Eyres: The Second Generation

Let us introduce our children to you…
It is difficult, when talking about your own kids, to find the balance between the pride you feel, and the objectivity that you need to inspire credibility among other parents. But here’s the deal: We have nine remarkable (and remarkably different–one of every kind it seems) children. Seven are married now with children of their own or expecting them soon (and better parents in so many ways than we were–having taken our best ideas and improved on them) and two are single but “looking.”
All have spent two years overseas on humanitarian and proselyting “missions”. All are on their way, we think, to their individual destinies. All have had their problems, but, amazingly, all (and we just thank a higher power for this) have kept the “decisions in advance” that they made while growing up about morality, about education, about drugs and about sex. And all now help us in (or do their own) family and parenting presentations (After all, how would you know whether what we tell you is true if we didn’t bring along the “evidence”.) If you think you might be interested in a presentation by one or more of the “second generation”, let us know! And feel free to get to know them better by clicking on one of their blogs (Saren, Shawni and Saydi’s will be particularly interesting to young parents).

One or more of Richard and Linda’s nine children often accompany them on speaking trips these days. As “the product of the process” they lend a particular reality and candor to the Eyres’ presentations, and give audiences the benefit of their perspective. Many of the second generation Eyres are parents themselves now, and in the midst of incorporating their parents family-rearing and life-balancing ideas with their own needs and ideas. Several of them also speak and present independently, not only filling in for their parents when there is a double booking, but now receiving independent requests of their own from parents who want to hear about the Eyres’ parenting and family plans and programs from those who experienced it as kids and are now applying it as adults. Here is a brief look at the second generation Eyres:

Overview:
“Eyrealm” is how Richard and Linda and their children refer to their family. It has become, over the years, quite an institution, complete with somewhat bizarre traditions, an involved “family economy” and enough unique individuals to be a whole town. Way back when the kids were small, they developed the family mission statement “Broaden and Contribute” meaning: get the best education and widest perspective possible, and then combine it with your abilities and with divine help to give back and to make a difference in the world.

Few observers would doubt that the Eyre kids are meeting this mission statement. All have attended prestigious colleges and universities, several attaining (or now working on or planning) advanced degrees. All (with the exception of the youngest who is preparing to go) have taken two years out of their schooling to serve a two year “mission” abroad, doing full time, voluntary humanitarian and proselyting work. Largely because of these missions, Eyrealm speaks ten languages fluently. All nine have spent a semester abroad studying in Jerusalem, and all have had political internships or other work experience in Washington DC.

Extensive travel has been part of the “broadening” process, and early on, the children developed their own motto (and chief argument to persuade their parents to take them along on various trips): “Never let schooling interfere with your education.” While they were all living at home, Summers were spent on “broadening adventures” including a Summer spent in the orphanages of Romania, another living in Japan, another in Mexico, and another building a log cabin from scratch in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.

The “contributing”, especially in the third world, has also become quite a family tradition. Besides the individual 2 year “missions,” the family has worked together in shelters and orphanages in Eastern Europe and gone on school and clinic-building “expeditions” to Kenya, Bolivia, and the Mexican highlands. Once while appearing on Oprah with seven of their nine children, a woman in the studio audience wanted to know where the other two kids were (the family just looked too perfect she said, and she was obviously hoping the other two were locked up somewhere or in rehab). Oprah answered the question herself, dashing the woman’s hopes by telling her they were “over in Romania, helping orphans.”

Richard and Linda are quick to emphasize that their children are anything but perfect, and that they have dealt with the same kinds of problems that all families face, from learning disabilities to emotional ups and downs and from teen rebellion to bad choices here and there. But as the kids emerge into adulthood, there is, as Richard says “remarkable unity and extraordinary individuality” and the second generation, according to Linda are “far better parents and ‘life-balancers’ than we were.”

Saren

Saren is an organizer, writer, speaker, trainer, wife and mother of five young children who currently lives in Odgen, Utah. The oldest of Richard and Linda’s nine children, Saren had the pleasure of being their “guinea pig” as well as part of their “middle management” in raising her younger siblings. Saren grew up in Boston, Virginia, London, and Salt Lake City with stints in Japan and Mexico and served a mission for her church to Bulgaria. A graduate of Wellesley College (BA, 1992) and Harvard University (M.Ed. 1997), Saren had the opportunity to manage volunteer recognition programs in Washington DC for a few years and create and implement curriculum and training programs for the Corporation for National Service, several public school districts, the YMCA and many other organizations while living in Boston and the Bay Area.

