Tverdy, party of 3...

Well, it's finally happened. The time has come for Peyton to leave for college. In fact, she and Mark drove away about an hour ago.

Even though we have been preparing for weeks, I think the denial is still super strong for all of us.

We walked by this pile so many times that I'm pretty sure we stopped noticing it!

It doesn't seem like too much stuff. I'm sure that dorm room will fill up quickly though.

Here it is in packed form...

I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job of staying chill. Especially since jury duty coincided with moving week. Nothing like having to wait until the last minute to see if you are able to travel. And I am the eternal optimist so I was SURE I would get to go. Finding out at the last minute that I didn't in fact get to go was bit heartbreaking.

I did lose it at Church Sunday. The priest had all of the students headed to college stand in the aisle and the congregation blessed them. That's so far been the only time I cried. I also made my people take photos after Mass to commemorate her last Sunday at home. They were thrilled.

We had a fun going away lunch with Emma's family after church. I hope she and Peyton will be successful roommates! I think they will do well.

Syd is still super terrified to be our sole focus. She's pretty sure swimming will take up a lot of time so she won't constantly be bugged by us. I imagine she'll find a few extra hobbies if we get too obnoxious.

As of now, I'm waiting to hear that they arrived safely. Tomorrow is official move-in and I made Mark promise they would face time me so I can at least see her room!

The tears haven't actually started yet, but I'm definitely on the brink of crying. I'm pretty sure it will be short lived if and when it comes. At least I hope so! Peyton will probably stay fairly tear-free since it's Mark there and not me. Fingers crossed anyway!

And it's ONLY 7 weeks til U of I's Homecoming and I get to see my girl again.

Sweet 16!

It doesn't get much sweeter than this girl!

It's hard to believe that our "Absent-Minded Professor" is 16 already! Syd is one of the smartest people I know. She also has moments where I'm completely terrified for her. We have story after story of times when Sydney just made us shake our heads in wonderment. Both good, and bad. Ha!

One of the things that has always struck me about Sydney is that she is seemingly fearless. When she was really little, she would jump into any pool she saw. Whether she was wearing clothes or not...and even though she couldn't swim. It was extremely difficult parenting her through the toddler years. Childproofing was just a challenge that she was always willing to tackle. We never did find anything that would work to thwart her. Thankfully she was (and is) adorable!

As she's grown and matured, she has transferred that fearlessness into other areas. Including this:

Mark took the girls to the Basque picnic a couple weeks ago. Syd decided she wanted to try the weight competition. Maybe it's the fact that I'm pretty timid when it comes to things that could end up making me look foolish, but I'm always surprised when she volunteers for something like this. She never, ever worries about looking silly! Amazing. Oh, and I guess she actually did quite well, especially for never having seen this competition before!

She is also fearless when it comes to performing in public. 

 Even if she's wearing a swim suit!


I've never met someone who is more comfortable in their own skin. To be honest, I'm a little jealous! Whether she's cutting her hair super short, being into totally "geeky" things, or wearing whatever she wants, she definitely stays true to herself.

One of her other amazing qualities is her willingness to work hard. She's definitely willing to do the work and try to improve. I really love watching her determination in the pool!

I do think she's a little nervous about her sister heading to college. Not only will they really, really miss each other, I imagine she's terrified that she'll be our sole focus. I think Peyton's big personality has always let Syd fly under the radar. A role which she plays quite well. Hopefully we can temper our helicoptering a little. 

I am pretty thankful that she still likes to hang out with us. She really is about as sweet as they come!

Happy birthday, Tommy Waffles! We love you and are so humbled to be your parents. I'm still not sure how we got so lucky!  XOXO

Life skills...

"I can't believe I'm 15 years old and I already have to pay taxes!" - Sydney Tverdy

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. I can't believe I'm 43 and still have to pay taxes!

A year or so ago, Peyton mentioned that she didn't think she was ready for college because she didn't know how to do anything.  Including filing tax returns. Well, as much as I think this would have been a good skill to teach her this year, I ended up just doing them for her...again. Maybe next year. (Yeah, right.) Hopefully we have prepared her for being on her own. Thankfully, she will have her friend Emma as a roommate. Pretty sure they will be a good balance of adulting skills. Peyton knows how to cook, do laundry, manage money. I'm not at all worried about her study skills. What are we missing? I'm sure there is something.





We seem to be screaming through April, which means my first baby will be turning 18 shortly. And then there is graduation. We should probably work on getting those announcements out. Throw in a few swim meets for Syd and another nerd camp and a driving test to obtain her license and she seems even busier than her sister.

I think the next few months are going to be a blur.

