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



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!!