Memorial Day in Dallas

The Zyrieks loaded up on the last day of school (half day) and headed to Dallas for a long weekend of fun. My nephew Blake was to be celebrating his 8th birthday with a Lego birthday party and my brother had other fun stuff planned for us to enjoy over the weekend. The birthday party was great. A man that conducts such parties in people's homes came over and walked the kids through building a lego car and then they raced them. He threw in some science along the way about friction and speed and other lessons that were great. The kids had a great time and Blake loved having everyone at his party. Sunday afternoon was spent at the Texas Rangers game. It was kid-jersey give-away day and the kids loved it. My brother bought us all tickets in the SHADE which was key to everyone (especially the kids) enjoying the game and staying for almost all of it. Each kid got their very own jersey to wear. They were either size L or XL, so they looked a little large on our group, seeing as Anna is the oldest and it was big on her! The game was great. Lots of scoring, several home runs and it was a great way to spend the afternoon. All the families in my brother's cove got together that night and enjoyed a cook out and party with all the kids as well. There were lots of fun things to do including. I think Caroline tried everything including baseball, skateboarding and even go-karts which threw us all for a loop when we saw Caroline speeding by our group!! We headed home on Monday mid-day after a great weekend. Gary took his bike and got in a nice ride and I got in 2 runs around White Rock Lake. Nice to start off the summer with family and a nice weekend. 

the ladies at the party (me, Lydia, Jennifer and Elizabeth)



anna and caroline ready to build their cars

cousins at the party

madeline and estella racing their cars

the whole group posing with their cars and the lego man

fun party

the birthday boy's parents

the girls are ready for their first major league game

all decked out in their jerseys (love that drew is ready to pitch!)

the zyriek crew

Zoom through the Zoo

Zoom through the Zoo is a 4-mile race literally throughout the Memphis Zoo grounds. Gary did the race last year and I thought I would give it a try this year. My friend Lauren and I ran it together and Lauren's husband Zack ran it as well. Gary and the girls were awesome cheerleaders. It was a very hot and humid night for the race, but it went well and we enjoyed a nice dinner at Cafe Eclectic afterwards. I need to do more races this summer to get used to the Memphis heat/humidity. Does not sound like a fun time, but hey, what does not kill you makes you stronger, right?? I am looking forward to the Memphis Runners Road Race series that starts in July and leads right into the St. Jude Half Marathon. Should be a nice way to hold me accountable for longer runs and have a great group to run with for the races.

**Luckily my uncle was the runner club photographer for the night...poor Gary tooks tons of pictures but accidentally deleted them!!

gary and the girls at the start line

lauren and i at the finish

School's out!!

on to senior k and 4th grade!!

Academic Awards

The elementary academic awards program was on Wednesday at Harding. Parents are informed if their child is receiving an award, but we are not told what award. Anna knew that she was on the all-A honor roll as well as perfect attendance but that is all we knew. We were pleasantly surprised when Anna was given the National Physical Fitness Award, the award for scoring above the 93rd percentile on the achievement tests, first semester accelerated reader winner for her classroom as well as the All-A honor roll and perfect attendance. Whew. It was a lot but she was so proud and we were beaming. She has worked so hard this year. She does take school seriously, a little too seriously sometimes, but she was so proud of everything that she had accomplished. She did pull me aside afterwards and tell me that based on the few kids that were awarded the All-A honor roll in fourth grade, it might be a tough year next year. I told her not to worry about it and to enjoy all the joy from the day. Congrats Anna on a great school year!!

perfect attendance...she was actually focused on this a lot this year.

anna with emily and kennedy, her soccer buddies receiving the national physical fitness award

anna receiving recognition for her high achivement test scores

proud parents

anna with mrs. fussell

Graham is 1!

Happy first birthday to my nephew Graham! Such a big boy!!

chilling out while we were singing happy birthday

loved the chocolate cupcake!

Memphis in May Triathlon weekend

It was a big triathlon weekend for Gary. The Memphis in May triathlon was held this past weekend in Tunica, MS. There was a sprint distance (400 yd swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) on Saturday and an olympic distance (1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) on Sunday. Gary was registered for both as he always loves a challenge. He has been training a lot to have a good showing this weekend. We decided to take the girls with us Friday night so they could watch Daddy on Saturday for the shorter race. They love staying in hotels and were excited for the race as well. I am not a huge fan of Tunica. I think I am still reminded of my days as a staff auditor at Arthur Andersen having to audit the casinos and doing cash counts in the middle of the night!! The races were right outside of our hotel at Harrah's and it was very convenient.