Like campfires and marshmallows, we're just better together...

This past weekend we headed to Bruneau Sand Dunes. If you've never camped here, know you better go early in the season. It tends to get super hot and mosquito-y later.

We left Friday night and rolled in just in time to set up camp and play some Yahtzee before bed. We are wild y'all.

Saturday, it was pretty cold and windy when we woke up. We decided to have breakfast inside the trailer. Solid choice. After breakfast, we figured if we were going to hike the dunes, we had better get to it!

About 15 minutes in, the sun came out. It was gorgeous! Unfortunately, we also found the mosquitos. Poor Peyton gets it the worst. We have decided it's because she squeals and flails around so her adrenaline is an attraction for them.

Macie and Sydney had boundless energy. I think I hate them a little.

Just as we rolled back into our campsite, the heavens opened up and it rained and hailed for a few hours. Perfect time for a nap! I love naps.

One must always dress appropriately for the occasion...

The rain stopped about the time we were getting hungry for dinner. I was able to cook outside which makes me happy. Mark and the girls went to the Observatory Saturday night. I stayed behind and read and went to sleep early. Macie did the same. Minus the reading...

It was the perfect combination of activity and rest. Just what I look for in a camping weekend!

Vegas, Baby!

It's Wednesday evening and I've just woken up from a nap.

Mark and I got home from our Vegas trip around 3 and let me just say that I am officially too old to survive for long on so few hours of sleep!

We spent a lot of time buying this...

Mama needs her coffee!

This is a shot of our new found freedom:

Because everyone needs to see us on the plane, right? LOL

It's funny that I didn't actually take a ton of photos. I'm usually whipping my phone out on the regular, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE on the streets and such. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of too many people being around me.

So, what did we do while we were there? Well, I gambled...a lot. Mark doesn't love it quite as much as I do, but he played along. We also walked...and walked...and walked.

Check out these stats from our first full day:

We did see a show our last night. I cannot recommend this enough!

So impressive! We kept thinking how much the girls would love it! But, I'm sure they were having a ton more fun without us. Ha!

This show was at our hotel. Which was why we chose to see this version of Cirque de Soleil. Because, lazy. And our hotel was amazing. I'd show you, but no pictures. 

Speaking of the girls, they went to Disneyland with the Bishop Kelly choir. Which was the catalyst for us going to Vegas. Win/win for sure! My friend Jennifer sent this of the girls:

Clearly they miss us.

And clearly, I was eating responsibly on our way home...

Airport Cinnabon? Yes, please!  (Poor Mark had to be my photo assistant)

I will say that our journey home was delightful with all this leg room. So nice for those of us who normally are squished up on airplanes!

And now, it's back to work. I can say that I'm actually happy to be home. And I'm also actually looking forward to the normalcy of life. Exactly what you would hope to achieve with vacation!

Now I just need my chicks to get home...

A shout out to home towns and family and ridiculousness...

As per our usual, we took off Christmas day and started our annual drive to Washington. We had already decided that since we had people staying with us, we would only drive as far as Pendleton. A wise choice as we didn't end up leaving until almost 4 PM. Here is our obligatory start-of-the-trip photo:

You can't see the Dutch Bros. for some reason. Weird, since we ALWAYS make Mark stop.

Most of our drive the first day looked like this!

Which was a welcome sight since we had been getting a bit of snow before we left. I thought the drive was easy, but probably because I was in the passenger seat reading magazines.

We got on the road "early" the next morning...around 10. Which is fairly early when you have two teens.

When we got to Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Brians, the girls immediately headed outside for some rock skipping. Love this view!

They were also mesmerized by the record player we got G'ma and G'pa. 

No trip to Washington would be complete without a trip here...

Along with the accompanying shenanigans...

And our selfie game is on point...or on fleek. Whatever these young whipper snappers say these days.

We spent some time here:

And even though I went to Fort, NOT Evergreen, I seemed to have spent quite a bit of time here my senior year for some reason. Weird.

We got to watch this chick (who goes to Fort, and never hangs out a a rival school) mix it up on the court.

We also got to hang out with these hooligans who are so, so much cooler than we are. 

They fed us drinks that were on fire for goodness sake!

And took us to a classy pizza place...

And to a place that only serves pie. Well, mostly they only serve pie...

 It's like they know my love language!

Obviously, the girls miss the days when I used to dress them alike...

Awkward.

There is no doubt I grew up in a gorgeous place:

We will sure miss it until the next trip.

Happy 2016! 

And in the interest of full disclosure, this was written while sitting on my couch in my jammies, snuggled under my new heated blanket, sipping a homemade flat white. I {heart} vacation!!