St. Jude 50th anniversary!

While Caroline and Gary were in Alabama for the Zyriek family reunion, I enjoyed the celebrations for St. Jude's 50th anniversary. It was a long few days full of a lot of activities and celebrations, but well worth it to learn more about the history and the prestige associated with St. Jude.  I was a part of the International Delegation dinner on Wednesday night. This includes folks from our 14 International affiliates in Central and South America as well as the Middle East. It was very interesting and the group was very overwhelmed with the growth and vision of the Hospital.  Friday was full of tours of the Chili's Care Center and the Patient Care Center. These were new tours that involved a deeper look at what a patient may endure during their stay at the hospital and we learned about the legacy bead program that each patient participates in. We were fortunate to meet the patient that the tour was about at the end and those on our tours were so excited and moved by the experience. Jordin Sparks, former American Idol winner was on campus courtesy of Target on Friday for a concert. That was a huge hit with the people in town and the patients on campus.  Friday night was a gala as was Saturday night. In between there was the Thomas Family luncheon and the Meet the Patients session. It was a very full week/weekend and I was very tired by the end but knew that it was well worth it. Not very many pictures but just a few. We are not allowed to photograph patients and so that precludes many pictures. So fortunate to be a part of such an amazing organization that has grown so much in just 50 years. Here's to the next 50!!

ready for the gala...so wish gary could have been in town to go with me. amazing evening.

fun and yummy dessert on saturday night

Father/Daughter Dance

Gary took the girls to the Father/Daughter dance hosted by our gym. It has traditionally been held in February but they moved it closer to Father's Day this year. Of course all they could talk about was how far they were going to get in the dance contest this year. Last year they got pulled in the first round and Anna did not realize it and kept dancing and was super embarrassed later. The girls put all the blame on Gary for an early exit.

They were excited. Gary and the girls got dressed up and headed out for an evening of fun. They actually made it through the second round of the contest this year, but again, the girls blamed Gary for their untimely departure!! They had a good time and I am grateful for the time they spend together.

ready for the big dance...caroline was thrilled except she has been ready for gary to shave his beard for a while!!

excited about the chocolate fountain

having a blast

yes, those are my children!!

Camp Highland

Anna spent the week at Camp Highland, which is a camp affiliated with Highland Church of Christ that meets in Cordova at The Grove at Red Oak Lake (called Camp Cordova when I was young!!). It is a 5 night sleep away camp and many of Anna's friends from school were going to be there. The first year one is eligible to attend is after he/she has completed 3rd grade. Anna was invited by Sophie and Lainie and having survived Camp Tahkodah, we knew she would have a good time.

We dropped her off on the evening of Father's Day. She was in a cabin with many of the same girls she shared a cabin with at Camp Tahkodah in June. We got her set up and met her counselor and that was about it. This cabine had air conditioning and they were lucky that their cabin also had showers inside the cabin. Many of the other cabins did not have shower and a community shower down the path was used by them.

The theme of the camp was 10,000 reasons after the newest Matt Redmond song. It really had the kids thinking about how they could servce Christ, how they could share the love of Christ and how they can make a difference in their families, at school and at church. Anna really had a great week!

I picked up Anna on Friday night at the end of the week. Gary and Caroline left that morning for the Zyriek family reunion in Alabama. We decided with Anna's agreement, that she would be too tired to travel to Alabama and that it would allow Gary and Caroline to leave much earlier. Anna stayed with me for the weekend and Caroline spent the time with Gary. At the Family time at Camp Highland on Friday night, we all sang worship songs, learned about the week and watched the Highlights video produced by Russ Turman. He did an outstanding job. He must not have slept all week because it was amazing. Anna was in the video several times and was able to fill me in on the details on some of what we saw. We will get our own copy of the video later in the summer and can share with Gary and Caroline.

