Merry Christmas!

Hard Working Dad was honored with a BIG Gingerbread Cookie!

Sister Mills made these special for the Bishopric

It was DELICIOUS! She's the BEST!

Here's our Annual Byrd Christmas Video.

Enjoy!

2014 Byrd Reunion

One Crazy Summer - Part 1

Our first real vacation in a very LOOOONNGGGG time as a family.

We went to Blanding, UT for a family reunion and celebrated Independence Day.

JULY 3rd

But we made a quick stop in Santaquin, UT and checked out a pioneer cabin where Auntie K helps run and maintain for the Daughter of Utah Pioneers. 

 We were able to get our own personal tour of the place.

We made it to Blanding!!!

Let the festivities begin....

Talent Show.

Homemade family videos shared for fun entertainment 

(the S&L Byrd video was pretty awesome too):

A really fun homemade tent made by Grandma Byrd.

Taking spins around town in Uncle S's ride...

JULY 4th

Blanding's Annual 4th of July Parade:

With the Cousins

"The Gadianton Band"

Treasure Hunt with Grandpa Byrd:

Longest and Most Difficult Excavation Effort EVER!!

AMAZING SUNSETS.... who needs fireworks (though we saw them in the distance)...Spectacular!:

JULY 5th

Anasazi Ruins Hike in the surrounding wilderness (a must):

Remains of Anasazi Structure

Horned Toads

Anasazi pottery shards that were found, photographed and then placed back on the ground

Exploring a mountainside Anasazi Ruins:

Finding cool rocks on the road:

Elk Farms (we've never seen before):

JULY 6th

Time to head back to California:

Could be the last time we see this place (with a photo bomber)?

Visiting Great-grandparents' gravesite

Totally last minute detour.... family has never been to ARCHES NATIONAL PARK!

Sheep Rock with Son #2 who LOVES Sheep

Parade of Elephants

Loved spending time with our extended Byrd family and exploring a few new places along the way!

Bustling Byrds

Building birdhouses is always fun!

Constructing Marble Factories for high school Physics class 

can be an adventure in team work and creativity.

Celebrating 7th Birthdays are a Blast!!

Volunteering at the Muddy Girl Fun Run to help 

raise funds for Cross Country Team for next year 

and supporting Breast and Cervical Cancer is always rewarding.

Byrd Family Christmas 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BYRDS!!

August Awesomeness

We found a fun Splash Park that changed it's hours.  Which ended up being okay.  We played for 2 hours in the regular park and then played for another hour and a half at the splash pad.  Complete fun with our friends whose wise mother and dear friend would often say, "The best thing to do is let your kids play at the park for 3 hours.  The first hour they are warming up, second hour they really start playing, and by the third hour they are using their imaginations."  

Finally found a safe and clean bowling alley where we can experience "Kids Bowl For Free".

Note to self:  I need to go more next summer!

Shopping with this little girl is a sweet experience!

Then First Day Back to School

Son #2's first year in High School and back into Public School

Son #1's goal is to be healthy and not miss too many days of school his Junior year.

Son #3 is waiting to get into a public school for his middle school years.

For now, we're homeschooling and that's okay.

  

Lovely Daughter is making her debut in full day 1st Grade.

Big step!  She's loving her never used backpack we bought for her last year and enjoying making her lunches.  She had never liked bread until we had taste-testing experiments with various types of sandwiches over the summer. 

2 weeks before school started. Son #2 decided that running Cross Country (XC) might be a fun sport to try.  He had never run long distance.... ever.  Though most of the team members have been conditioning all summer, they and the coach are encouraging and grateful that he chose to join the team.  He's having a great experience.

August is just Awesome!!

February Frenzy

February has been one crazy month!

Son #3 started taking a LEGO engineering class with one of his buddies.
They have competitions with others in the class which encourages their very best.

Starting on the 2nd,  the three in the above picture came down with the flu.

The picture was taken during the power outage at the Superbowl.

Lovely Daughter only had her bout for 2 days.

Son #1 and HW Dad had a full week of the illness.

HW Dad later contracted an infection due to his weak immune system. 

As of this date, he's still working on overcoming the infection, but is doing much better.

On the 8th, Son #3 went on his first 5 mile hike with the 11 yr. old scouts.

He had a good time walking around parts of Downtown Sacramento (Sutter's Fort and Old Town).

On the 16th, Lovely Daughter celebrated her 6th birthday.

She LOVES dancing!

On the 28th, Son #2 and Son #3 received their orange belts in Jujitsu!  

I've been so impressed by their growth, mentally and physically, as they've progressed.

This has been a great accomplishment for both of them.

Here is Sensei Larry throwing them after receiving their belt. In order to go from white to yellow belt, the must know how to fall properly.... they get thrown or throw partners pretty much every class. 

Merry Christmas!

Instead of Christmas Cards again this year, we created this video.

We all had a great time in the prepping and the filming.

Enjoy!

