A new adventure for the Beard boys

In the past month, hiking boots, GPS, camel packs, and other gear have been purchased and the three Beard boys have started a new hobby----hiking. Their eventual goal is to hike the Grand Canyon trails, with a more immediate goal to hike the "Backbone Trail" in the Santa Monica Mountains. They have completed three hikes, the last one an 8 mile hike which ended up being an hour in the darkness. Andrew and Wesley did NOT like the darkness. I look forward to the day that Brooke will be willing to go, so that we can all enjoy the new adventures!

A tribute to the world's greatest grandmother

State project---the cookie phase

Wesley is currently in the middle of a rather large project. It is the first of my children's projects involving rough drafts, artwork, maps, final drafts, and cookies. Yes, I did state "cookies." Wesley selected one state from the USA, and has had to research many facts about the state. His most recent phase was to make a cookie (we actually did a brownie) in the shape of this state. We then had to do some topography on the state cookie. While it sounded like a very overwhelming project, we actually had quite a bit of fun in getting it done. Even better, we were somewhat impressed with the results.


Above, we have Wesley and Andrew creating the "spice drop" mountain ranges. Now, the lingering question: What state did Wesley choose? I want to see if anyone can guess correctly. So, what state does that frosted brownie look most like?????

A quick weekend trip

Though most of the people who read this blog are my family, whom I was blessed to spend time with this past weekend, I still want to post some of my favorite pictures. I flew from LAX to Chicago on Thursday, where my brother, Michael, was also flying in from South Carolina. We were picked up by Aaron and Linda and then proceeded to the hotel, where we completely surprised my mom for her 60th birthday.

On Friday, we enjoyed much walking and shopping to and around Navy Pier, where Mom, Aaron, and I rode the HUGE ferris wheel. Aaron, as always, was quite a riot :)



On both days, we enjoyed the "tastes of Chicago"---Chicago hot dogs and some deep dish pizza.

As a true Californian, I was amused in a variety of ways. I am familiar with signs that say to watch out for falling rocks, but I have never seen the one pictured below.

Mom and I enjoyed a good snowball fight!

What a special weekend we were able to share! It was a particular blessing to be able to enjoy the adults without the kids (thanks Gary and Danielle for helping with that). I know each of us have special memories that this Sturgill crew will treasure for many years.