Gary did well both days. On Saturday he won his age group and was moved to 2nd overall in the masters category (over 40 years old). On Sunday he came in 5th in his age group which was equally as impressive due to fatigue from the day before, twice the distance and a large field over nearly 1,000 racers.

The girls enjoyed watching Saturday. I then drove back to Memphis with them and took in Anna's last soccer game, a great win and my nephew Graham's first birthday party. The girls then spent the night with my parents and I headed back down to stay with Gary for Sunday's race. I felt like I had run my own personal triathlon on Saturday. A full day indeed.

A great weekend of racing for Gary!!

One funny story.....about midnight on Friday night Gary and I were awakened by the girls in the room next door. They were having a GOOD time. They were very loud and playing music and watching TV. We called the front desk and asked them to have them quiet down.  It took an hour for security to tell them to quiet down. Meanwhile Gary and I are literally lying in bed staring at the ceiling unable to sleep. About 1:30 - 1:45, Gary decided to beat on the wall to have them be quiet. No response. Then he called them. They said they were not being loud but finally settled down. I think we have definitely arrived at being OLD when we have to call people to quiet down in a hotel.  The girls slept through the whole thing!!

The girls were up early for the race. Caroline was still asleep in this picture I think holding onto her bagel from breakfast.

Gary linig up in order for the swim.

Nice CLEAR water to swim in...but doing a great job.

Headed out on the bike.

Great finish!!

Ready for Sunday's longer race. Love the pink swim caps they were assigned to wear!

So proud of Gary!

He's off!

Zack and Lauren were troopers driving down for the race. It was great having fans!!

Ride on the Greenline

Anna got a new bike for her birthday...took two different sized bikes to find the right one for this long-legged girl!! Gary got a new bike just for riding the greenline so we all loaded up and headed out for a family bike ride. The greenline is perfect because it is flat and relatively free of cars (only on the parts that cross over streets).  The girls ended up riding 6 miles this particular day. I was impressed with Caroline riding so far on her training wheels. I think she is definitely ready to try it on her own! That will be a summer project!!

Anna with her new bike!

Sweet girls ready for an adventure!

They made it to the I love Memphis mural near mile marker 3 on the greenline!

Love staying active with the girls.

Gary has always instilled health and fitness to our family

Field Day

Harding held its annual Field Day on Friday. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was in the 70's and sunny and the kids had a blast. Anna's class could not decide on a color to wear so they chose to wear Harding t-shirts and white bandanas. They participated in 10-12 different activities and were wired at the end. A great day to enjoy a celebration near the end of the school year!

Anna with Kennedy...crazy girls indeed.

Lainie, Anna and Kennedy

Anna was pretty good at navigating the bouncy ball through the cones...helps that we have one of these at home!

wearing a bucket on your head while your teammate tosses beanbags in it....

enjoying a break with bomb pops! these girls were so fun!

Mother's Day

Glad to spend Mother's Day with my mom and the girls. Caroline's Junior K celebrated Mother's Day a week early with a nice luncheon. The kids sang a sweet song and made all the mom a book to keep. Caroline was so proud and the lunch was yummy too.  On the actual Mother's Day, we joined Mom and Dan for lunch at J. Alexander's after church. Due to the Grizzlies playing Game 7 in the playoff series with the L.A. Clippers, I think the restuarants decided to open early. I called earlier in the week and they indicated they would open at 11am. Mom arrived at 10:45 and they had been open for a while and we were up to an hour long wait. Not a big deal but annoying. We enjoyed lunch and giving Mom her gifts. Sad that the Grizzlies lost their game, but a great morning and afternoon. Dad, Julie, Blair, Kim and their kids all joined us for dinner hosted at our house to celebrate Mother's Day with Julie. We dined on spaghetti and the kids had a great time playing together with their cousins. Overall, a great day and so glad my mom lives around the corner and I can share some of the day with her.

