The Byrd House: A week in Colorado......

I'm beginning this post with a disclaimer that it will be SUPER long so if you don't like it just skim though the pics!

We started out trip by going to Gavan's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary party. We were in charge of picking up the cake from Raspberries 'N Creme and getting to Hinton without ruining it. Luckily the cake made it except for a few finger swipes the girl did to it while putting it in the box......we just put that part in the back so nobody could see it. It was a great celebration of marriage and they are a wonderful example to us. There were lots of family there so it was good to catch up with everyone.

I'll list the groups of families so you can see Gavan's family. Left to right are The Sheets: Sharbee (Bev's sister), Brad, Andrea & Cody; the Brandon Byrds (G's oldest brother), GayLyn, Corbin, Ethan, Spencer, & Samuel; us (G is the youngest); the Jason Byrds, Shawna & Dayona; his parents: Dennis & Bev and then his grandparents in front are Junior & Deloris (Bev's parents).......wow that was a lot.

Next we headed towards Denver to visit Katie (Wise) & Justin Ross who is my best friend from way back. We stopped in Colorado Springs and toured Pikes Peak, which was pretty cool. It was freezing up top so Jay & I didn't get out. The view was really amazing so I'm glad we made the trek up there......it took over 2 hours to get up and down due to having to drive slow around the curvy roads.

Notice the winding road.....some parts of it were just dirt with no guard rails.......my stomach didn't like that part.

This lake was on the road up o the top and it was beautiful around it.

Unfortunately, the weather turned gloomy & rainy in Denver but we still had a good time the couple days we were there. On Memorial Day we went up to Evergreen and visited her parents & sister then had dinner at Beau Jo's Pizza.......I wish we could of sat outside beside the creek.....it's great. Gavan got to play Tiger Woods golf on the Wii with Justin, we both experienced Guitar Hero for the first time and all 4 of us battled it out in MarioCart too. I was terrible but it was fun. Katie & I went walking both mornings on the trails around her neighborhood, which had some inclines and I felt it in my calves a few days later. It was fun to chat like we used to. We miss them a lot but they are loving it in Colorado.

Us in front of Beau Jo's........I had my camera on the landscape view for Pikes Peak so that is why this picture is fuzzy.

The next stop of our trip was back down to Colorado Springs for my cousin, Kasey's graduation from the Air Force Academy (AFA). Tuesday night was a ceremony where my uncle (not his dad) commissioned him into the Air Force. My uncle is a retired colonel so it was pretty neat for him to be able to do that for Kasey. Jaylen & I didn't go due to it being outside and the weather too cold & windy but here's a pic my sis took for me.

My aunt Susie, Kasey, Uncle E.D., Kellen and my uncle Cliff to the right.....they are pinning his stripes on the shoulders of his uniform.

The graduation was the next morning at 10:00 and the weather was down right awful. It was about 50 degrees, windy, foggy and a heavy mist.......pretty much the worst for an outside ceremony AND you were supposed to dress nice. Since the president was speaking at the ceremony, the security line to get in was forever long so we were about 20 minutes late getting in but we heard most of his speech. The mist let up finally and we were pretty warm on our row with all the family. There were 1012 cadets that graduated and President Bush saluted & shook each one's hand so you can imagine how long that took! The graduation was very neat and at the end the Thunderbirds did a fly over but were unable to do an air show cause of the fog.....but that was okay cause Jaylen didn't like the loud planes!

Here is Jaylen with President Bush on the stage

Jaylen & me snuggling to keep warm......like my dad's flag tie?.....very patriotic.

Here's Ginny, Susie, Kellen & E.D. in background with 2nd Lt. Kasey King!

There was a reception afterwards for Kasey and here he is with Jaylen

The AFA had a very cool chapel with 3 different meeting places inside....1 for Protestant, 1 for Jewish and 1 for Buddhist. The protestant place was the biggest and had an enormous organ in the back. Here are a few pics.....it was very interesting.