed 3rd by around 40 seconds!! That made her want to do another one to see if she could improve her time and maybe place in her age group.

Joined with the Baker family afterwards to cool off, enjoy some food and drinks and wait for Laura Beth to claim her 2nd place award. It was definitely hot...after a long wait, we all loaded up and everyone enjoyed some Yogurt Mountain as a treat on this hot, summer night.

Looking forward to the next 5k!!

the sweaty mom/daughter duo
anna was all smiles at the finish
rachel, the fast runner and me at the finish
the 6-9 female age groupers discuss the race enjoyed having my cheerleaders at the finish

July 4th weekend

We did not have much planned at all for the weekend as of Thursday morning and then things started to fall into place. Anna wrapped up her week at Camp Invention on Friday. She had a great time and seemed to be in her element learning how things work, taking apart items and creating new items. She was excited to show off what she had done during the week on Friday afternoon.

anna with some friends at the camp invention open house

Saturday was haircuts for the girls and a spontaneous trip for Gary and I to Nashville to see U2 in concert. I was thrilled that we found tickets so easily for a decent price on Thursday night. Mom was keeping the girls already on Saturday night so it just added a few hours to their planned stay. Gary and I road tripped to Nashville for the concert that was in Vanderbilt Stadium...one of the smallest venues on their stadium tour which made it great for all in the house. There were many thousands of brave souls on the field during the concert and who I am sure arrived early for their general admission standing room only spots, but they had a great vantage point. It was hot and we decided we were not too thrilled about the opening act, Florence and the Machine, so we arrived about 8pm. U2 took the stage a little before 9pm and played until around 11:15. It was a very, very good concert. Bono and the rest of the group are very socially aware and spiritually aware, even leading the crowd in an acoustic version of Amazing Grace. The unplanned moment of the night was at the very end when the band had completed their encores and were ready to head out when a blind man on the front row held up a sign that he wanted to play a song with the band. Bono obliged, brought the man up on stage, sang along with his accompaniment and had the rest of the band join in. Aftewards, Bono gave the man his own personal guitar which I know he will treasure forever. Great times and glad we went.

crazy set up for the concert, but amazing during the show

awesome concert...picture before we got too sweaty!

Sunday night Anna and I ran in the Firecracker 5k...see separate post for the sweaty post-race report! Sleeping in, sprinkler park, cookout and fireworks summed up our actual 4th of July. It was nice to hang out with the girls, with nothing really on the agenda and then join Mom and Dan for the Germantown fireworks. It was much cooler on Monday night (84 degrees with low humidity!) and we had a great display of fireworks to watch. The girls fell asleep in the traffic on the ride home and slept in on Tuesday as I was off work.Great weekend...love how things fell into place so nicely without a lot of effort!

silly sisters at the sprinkler park

decked out for the 4th

enjoying the fireworks together

loved the fireworks!