Anna had a great time. Enjoyed the huge slide that was new this year. Loved the night dance parties, loved the girls in her cabin and had an overall wonderful week. She definitely would like to come back next year and do it all over again!

welcome to camp highland!

the girls of cabin 2...ready for a fun week! their cabin counselor named them the glamour campers and gave them all cute nicknames and fun dress up accessories on each of their bunks

anna with mary, one of her counselors

the new addition to camp this year, the huge slide. anna loved it and went down over 20 times she said!

always glamorous anna at pick up on friday!

can't get the picture to turn correctly, but anna was awarded the most enthusiastic in her cabin. imagine that??!!

Jerry's Sno Cones

While Anna was away at Camp Highland, we decided to take Caroline to Jerry's Sno Cones to help beat the heat and have a little fun. I have heard for years how awesome this iconic place is and how great it is especially in the midst of a heat wave in Memphis. There were literally about 100 flavors of sno cones you could select from...talk about pressure at the ordering window when you have never seen the "menu" before. There is also an option where you can make your sno cone "supreme" by having vanilla soft-serve ice cream in the middle of your sno cone!! Gary opted for this with the orangesicle flavor, which created a dreamsicle. I chose a basic blue raspberry and Caroline went for wedding cake. They were all great, too much to consume, but yummy on a warm summer night. We will definitely be back with Anna!

waiting in line to order....we beat the big crowd that gathered right after we were done!

always loves to show that tongue after a sno cone!

sweet caroline with gary....only a few days before he shaved the beard!!

Father's Day/Dad's birthday

Father's Day weekend always brings my dad's birthday as well. This year he and Julie were babysitting Blair and Kim's kids so we brought the party to him! We enjoyed pizza for dinner and Muddy's cupcakes for a nice dessert. It was nice to hang out and watch the US Open and let the kids entertain each other. Benjamin is always up for a visit from the cousins. Caroline was glad to share all her gymnastics talent with him.

Gary raced in the Alabama State Time Trial on Father's Day morning. I can't think of anything he would rather wake up and do on Father's Day than do a time trial. He won his age group and had a great race. He scooted back to Memphis to enjoy a few hours with the kids before we had to take Anna to Camp Highland and head over to my dad's to celebrate Father's Day there.

We gave Gary a new Auburn tie along with a weekend for the two of us to take in a Carolina Panthers game to watch Cam Newton play this fall. He chose the Denver Broncos to watch as an opponent so we will be off to Charlotte in November for the big game!

Great lunch with Dan and dinner with Dad. The girls enjoyed spending time with family just as much as I did. It was a nice day....we even caught a little cat nap while watching the rest of the US Open.

dad with benjamin, caroline, anna and graham for his birthday!

home from his time trial and enjoying his girls on father's day

dan with anna and caroline for father's day lunch

VBS/Art Camp

The girls attended SKY VBS at Hope this week in the morning hours and enjoyed an Art Camp in the afternoons. The girls had a great time creating all kinds of art and had an Art Show on Friday. I was unable to attend due to a late meeting at work, so they hung up all their art work in the garage so that when I arrived home they would be able to show it off.

Dragon Fly Triathlon

The morning after Anna returned home from Camp Tahkodah, the Zyrieks were up at 5am to head to Sardis Lake for the Dragonfly Triathlon. Gary was ready and was hoping to beat previous times at this race. Luckily Anna, Gary and Caroline all took 3 hour naps when we returned from Camp pickup so they were fine. I was a little tired since I ran errands and did a 6.5 mile run that afternoon!!
Gary ended up winning his age group which was great. His goal time was 1:32 which would have been 2-4 minutes faster than any previous time and he came in under 1:30. He was very pleased and the girls were very excited.

Fun also to see my running coach Lesley compete in the triathlon. She is a lean machine these days after having won her age group at IronMan Texas which qualified her for IronMan Kona in October which is the world championships for the Ironman competition (those not familiar with Ironman....2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run!!!)

