Another Typical, Busy Weekend

Friday was my last full day at Cunningham.  Robin stopped in and the kids got to see baby Elise.  They thought her little headband/bow was cute!  The kids also had a concert at the end of the day.  The upper elementary classes sang "We are the World" and it was amazing! There are some VERY talented kids in those classes!
After school, Tyson and I headed to Hudson for the G-R game.  G-R got another W....21-8. 

On Saturday, I watched Ava in the morning and afternoon while Tyson took off on a bike ride.  We both got home around the same time and got ready for church.  We volunteered in the Wee Kids wing: the 3 year old class.  This was Tyson's first experience in the room, but I've been doing it for about a year now.  To say the least, Tyson said it was a good form of birth control to be with these kids. :)
After church, we went to Sakura for dinner and then headed back to Covey Ct for our friends/neighbors' going away party.  They are moving to Hudson next week.  We will miss you Peet family!

Today was a busy day for Tyson!  He got up and rode his bike 50miles this morning, came home to shower, went to Ava's birthday party for a couple of hours, came home to change, and right now he is currently still running his 12miles.  Hopefully he gets home soon....it's really dark out there!
My Sunday was spent a little differently.  I slept in, got ready for Ava's party, and then had to make a quick stop at Target before going to the Malcolm's.  Ava looked so cute in her birthday/party dress!  She loved all of the attention, gifts, and cupcakes/ice cream!  Below are some pictures from the party!

Just woke up from a nap and ready to party!

Showing off what she can do with her walking toys!

Trying to open up Uncle Josh's present.

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Josh putting together the bouncing turtle.

Ava LOVED it!

Birthday cupcakes

Birthday cookies and more cupcakes

Enjoying a cupcake

Back on the turtle!

One Year Ago....

One year ago today, I got a phone call from Wendy around 3:30pm.  I was student teaching in Reinbeck at the time and as soon as I saw that I had a call from her, I had a feeling that it was about baby Malcolm (which is what we called Ava through Wendy's whole pregnancy because we didn't know the gender).  I talked to Wendy and she said "I'm going to have a baby today!!!"  I was so excited so I quickly left school and headed home!  I picked up Sophie on my way - Wendy was freaking out that she would be left alone :).  Tyson and I took Sophie for a quick run, then I showered and headed to Allen Hospital.  I was greeted by my mom, dad, brother, Darren, and Wendy.  The next several hours were spent with the guys focused on Monday night football (who knew they even watched Monday night football?!?!?!) and Wendy yelling at them to shut the tv off!!  Hahaha!

My dad's perfect spot for Monday night football.

Darren must be mad that my pictures are interrupting football. :)

After awhile, we left the Malcolm's alone and headed to the lobby where my dad proceeded to fall asleep watching football (I guess he's not THAT big of a fan).  Eventually, we moved back up to the small waiting room just outside of Wendy's room.  My mom and Darren were in the room with her while my dad, Josh, and I sat waiting outside the room.  Every now and then we would stick our ears up to the door to see if we could hear a crying baby.  Finally (I don't know the time but know it was after midnight), we heard "IT'S A GIRL!!!" followed by a crying baby!  We couldn't wait to be able to get in the room to see this brand new baby!!

First family picture!

Nana and Ava

Papa and Ava - showing off his shirt. 

Auntie Rachel and Ava

Uncle Joshie and Ava

Before we were let into the room, my mom brought out her camera to show us some pictures.  The first thing I said was "she looks like Wendy!" Finally we were allowed in the room and got to hold baby Malcolm. (Still no name at this point).  I was getting tired and had to teach the next day, so I left to go to bed.  The next morning I was waiting for a text message with baby Malcolm's name!  It finally came: Ava Nicole! :) Since Tyson wasn't able to make it the first night, we went after school so he could meet his brand new niece.

Uncle Tyson finally gets to meet Ava!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (tomorrow) AVA!!  Uncle Tyson and Aunt Rachel love you!!!

Parents in Training

After a BUSY week with two days of parent-teacher conferences, I was ready to relax this weekend!  In case I hadn't mentioned before, Tyson is the athletic trainer for G-R football, so that keeps him busy every Friday night.  It was G-R's homecoming, so I headed to Gladbrook for the game.  They won 49-6!  Way to go Rebels!  After the game, we went to Mulligan's for a late supper.  I was almost asleep when we were there, so I went right to bed when we got home.

On Saturday, I slept ALL morning!!  My parents and Lewis' stopped by on their way to the UNI game to see Ava, who showed up around 1:00pm.  Wendy and Darren were headed to Des Moines for a wedding, so Tyson and I were in charge of Ava and Sophie for the night.  However, Tyson had a ticket to the Iowa vs. Penn State game, so he left around 2:30, and then it was just the 3 girls.  We didn't really have any plans, so we went to Target for a little while, but spent most of the afternoon playing at home.  I made pancakes for supper (my favorite!!) and Ava loved them too.  I'm sure Sophie would have loved them if I had given in to her whining.  :) After supper and Ava's bath, we watched some of the Iowa game watching for Uncle Tyson on the tv! We never saw him though.