Whirlwind Trip to Utah

It appears that we always seem to have these whirlwind trips to Utah! As a family, we missed out on any summer vacation last year due to Son #1 and Daughter having pneumonia. We made a quick decision to celebrate one nephew/cousin's Eagle Court of Honor and another nephew/cousin's Baptism. We had wanted to head out the weekend before the big events. We had grand hopes of getting into General Conference in Salt Lake City, couldn't get tickets, and so continued onto visiting Hard Working Dad's family.

We got to do a lot of fun things (hiking, fishing, Edge of the Cedars Museum, Prehistoric Museum in Price, play in a thin layer of snow, visit Temple Square and the new City Creek Center, hang out with family) with Spicy Zack Chicken in tow!

Enjoy the video of Spicy Zack Chicken with the Byrd Family!

February Events

Happy Birthday, Princess C!
(Very involved mom's first attempt at making a doll cake. Grandma A's doll cakes were amazing! And this brought back lots of memories.)

Hard working Dad and Son #2 hiked 13 miles near Folsom Lake.

&

Son #1 hiked Feather Falls.

Kata Contest





These videos are of Son #2 and Son #3 competing . They came in Second Place and Third Place respectively in their specific age/level divisions. The first video shows more of Son #3 doing his combative sequence during the competition. The second video shows Son #2 during his combative sequence during his weekly class. They've progressed so well!

Christmas Wishes

This is our Christmas Card for the year.

Lovely Daughter said, "My wish is that I have Baby Jesus was born... in Bethlehem."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Carlsbad & San Diego Trip

Hard Working Dad has been working TOO hard lately.
We decided it was time to get away from the computer for a weekend.

On Thursday, October 7, we began our journey 3 hours behind schedule, HW Dad getting only 3 hours of sleep in the previous 48 hours, lost mapquest printouts & eating our dinner in our vehicle through rush hour traffic. At about 12:30 AM, we hit a MAJOR Highway 5 detour that led us through an industrial-looking area of Los Angeles. When we arrived at our hotel in Carlsbad at about 1:30 AM, the entire area was in a blackout. We were given a flashlight to help us get to our rooms and told that around 4:00 AM the lights should be back on. Well... if you know children... they had wanted to make sure that the lights really WOULD NOT turn on BEFORE we went to bed. Soooo at 4:00 AM, ALL of the lights illuminated. Dad slept through the bright lights.

We got some rest, woke up at about 8:30 AM and started reading the newspaper that is delivered to each hotel guest. What should we learn from the front page headline? A main sewage line breaks closing a stretch of the Carlsbad State Beach! Our hotel is a half mile from that beach! We decided to head to Legoland instead of the beach.

Friday, October 8
Legoland

We all enjoyed the amazing Lego Structures!

Splash Battles (shown) and Aquazone Wave Racer were definitely our favorite rides!

We all got drenched from the water rides!

Family Photo with Tourist Lego.

Legoland was very relaxing. In October, there are no crowds and short lines. WE LOVED THAT!

In the evening, we decided to watch a pay per view movie in the hotel. But following the Byrd Luck for this vacation, the screen flickered as if you were watching it on VHS with horrible tracking. We called down to the hotel desk and because of the blackout, all of the internet and cable servers were down until Monday morning. Oh well!

Saturday, October 9
Birch Aquarium

The next morning we decided to head over to the Birch Aquarium which is located near UC San Diego. Lovely Daughter was fascinated with finding any fish that she could identify from the movie "Finding Nemo".

The hands-on water activity "Go with the Flow" was probably the favorite of all the children, though. They were able to change the water currents and the speed by moving or placing panels in various locations in this waterplay station. Very fun and educational!

San Diego Temple

Our family was pleasantly surprised to see the San Diego Temple right across the highway from UC San Diego and the Birch Aquarium. WE just HAD to Stop! Beautiful temple!

Oceanside Beach

The whole afternoon we splashed in the ocean and built sand castles!
(FYI: Beach toys are no longer in regular stores after September.)

Sunday, October 10
Mormon Battalion Visitors' Center

We highly recommend going to this visitors' center! There is a free tour that takes about 40 minutes that is a MUST SEE! Very interactive!

We were amazed at the opportunity to learn more about our Great Great Great Grandmother, Phebe Draper Palmer Brown who went with the Mormon Battalion as a laundress and her son, Zemira Palmer our Great Great Great Uncle. We feel honored to have our ancestors' story told.

Though it began with a rocky start, we were blessed in the end to be able to share some much needed family time. We are also extremely grateful for Grandpa Byrd who gave us a wonderful Christmas gift last year. It's called a GPS! This Global Positioning System got us completely lost in Utah, but here in California... it was a complete lifesaver! It got us through that early morning detour, directed us to our hotel, guided us to various museums, parks and a cleaner beach!

This little video is classic Byrd family. Slide down, trip, get up, slide, trip, fall down, get up, go on another ride. That's life.