From the land of family togetherness

SOMETHING PATRIOTIC:

I can't remember the last time I had a better fourth of July weekend. Maybe it's because I celebrated twice. On Sunday, July 3rd, I went with Alex and his family to BBQ and watch some fireworks. We were seated on a hill so that when we laid down, the fireworks were literally right above our heads. It's definitely the closest I've ever been and it was absolutely thrilling. It was also great to just spend time with family, relax and enjoy the beautiful summer evening. There’s just something magical about family togetherness. The next day, I went on yet another adventure to watch fireworks. I wasn't as excited, as the ones I had seen the previous night were not to be beaten. However, the adventure was not in the viewing, but in the getting to the viewing location. Several unnecessary obstacles, like fences, warning signs, and "possible flooding" notices didn't keep us from getting to our destination. The company was also what made it so memorable. We skipped along our path, straddled fences and sang patriotic songs while the fireworks were going off to make up for our lack of radio accompaniment. For that one evening, I didn't feel like I was 25.

SOMETHING A LONG TIME IN THE WAITING:

For the past several months my family has been anticipating a much awaited event - the FIRST EVER Randy and Cyndi Bird family reunion! Needless to say, it was epic. Not only had we not all been together for 7 years (since my oldest brother was married in 2004), but many of us had not seen each other for 3-4 years all together. This is not because we don’t like each other and move as far away from each other as possible. It’s mostly due to many of us all being gone on missions for our church abroad, but I like to use the parable of the homing pigeon to explain. It’s been said that your children are either homing pigeons or eagles (in the Bird Family, this is especially applicable..;). Homing pigeons travel and explore, but eventually return to their native nests and the comfort of what they consider home. Eagles travel and explore as well, but rarely do they return to the nesting area where they were born. They branch out and find new places and new adventures to continually pursue. You’d think with eight little birdlets, my parents would have had some homing pigeons in there somewhere. But alas, not one of us is yet to return to the nest. So far, we are all acting on the eagle nature within us. Flying in and driving from all parts of the US and abroad to our home in WA, we totaled 84 man hours of flying and 285 man hours of driving just to get there. We traveled from California, Chile, Connecticut, Georgia, Honduras, Idaho and Utah. Needless to say, we were all very glad to arrive at our home safely and reunite after all these years.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE AT A FAMILY REUNION WHEN:

-Your mother hula-hoops while wearing strange garb from the 60's
-Your dad challenges you to race him into a freezing river half naked
-Your 30-year-old brother sings karaoke to "Swagger Wagon" with his daughters in tutus
-It takes a catering crew to feed your family Sunday evening dinner
-The couples all have their own rooms and all the singles are down in the basement on bunk beds
-There are "shhh" signs in the corner of the house with sleeping babies
-Rocky theme music is played to wake everyone up in the morning for scripture study
-Everyone has a matching shirt with a reunion slogan that no one gets except the family
-Siblings and spouses flash mob “The Hustle” during the talent show
-In a span of 4 days there are over 1000 pictures taken

SOMETHING SWEET:

One of the sweetest moments of the reunion took place in a small room of a modest home with a woman that all of us greatly adore. We call her Grandma Critchell. She's not really our grandma, but she's the closest thing we ever had to one that lived close enough to come to our games, concerts, and important family events. She is my Grandpa Roos's cousin and the dearest, feistiest thing you ever did meet. Although she's struggled with her health for years, the thought never crossed my mind that she wouldn't always be around. Several days before our family reunion, we received news that she only had 2-5 days left to live. I didn’t know if I would make it home in time to see her, but secretly wished that she would hold out for us all. Alex and I arrived in Wenatchee at 10:30am. We were greeted by an entire entourage of family and welcome home banners. Afterwards we went straight to Grandma Critchell’s home. All of us gathered around her bed, sang her children’s church songs (they were her favorite) and said our goodbyes. We had a family reunion t-shirt made for her and it hung with care above her bed. There was such a wonderfully peaceful and happy spirit in the room that can only be felt when a loved one is near the end of this mortal existence. She passed away about 10 hours later. I’m eternally grateful we all were able to share that sweet moment together as a family before she died. Although sad to say goodbye, it was beautiful and reminded us of the importance of family right from the start of our reunion. In the meantime, we will miss her dearly and look forward to the day we get to see her again as her usual spunky self!

SOMETHING UNPLANNED:

So I've been doing a lot of outlining, scheduling, organizing and planning lately. There are multiple reasons for this, but the point of this story is not to go into that, but to focus on the opposite - the things that you can't plan that make life funny and interesting. What's hard is you can't plan unplanned things. For a planner like me, this is hard to grapple with, but I love to be pleasantly surprised. So, I have this picnic table that pops out of the back of my Honda CRV and I’ve always wanted to use it. I decided to plan a picnic and painting date for Alex and I up at Foothills Park. We drove until we found a nice view of the sunset, pulled over and set up dinner. We had several bikers stop and talk to us and ask if we were a company that set up outdoor dinners for other people. Obviously, we were doing it for ourselves and they thought that was amazing. They then went on to encourage us to start a business that does it for other people. Gotta love Palo Alto Entrepreneurs. Then half-way through dinner, an unmarked car pulled up. The door opened and out got a police officer. And not just any police officer, but the sheriff of Santa Clara County. I immediately thought, “Great. He’s gonna tell us we can’t be here and we’re gonna have to pack everything up and move.” Walking over he said, “I hope you guys have a sense of humor.” Again, I’m thinking to myself that the date is over. He continued, “I don’t know whose idea this was, but this is the most creative thing I’ve ever seen in all my 20 years of patrolling these hills.” He then proceeded to hand us two sheriff badge stickers as tokens of his admiration. He pulled away and we laughed for the next five minutes from the shear hilarity if what had just happened. I salute the Santa Clara Country Sheriff for making our date so much more memorable than I ever could have planned.