Lunch with Caroline

Three generations on Mother's Day

Love these crazy girls

Grizzlies return to the playoffs

The Memphis Grizzlies had a great season, albeit short season, but managed to score the 4th seed in the Western Division playoffs. This landed them home court advantage against the LA Clippers. The Clippers are very evenly matched with the Grizzlies and it was not until the very last game of the season that the Grizzlies won and the Clippers lost that we knew Memphis had secured home court advantage.  Memphis had a HUGE lead in game 1 (over 20 points with 8:00 to go in the 4th quarter) but blew it. This set the tone for the series but Memphis tends to not give up too easily. We were hoping to get to attend a game, but all were at 8:30 at night on school nights!! Luckily, Gary's work had a pair of tickets for each game in their corporate seats that are very low and great seats and Gary won a pair for Game 5 in Memphis. It was on Wednesday night starting at 8:30. We were ready! The girls were excited for a mid-week sleepover with the grandparents and Gary and I were hoping for a good game and the energy to make it until the midnight finish!! The Grizzlies played a good game and managed a solid win. We had a great time and enjoyed the atomosphere of the playoffs. We did not get to bed until after midnight and were exhausted the next day but each of us managed to get a workout done and be somewhat energetic!! Fun times!!

love our believe memphis shirts and growl towels that everyone received!

Last 3rd grade project

We knew at the beginning of 3rd grade that Anna would have between 6-8 major projects during the year. Gary and I split them up and alternated supervising the projects. There have been ones where we had to build something (landform....a fjord as well as the 3-D scene from a book) as well as book reports that required costumes (clara barton) and the final one was a doozy. Anna had to make up an imaginary animal, complete with adaptations that helped this animal survive in its environment and then build the animal and its ecosystem. No real direction was provided on how to build the animal, how large this should be, etc. Technically it was my turn but I am not a great "builder" for projects so Gary and I tag teamed this one.

Gary spent some time with Anna by themselves planning out what she wanted to do. She came up with a "Camonkey" meaning a monkey that could camoflague itself within its environment. They came up with the adaptations but not really how we were going to build it. We took a family trip to Hobby Lobby and after 1 solid hour of looking up and down the craft aisles we got some ideas and all the supplies to build the camonkey and its ecosystem.

I was not a huge fan of this project as I thought it took too much parental guidance and help. However, it was the last project of the year and we wanted Anna to have a good grade on it. The camonkey was green and ended up being larger than the tree that we placed in the ecosystem, so then it looked like Godzilla, but Anna was pleased with the final product. She typed out the report that accompanied the built structure and was proud. Luckily she got a 100 on the project and she said that she went above and beyond what some of the other kids did such as just drawing their animal on a piece of paper and the ecosystem was drawn in the background. Oh well, just call us the over-achievers!!

Thank goodness we are done with 3rd grade projects....now to think about having to do a science fair project next year....wow!!

the camonkey with its berry trees, cave for shelter with stored nuts inside. hilarious but done!

Anna, the saver

Anna has always been a big saver of any money that she has received. She loves to save and then count what she has. She very rarely spends her money. She prefers to use gift cards received as birthday or other holiday presents and save her money. She has been very interested in opening a savings account at the bank. Right after her birthday Gary took Anna into First Tennessee with her wad of money and let her fill out the application for a savings account. Other than calling me for her social security number, she knew all her information. She was so proud of herself.

She also asked for a raise for her allowance after her birthday. She now has more chores to do to earn more money but is required to put at least $10 per month in her savings account. Last weekend she deposited $20 which was great! She really does like the process and she is like me in that regard. I was always counting and saving my money and rarely did I spend....maybe she will be an accountant one day?

anna with her money in hand waiting her turn

the customer service rep was so proud of anna!

Spring soccer

Caroline came out of retirement to play spring soccer at Hope. Gary was the assistant coach and we had a few familiar faces on our team. We had a crazy league this time. Either the teams were awesome and killed us or were terrible and we scored and scored and scored. Only one week did we have an evenly matched opponent. We won about half of our games and enjoyed the season. We did not have a single rain out and it was blazing hot for most of the games. Last spring we had constant rain and it was freezing at several games. Great season....now will she retire again or keep playing??



i think that it was over 90 degrees at the finish of the game!! sweaty hard playing caroline!