Spring Happenings

We finally have some decent weather here. It's going to be short lived, but we are certainly enjoying it while we have it.

Life in the Garonzik home continues on as busy as ever. March 1st was Sydney girl's 3rd birthday. We had a couple celebrations for her. Her "kid" birthday party was at the Super Jump Party Zone. The theme was Tinkerbell. She had a blast and so did all the other kids and as far as we can tell there were very minimal, if any, injuries. Sydney really loved opening her presents and eating her cake. She even loved having all the attention when we sang Happy Birthday to her. On her actual birthday we made a special dinner and more cupcakes and more gifts. She, again, loved the attention. We can't believe that she is 3 already and absolutely the apple of our eyes.

In other fun and exciting news we signed Sydney up for swimming lessons. The girl loves the water and since we like to vacation in places that have pools and oceans, we thought it was probably time for her to learn to swim. Well, group lessons were...um, challenging. Our child has no fear of the water and wanted to be in it all the time and was having a hard time waiting her turn. With 4 other 3 and 4 year olds in her class it just wasn't working and in protest, during her 2nd lesson, our child decided to take off her bathing suit. OIY...Jed sat in the stands and said, "We don't know her." :) While I moved as quickly as possible to get to Sydney because her poor 17 year old instructor had no clue what to do. So...group swimming lessons aren't for Sydney. We always knew she was special. Private lessons were next and although the private lesson went MUCH better than the group lesson, on the advice of the instructor, we think we will wait a few months in the hopes that Sydney's attention span will grow a bit. The instructor did say that it is a good thing that she has no fear of the water...but right now there is no focus and she is not retaining the skills...so we will continue to work with her in the pool ourselves and try private lessons again in the fall when she starts pre-school.

Over the last weekend we made some significant changes to Sydney's room. She has made this shift into being a little more independant and wanting to play in her room more and more...so we moved her kitchen set and her table and chairs into her room. It's nice having those items out of the family room and really quite sweet to hear the chatter of a 3 year old playing house with her dolls. She loves it.

Here is hoping that there is more warm spring weather coming soon...we love it and we need the vitamin D!

Maui 2009 Fun in the Sun!

We just returned from our 4th trip to Maui. It was incredible. We had such a good time. The weather was perfect...the food was excellent and spending time with family, making memories is what we love the most about Maui. Sydney had a great time and is already asking to go back. Her favorite spot was the Maui Toy Store at Whaler's Village...and good thing for us she could never choose which toy she wanted to buy. She just wanted to hang out in the store and play with all the toys. We spent hours and hours in the pool and on the beach with her. She loved the little slide in the pool and we would have a parent or teenager at one end and another at the other end and she would go down that slide over and over and over. We also discovered that our dear daughter is not much of a morning person. Several days in a row she would inform us that she was still "sweepin" and wanted us to leave her alone in bed...it was hard because we wanted to "Go-Go-Go" early and the (nearly) 3 year old set the schedule on most days. She ran hard every day and took awesome naps (usually 2-3 hours a day) and was asking to go to bed by 8 or 8:30 every night. Poor thing did get a little virus while we were gone and threw-up in the rental car twice...(thank God it's a rental), but it didn't keep her down for very long and soon enough we were off and running again. Jed, mom (Grandma Judy), Jami, Mike, Zach and Madison got to do the Zip-Line this year...(I took one for the team and stayed back with Sydney). Apparently it was really a great adventure and the guides were incredible. They really took a liking to my mom and took care of her. What a trooper mom was...nervous, but she said she had a wonderful time. Next time I get a turn and someone else can stay back with the kiddo! 11 days goes by quick when you are in paradise...and although I was ready for the comforts of home, I was not ready to leave that weather...the drive to the airport is beautiful and sad as you just don't want to leave Maui. I hope you enjoy our photos...we took lots of them. i will post more pictures and stories soon!


Sydney waiting to get in the pool.

Mom and Ang at the Hula Grill...one of our favorite eatin' spots! mmmmm...Mango-colada's!

On the beach at Ka'anapali!

An early dinner in Lahaina at the Cool Cat Cafe after taking some pictures by the Banyan Tree.