This morning we woke up around 7:45am and played inside while it was still cold out.  Then we went for a walk and Ava was out right away.  (We left Tyson and Sophie at home...they were napping).  I CAREFULLY got Ava out of her stroller and into her pack-n-play to finish her nap at home.  By the time she finally woke up and ate lunch, mommy and daddy were here to pick her up!!  Ahhh....another great weekend in the Burton household.

Reading her favorite book - "Sooo Big"

Happy baby!! :)

Walking around the table AND trying to grab the remote.

Lovin' on her new baby.

I'll be finishing my last full week at Cunningham this week, although I'll be teaching an additional 2 weeks during intercession, but those are just half-days. 

A day trip and a triathlon

On Friday after school, I went straight to work at Pheasant Ridge while Tyson traveled to Jewell with the G-R football team.  He got home late and I was already in bed. 

On Saturday, I was back at Pheasant Ridge by 6:30am and Tyson got to sleep in and spend some time relaxing and watching the Hawkeyes play!  When I got off work, we left for Dumont.  Our original plans were for Tyson to ride his bike to Hampton (part of his training) and I would drive over and pick him up.  However, with crappy weather on Saturday, Tyson decided not to ride, but we still wanted to go. I dropped Tyson off at my parents' house and my mom and I took off to go to Hampton to the Orange Possum!  I got some GREAT new stuff!!  After O.P., my mom and I walked around to a few other stores in Hampton, got some cappuccino, and then went to Fareway to get groceries for supper.  We spent the next couple hours relaxing, watching football, and eating supper.  Then we took off for Cedar Falls.  Before going home, we made a stop at the Malcolm's to pick up some cookie dough.

Today, Tyson had the Peregrine Triathlon at George Wyth.  We got up around 5:30am so I could put on his temporary race number tattoos and get everything packed up in the truck.  It was a CHILLY morning for a race, but luckily for us, Tyson was the first wave out, which also meant he was one of the first ones done!  Yay!!  My parents decided to come down for the race too, so I had someone to wait with while Tyson was out racing!  After the race, the 4 of us met the Malcolm's and Hannah at Panera for breakfast.  Tyson and I spent the rest of the morning relaxing (I napped and he watched tv).  I then made a quick trip to Kohl's, Walmart for groceries, and we hit up our neighborhood party for about 30 minutes.  Now, I just finished doing report cards which are due in the morning and about ready to head to bed.  What a great weekend!!  

Tri tats

Finally we had someone to take a picture of us together before a race!!

Ready to hit the chilly water!

Crusin' in on his bike

And he's off on the run!

FINISHED!!

While we waited for Tyson to finish, my parents found a different type of bike to check out!

It's a busy week coming up: 3 days of school, 2 days of my first parent-teacher conferences, and then a sleepover with Ava this weekend!  Then, only one more week of full-time teaching before the kids have intercession.

He's Home!!

Tyson finally made it home tonight around 6:00.  After a long, hard race yesterday in the Branson heat, he decided to spend another night.  Good idea since he wouldn't have gotten home until probably 2:00 or 3:00am.  He packed up this morning and headed back....and is now currently enjoying a glass of wine in his new Branson 70.3 souvenir wine glass! :)

Other news....I got home from school today to (finally) find a box on our front porch with our thank yous in it!!  Now...when do we start those?!?!  Look for yours soon..uhh..hopefully soon!  Hahaha!


I believe Tyson said he took some pictures, but he hasn't unpacked the camera yet, so I'll get pictures up tomorrow of his solo trip to Branson!

Strep Throat...Again!! and Tyson's solo trip to Branson

I started this blog when I had strep throat, and here I am again (4 months later) and this illness is back!  Will my body become immune to this at some point?? I won't get into details because I'm sure most of you know what it's like to have strep.

Tyson and I were supposed to leave for Branson on Friday for his Ironman 70.3 triathlon, however, after having a fever starting on Thursday..Tyson made the executive decision that I needed to stay home and rest.  So off he went Friday morning around 8:00am or so.  He arrived in Branson at my aunt and uncle's house around 6:30pm.  He said he found their house without a probably (thanks to his BlackBerry) but any 10+ hour drive is miserable, especially alone. 


Today (Saturday) he went to pick up his registration packet and then drove the bike course.  He said that they could not have fit anymore hills into the course if they tried!  He'll do great anyway!

Look for updates after tomorrow's race!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to add....while the weather was cold and rainy here in Iowa today, he said it was miserable and hot in Branson! That should make for a fun day of racing tomorrow.

GO TYSON!!!!

Iowa vs. Iowa State

Tyson scored us some row 1 tickets to the Iowa vs. Iowa State game on Saturday...so of course we couldn't pass this up!!  We loaded up the truck on Saturday morning and headed to Kinnick.  We arrived around 10am .  We made friends with a guy who was tailgating next to us (as you'll see in some pictures!).  We tailgated until about 1:00pm, and then we headed to walk around on Melrose and get some Yolanda's (which I had no idea what this was until we got there). 

The game was great and so were the seats!  We can't wait to go back!

Just arrived!

Time to shot gun!!

Shots from our tailgating neighbor

Yolanda's BBQ pork on a stick!!

Tyson's next purchase (LOOK: they even make them for kids!! Haha!)

Our friends Ashton and Demi just leaving the game

We got our picture with Herky! (well...Herky's beak anyway)

Not bad seats huh?  No one blocking our view!