Fun and Nachos

This is what a full day of fun at the water park looks like...

My brother and I with our babies...

My brother and two of my nieces came to visit this week. I took a day off on Wednesday so we could go to Roaring Springs. My mom, Peyton and Ashley are missing from this shot, but only because I didn't remember to take any photos until our second trip of the day. We took a little break mid-day for lunch and so I could pick Syd up from Nerd Camp 2.0. The three of them had their fill of water park by then. Only Brian, Jess and I were die hard water park junkies.

After the park Brian and I took Syd and Jessica to Sockeye. I didn't get a picture of the beer...so here is the lemonade. Sockeye is totally famous for their lemonade, right?

Brian mentioned that his burger might have been the best one he's ever had. They do have excellent food, but I'm guessing he was starving after a day of sun and fun. LOL. Aaaaaand, I may or may not have had nachos.

They were totally amazing, even though I was only able to eat about 1/4 of them!

It was great getting to see Brian and the girls. We really missed Jen and Jayde, but hopefully will get to see them when we are in Washington next month!

Geek? Nerd? She prefers the term "Intellectual Bad*ss"...

So, Sydney attended a camp geared toward girls in engineering a couple weeks ago. We got an email a few days later about a Coding camp they were putting on. They invited her to join in, even though she is a year younger than the age it was offered to. She was a little too geeked out by this fact. Ha ha.

She got a taste of Computer Science at her first camp. I think it solidified for her what she wants to pursue in her future. At least for now...

And while Mark is out of town, I think I could still hear his heart breaking at the thought of his daughter wearing a Bronco's logo. Once a Vandal, always a Vandal. At least until BSU offered a full ride scholarship...then his allegiance might switch.  ;-)

I had a harder time when she told me the story of some college student mistaking her for an intern and hitting on her. Yikes.

Here's to my little Intellectual Badass.  She's pretty darn awesome!

Father's Day...

I know some pretty great fathers. In fact, I am almost positive I have one of the very best! He may not be perfect, but we're awfully glad he's ours. I'm also married to one of the very best. We will definitely keep him!

I have two favorite photos of my dad and I from my wedding. The first is of him walking me down the aisle. It makes me laugh every time. Something about the look on our faces. It's like neither of us can believe this is actually happening.

This one is of the father/daughter dance, obviously. When I was growing up, my dad would often play his guitar and sing for me. One of my favorites was "Daddy's Little Girl" by the Mills brothers. It's funny, but I had never heard the actual recorded version until we danced to it at my wedding. I think I like my dads version better.

I don't get to see my dad as often as I would like. I do talk to him at least a few times a week and he's pretty great about making it to the girls events.

And while his is an amazing dad, I really feel like his true calling is as a Grandpa. No one enjoys that role more than this guy!

This picture is one of my all time favorites because it just sums up Gpa B and his girls.

So now we get to this guy...

He's my favorite person ever. Even when I'm not sure I like him very much. LOL

It's difficult to post many photos of him because he somehow avoids getting his picture taken most of the time. I maybe get one or two a year that he approves of. (Which is a pretty good average if you think about how few are actually taken of him.)

I would guess Mark always imagined having a son. Whoops! But, he has taught the girls most of what he would have taught a boy. They can shoot a gun, change the oil in the car, mow the lawn. They helped demo the house during the remodel. They are learning to drive the tractor. Etc, etc, etc. So, does he miss not having a son? Not that the girls and I can tell. And that makes him even more awesome as far as I'm concerned.

The girls went golfing with Mark this morning. Their job was to caddy for he and Uncle Chris. Poor guys...

Happy Father's Day to ALL the dads out there. You guys rock!

Out-takes:

Ode to Ireland...For your Listening Pleasure.

I forgot that my friend Jennifer sent me the video of Peyton singing her solo in Ireland. (Have I mentioned that Jennifer is THE BEST!?!)

 So, here it is. Take a listen...

I love this choir SO much! Especially the redhead on the end.  :-)

Happy Friday...

Low maintenance? Or Giving up? You be the judge.

First off, let me just say that what I'm about to reveal is in NO WAY indicative of what the girls normally eat. It really is just to tide them over until after swim practice...

I came out of my room this morning to see them happily munching away on pop-tarts. And then, I realized they were uncooked (unheated?) pop-tarts. Because apparently, heating them up is way too much trouble?

I mean, we are trying to raise low maintenance kids...basically, the complete opposite of their mother. But, this may be taking it to a new low. Even for us.

