Reid's 5th Birthday

Happy 5th birthday Reid! We celebrated Reid's birthday at home with her special dinner and gifts from us. It is tradition in our family that when it's your birthday you get to choose whatever you want for dinner and desert. This year Reid chose take out from the Olive Garden, yum!! She had chocolate chip cookies for desert as she would have brownies at her party at the gymnastics place.Ben is playing with a gift to Reid from the Roze family. Thank you Roze family for the wonderful gifts you left for Reid!The day after Reid's actual birthday we had Reid's birthday party with her friends at the gymnastics place. Reid, Ben and Amelie are anxiously waiting to get started!Here the kids are playing a game to warm up.Then they were running and crawling.This is Reid on the long trampoline, they all loved bouncing and looking at themselves in the mirror, especially Isabelle! Here's Reid blowing out the candles again this time on brownies.
Here is a group picture of all the kids at Reid's party. Thank you to all of Reid's friends for coming to her party! And Megan if you read this I would love to see your pictures at some point too as you took a lot more pictures than we did!

Pumpkinman 2008

I am so happy to say I competed in my first triathlon sprint this year and I finished! I don't have any pictures of my swim to post but I've included one of me on my bike and just finishing up my run. Here is a picture of me with a couple of friends who also competed, Stefanie and Romar.

Matt was able to come cheer me on and bring the kids as our softball tournament was cancelled. I was so happy to see Matt when I finished my swim, I had no idea he was there! Then Matt, Reid and Ben were at the top of the BIG hill I had to bike up and they were cheering me on.

Benjamin's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Ben! We celebrated Ben's birthday up at the lake with Catherine and family, what a treat to have everyone here for Ben's big day. Ben got lots of help blowing out the candles, as usual. We have brownies instead of cake for our birthdays as the kids don't really like cake. Sometimes we have chocolate sheet cake as this is the only cake we all like!Benny is playing with one of the toys the Roze family got him for his birthday, it is a car with a trailor with a boat.In the picture below, Ben is on his new motorcycle. It's actually what we called a big wheel when I was a kid but Ben likes to call it his motorcycle. Ben and PH riding around on their motorcycles in the driveway.

Roze Family visit

My sister Catherine and her family came for a very nice extended visit in August. We hadn't seen them in a couple of years. They spent the first week on the lake. In the picture below Aunt Catherine and Reid are enjoying some bonding time on the dock.This is Jean-Francois aka the crepe man. He is working diligently on his crepes. He does make the best crepes I've ever had. Thank you JF!This is Marc-Antoine driving the boat. We went for lots of boat rides, when it wasn't raining. Both Marc-Antoine and Pierre-Hadrien loved driving the boat!We played whiffle ball with MA and PH as well as Catherine and JF. The boys really seemed to enjoy this game. In the picture below Ben is playing the catcher and Tristan is the ump. We were able to get the boys in the tube with Reid once they saw Reid go in it first. They all had a great time!The boys wanted Pops to take them fishing as well. Here they have caught a sunfish right on our dock.
We also went to Whale Rock, I hadn't been in years and neither had Pops. I was trying to take a Roze family picture but Reid wanted to be in the picture too.

We had hoped to get a family picture but sicknesses and Matt's travel didn't let this happen. We took the family pictures without Matt, :(. We really miss the Roze's as we don't get to see them very much. I asked Reid if she would like to go to France and visit and she said YES! I hope we are able to see all of them again soon.

SLC Adventures

Lagoon is an entertainment park in Utah. Matt has told me many times he loved going to Lagoon as a kid and it was great to finally go there with him and the kids. The kids loved Lagoon, they had something for all ages. Ben had a fever the day we went so he didn't get to enjoy as much as he would have liked but he did get on some rides early in the day. I didn't get any pictures of us on the roller coasters. I went on a small one with T. Matt went on a couple with T but the most important one was the one that looped as T had never been on one that went upside down.

In the picture below Reid and Ben are driving the car.Ben and Reid also flew the rockets, Ben is in the picture below.And Reid is a daredevil! She was just barely tall enough to go on some of the big kid rides and she was determined to go on the pirate ship. Matt, Reid and Tristan are sitting the second row from the back. Reid loved the ride and the only thing she said was that her tummy felt funny. We also took the kids to the zoo. Ben was still recovering from his fever so we got this stroller for him to ride in, of course Reid wanted to ride in it too. T-Byrd with the Giraffes.
And Reid with a giraffe on the carousel.
Matt and I thought the bird show at the zoo was the best! The birds were flying right over our heads!

The parrot you see in the picture below pulled cord to make the Reduce Reuse Recycle sign drop.
I love this picture of Tristan with the Bald Eagle!

SLC Grandma Brown's 90th

I finally got to meet Grandma Brown! I have been exchanging letters with her since Matt and I started dating. Grandpa started planning this party over a year ago and has been working hard to get us all there. The picture below is our family picture with Grandma.Andy and Wendy and family, Matt's older brother. Joelle and Mark and family, Matt's older sister.
Nate and Amy and family, Matt's younger brother.And Ben and Shannon and family, Matt's youngest brother.On the far right in the picture below are Matt's parents. Grandpa Byrd's brothers, Rex and Stan and their wives are also in the picture with their mother/Grandma Brown.
And I think I can still hear Matt and his siblings saying...."who gave dad a microphone?"Matt is talking with a cousin and Ben is enjoying a much needed nap.
Reid and Mommy!

All the grand kids and one great grandchild.

And all the girls...

A good family picture.

North Conway 2008

I owe a big thank you to my friend Lisa who told me about Thomas the Tank Engine visiting North Conway this summer. We planned a full weekend of activities around seeing Thomas and we had a fantastic time. We stayed in a hotel two nights and there was an indoor water park! The kids were in heaven. The first picture below is Reid coming down the little kids water slide. There was also a play pool for the little kids.And Benny....And Tristan. I know you can't really see him but he is there. There were two big kid slides and Tristan loved the green one. I didn't like the green one as it was dark the whole way down. Matt and I enjoyed the yellow slide to the right. Hard to believe T is the same kid who wanted to sleep with ALL the lights on in the house not too long ago!Storyland!

Riding in the pumpkin carriage to Cinderella's house...
Tristan and Reid in the shoes. Ben and I are in one too.
And the best picture of all, the log flume ride. We must have gone on this ride 10 times? We all loved it and we kept riding until we got a picture we all liked.
THOMAS! We did go for a ride on Thomas too.