I don't recall what restaurant we were at when this picture was taken...but this was Sydney's "Hip-Hop" pose, taught to her by her cousins Madison and Zach. She loves the camera and she loves her Zachy and Madison!

SNOW SNOW Everywhere & Baking cookies with Momma!

More snow for the Pacific Northwest and it's a beautiful site. We bought a snow suit for Sydney and she is really digging being out in the snow with all the other kids. Although she still wants to ride her bike in it. She's 2, what can I say?

Last night we baked cookies. Sydney wants to help with EVERYTHING. As her Momma, I want her to experience everything, but as Angie, I want control. :) So...I asked for advice from my other momma friends who said to give her a bowl with some flower and some spoons and she will think she is helping out. I am happy to report that it worked!!! She was a happy little camper and Daddy took some cute pictures.

Jingle Bell Run & the first snow of the season!

Pure winter fun this weekend. The first winter storm has arrived and it's a cold one out there. It sure is pretty though. Sydney had a blast playing in the snow today in the backyard.

This morning we headed to Seattle bright and early for the Jingle Bell Run. My final 5k of the year. This time Mike, Jami, Madison and Zach joined me. Jed was supposed to join, but with broken toes he had to sit this one out. Madison's horse trainer, Angie, and her SIL joined us as well. We had a great time. Singing Jingle Bells in the express lanes and running along side family. I didn't beat my personal best time by any means, but it was really a fun thing to do together.

Pre-race

Post Race

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Putting on my game face...it was a chilly one.

The Annual Downtown Seattle Trip

Thanksgiving is done...how did that happen? It was a great day. We had 13 people at our house for the holiday and everything went off without a hitch. It was great...and I was exhausted. I was up at 6am. The turkey went in the oven at 6:45 am and I was out running 4 miles at 7:15am. Doing the, pre-turkey, turkey burn. I was happy I did that because it was my final workout until Monday of the following week.


Sydney had a wonderful time with her cousins Grace and Audrey on Thanksgiving. They played and played and played and Sydney was none to happy to see them go home that evening...but she was off to be at 7:30 that night as Friday, bright and early, we were up and off on our annual Thanksgiving Weekend in Seattle. We were out of the house very early and thankfully got to check into our hotel as soon as we got there. We had an adjoining room with Mike, Jami, Madison and Z and Sydney loved it. She loves them so much. The parade started at about 9am or so and we watched a good majority of it, but as soon as Sydney lost interest so did we. Off to shop and hang out. All in all it was a great weekend and a fun tradition for us all. We did not take as many pictures as we have in the past years, but here are a few from Sunday morning at the Pike Place Market where we had our traditional breakfast at Lowells followed by a quick trip through the market and stroll up Pike Street.

Really fun way to spend Halloween...

We had plans to go to Arizona for Halloween, but the friend's that we were going to stay with had something come up so we made some last minute changes to our plans and off we went to Disneyland! Wow...what a trip. It was a total blast and Sydney had a fantastic time. She loved the characters and many of the rides, but was not happy with the "scary" rides. This was only my 2nd trip to Disney and the last time I was in Disneyland was 10 years ago. California Adventure and Downtown Disney were not there the last time. I have been to the House of Blues once to see a concert in Downtown Disney, but don't ask about that experience because it was a rough one. LOL! Anyway, there are quite a few rides that you would not think would be scary, but they are. Sydney didn't like those, but loved the rides like Dumbo and Nemo. She would have stayed in Mickey's house for the entire time we were in Disneyland. She loved that. California Adventure was a blast too. There is an entire section for A Bug's Life...and Sydney had a blast there. Jed and I managed to do a few rides ourselves in shifts. California Screamin' was really cool, but the best was The Tower of Terror...what a blast. We also did some old standby's, like Space Mountain. It was an awesome couple of days. A great way to spend Halloween and Jed's birthday. The parade was really cool and the fireworks on Friday night were the best fireworks either Jed or I had ever seen.

Here is one for the Grandpa's in her life

I tried to catch Sydney singing Happy Birthday in the car. Took a little coaxing, but the end of the video is worth the wait.