Really, this is just a public service announcement to let you know that as bad as you think your parenting is, the Tverdys have got you beat. 

You're welcome.

Parenting is hard y'all.

I'm sitting here at 3 AM contemplating our parenting fail tonight. We sucked. Badly.

Everyone knows that having a baby, or a toddler is hard. You think it should get easier when your kids get bigger. And it does. But also, it doesn't. Certain aspects become even more difficult.

Usually, we have good cop/bad cop. Tonight we had bad cop/worse cop. Peyton made a mistake on her online class. It wasn't the end of the world. Her attitude is what got her in trouble. Did her bad attitude warrant the amount of yelling we did? Nope, not even close. But, that's what happened. Did the yelling make the situation at all better? Again, nope. But, that's what happened.

Us yelling at her only made the situation worse. As I sit here and think about what made us handle it the way we did, I think it comes down to insecurity. By her screwing up, we feel like we failed. And maybe we did. This is her first online class. We let her handle it herself. That was probably a mistake as we most likely didn't teach her the skills to navigate something like this.

It's tough to step back in the heat of the moment. Last night, we didn't do that. Hopefully next time, we can be better. Are we horrible parents? Probably not. Do we feel horrible? Yep. But that's not the end of the world either.

All we can do at this point is learn from our mistakes and try to do better. And remind ourselves that parenting isn't always easy but we have be the grown-ups and model the behavior we expect to see from our kids. Now that is hard...

They're Baaaa-aaack...

After a week of no kids, we now have all the chicks home to roost. It was fun while it lasted. (Sorry girls, if you're reading this, we missed you terribly...)

Ahem.

If our drive home from the airport was any indication, it sounds like Peyton had a FABULOUS time! She told us every little detail. Every.Single.One.  She was sure she would be up with us at 6, despite the lack of sleep and looooong travel day. We told her she should take the opportunity to sleep in. We are dumb.

Amazingly, she was still asleep when I left for work at 8:30. Weird, huh?

We didn't get to spend a lot of time with her, as her flight got in so late and we were tired. So, it will be fun to catch up!

Sydney has been with my mom and Devin nearly the whole time Peyton has been gone. It worked out really well, as my mom was able to get her to all the places she needed to go. Shout out to Gabbie!

Syd spent her week helping babysit, pulling weeds and I'm not sure what else. She did start swim team Monday. 7:30 AM in-the-pool makes for a pretty darn early wake-up. Especially when she tries to eat at least an hour before practice. Yikes!

It now feels like we're even busier than we were during the school year. Our calendar is CRAZY!

Sydney has two camps in June. Peyton starts her babysitting gig Monday. Swim team. A raft trip. Job shadowing. A Summer on-line class. Piano. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Almost makes me glad I will be at work.

Living vicariously...

So, last Friday Mark and I had the following text exchange:

Me: It's so nice out.  Why the heck are we at work?
Him:  So our kid can gallivant around Ireland.
Me: Oh, yeah. SO NOT FAIR!

While we haven't heard from Peyton the entire week, some of the other group members have been diligent in uploading pictures to Facebook. I asked them if I could share some of the trip photos which received enthusiastic response. Apparently, they all want to be featured in the blog. LOL. Oh, and lest I forget, photo cred goes to the following: Nikki Jensen, Lexie Janquart and Jennifer Lenoue!

So, without further ado:

At the airport, trying to function on 2 hours of sleep.  Love you Nikki!

Airport Lay-over

Peyton, Lexie and Nikki airport shenanigans

And then we move on to the actual trip!

First stop, Cliffs of Moher. 

Next up, Cobh Heritage Centre.

Lexie, Nikki and Nathan

Blarney Castle.  Wow!

Looks like a postcard

Amazing group of students!

Peyton, Nikki, Nathan, and Lexie

Bus shenanigans.

Kylemore Abbey.This is my absolute favorite. I can't believe how beautiful this is!

Jennifer (Peyton's other Mom at least for this week) and Nathan

Group photo in front of Kylemore Abbey

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven.

I miss this face!

Christ Church Cathedral

The rest of these are just my favorite shots the various people sent to me. I probably wouldn't get all the locations correct so just enjoy. LOL

Lexie and Nikki

Lexie, Nikki and Peyton

Lexie

Lexie

Nikki

Nikki

Peyton in her choir finery

Peyton

Riley and Nikki

Thanks again to everyone who shared pictures with us. It was amazing to see all the cool sights. And I know all of us at home can't wait to see these faces in person!