We all rested once we returned home and then headed out to watch friends run in the Gipson Guitar 5k downtown. Great weather equaled a fun evening with friends.

great cheerleaders...enjoying the sand at the start of the swim

gary is ready for the triathlon to start...love how the swim caps always pull so tight on his face and eyes.

looking good out of the water

my super skinny running coach

awesome race for gary!

at the awards ceremony

Camp Tahkodah

Anna's first sleep away camp was this week over in Floral, Arkansas (near Searcy) at Camp Tahkodah. The Camp is run by folks associated with Harding University and most of the counselors are college students. Anna's friends Sophie and Lainie attended last year for the first time (must be 8 years old) and enjoyed it and invited Anna to attend this year. It took a lot of time and effort to pack her up for the week but it was fun shopping for new things and essentials like a clip-on fan, due to no air conditioning in the cabins, and bug spray and sunscreen. Anna looked at the website so many times and thought about all the fun activities she was going to get to do while there.

We drove up with the Childers family on Sunday morning. We made a stop for lunch at the Bulldog Restaurant in Bald Knob, Arkansas. The girls thought the name was so funny.  It is key to be at the gates of the camp at 1pm when they open because it is a tradition to run and claim your bunk in your assigned cabin, which is a surprise to all the campers. This was the part Anna had a little anxiety about because she was worried she would not be in a cabin with her friends (even though you can request a bunkmate) and was worried she would not be able to find her cabin with all the 189 campers running around. Luckily, Kelsey Moultrie found Anna, Sophie and Lainie and showed them the way to Cabin 2.  Kelsey's parents were staying the week as adult helpers and they had checked in on Saturday and been settled into their cabins. The four girls were in the back part of the cabin together. Anna claimed the top bunk with Kelsey and we started to unload all of her things. It was warm in the cabins but fun getting the beds made and everything unpacked. Swim tests for the girls were at 3pm and Anna was excited about it. The test consisted of swimming across the creek/lake and back unassisted. Anna is a strong swimmer, so I knew she would be ok. We got her settled in and were headed out about 2:45. Lots of hugs and luckily no tears from Anna. She was ready for the big week!!

We received mail from Anna on Wednesday which was a treat. She had passed her swim test, survived the crazy storms Sunday night and was enjoying the food and all the activities. We really missed her and the house was very different. Caroline loved being the only child but started to really miss Anna about mid-week. We drove back over on Friday morning to pick up Anna. It was a little cool when we arrived and a lot of the kids were wearing jeans! Nice problem to have in early June for camp!! She was so tired. They had a midnight hike, bonfire and fireworks the night before to end their camp experience. She said they did not get into bed until after 1am, which is about 3 hours later than their normal scheduled bed time. She told us a lot about her experiences, including that she rode horses, did the rope swing, shot a 22 at the shooting range, did archery, swam every day, jumped off the bridge in the water, jumped on the trampoline, played basketball and tennis and took hikes as well. Full week for her. She received the Bible award for her cabin which made her very proud. She loved camp and is already talking about going back next year. Great counselors, new and old friends, and deepening her faith all made for a fantastic week.

entrance to the camp

getting her bunk all ready

sophie, kelsey, anna and lainie

dropping off our oldest for her first sleep away camp!!

sweet sisters....caroline is going to really miss anna!!

b

anna with her lead counselor lauren, a basketball player for harding university

beautiful views all around the camp!!

While Anna's away.....

Caroline is in charge!! She asked if she could do a few fun things while Anna was gone. She already had gymnastics and swim lessons on the agenda, but we managed to squeeze in her top request, which was to ride go-karts. She had the pleasure of riding on one for a few minutes (before we made her get off because Uncle James said it was not safe) in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend and was really wanting to ride again. We took her to Putt-Putt on Wednesday night. She wanted to ride go-karts and play mini-golf. We ended up having Lauren meet us and all get wrist bands for the night. This is the same Putt-Putt where I would go as a kid but it is still bringing in the crowds. Caroline had a great time and even got some ice cream at the end for the ride home. She was exhausted but was all smiles!

ready for swim lessons

crazy on the kiddie track.....rode along with us on the big track



we got to ride together once while lauren took caroline for a spin on the big track