She married the wonderful Jared Loosli (an MIT graduate who does online marketing) and they had five children in five years (including a set of twins) – which made for a pretty wild and wonderful parenthood ride! Even with the support of her great parents and family, Saren found that motherhood was a lot harder than she thought it would be and saw that opportunities for recognition, training and development (her areas of emphasis in her pre-mom career) were pretty sparse in the field of motherhood. So she co-founded the website, The Power of Moms, a “gathering place for deliberate mothers,” that helps moms learn from each other and become the moms and women they really want to be through online articles and training programs as well as in-person mothers’ groups, workshops and retreats throughout the world.

Saren has worked in close partnership with her parents, their Values Parenting website and her sisters to present professional development “Retreats” for mothers and offer great resources via The Power of Moms.
Saren blogs at looslifamily.blogspot.com.

Shawni

Shawni is living the life she always dreamed of: the one where she gets to be a wife and a mother. After attending Boston University, serving a mission in Romania and just before graduating from BYU in Social Work she married David Pothier. They live in Phoenix with their five children.

Shawni takes her job as a Mother very seriously and strives to promote joy in the {often treacherous} journey of Motherhood on her blog. She enjoys presenting motherhood ideas at Time Out for Women and she and her mother recently published a book called A Mother’s Book of Secrets. Shawni’s fifth child (a daughter named Lucy) was born with a rare genetic syndrome that causes blindness (amidst a myriad of other health problems). Because of this, Shawni and her mother started the “I Love Lucy Project” and have become advocates for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and other organizations that may be able to help Lucy.

Shawni loves photography and even though she gave up a rapidly growing family photography business to be there for her kids when they got home from school, she is rarely found without a camera strapped around her neck. She is also a self-proclaimed travel addict and rarely goes to sleep without having an in-depth conversation with her husband about what foreign country they may be able to finagle a way to live in for a while.
She was named the National Young Mother of the Year for 2011.

Josh
Josh served his mission in England, graduated from BYU, and teaches at a charter school in Arizona and is admired and adored by students and parents alike.

Saydi
Saydi is a mother, photographer and social worker and lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and four children. Her deepest passion is reaching out to others in service and love and that genuine desire has brought her to a myriad of locations and jobs worldwide. She served a mission in Spain and holds degrees from Wellesley College and the Columbia University School of Social Work. She has become in recent years a very popular family portrait photographer in her area and she loves capturing the extraordinary ordinary moments of family interaction. She blogs at bostonshumways.blogspot.com

Jonah

Jonah prides himself on being the middle child. He gets to wear many hats: black sheep of the family, middle-child syndrome, and the one sibling who bridges the gap between the oldest group and the youngest group.

Jonah served a mission in England, and attended many universities, including UMass Boston, BYU Jerusalem, and Harvard Extension, and graduated with a BA from Utah State University. He is married to Aja Fegert Eyre, who holds an honors BA from Harvard University. They have five children and live on the island of Maui in Hawai’i.

Jonah’s efforts to raise hard-working children has fueled his family’s farm lifestyle. He feels that many children miss out on the lasting joy that comes from accomplishing goals and having responsibilities. He also has made difficult but rewarding career choices that have decreased his income while increasing time with his children at this fun and crucial time in their lives. As he steps into new business opportunities, he takes his children with him, involving them in the business set-up and practices.

Jonah has worked hard to become an environmentally friendly Eyre. He and Aja have made their sustainable lifestyle hobbies into their life’s work, currently living on their own micro-farm and running their cars on recycled vegetable oil. They have lived in Las Vegas, New Zealand, Southern Utah, Washington, and Boston. We consider their motto to be “Create without Consumption.” In addition to their hobbies in small farming and testing alternative energy options, they both volunteer large portions of their time to local community efforts to help people be more self-reliant and resilient.

Talmadge

As the Partnership Manager for Imagine Learning in New York City, Talmadge enjoys helping struggling elementary school students build confidence in English language and
literacy through Imagine Learning’s award winning software program. Before joining Imagine Learning, Talmadge worked as a sales manager for Maxis and Black and Decker. In 2008, brothers Noah and Eli partnered with Talmadge to found Orange Sky LLC, a training and speaking company that aims to perpetuate the vision of their parents to “Fortify Families”. Their focus is on strengthening the roles boys, young men, and young fathers as integral parts of the family structure. For more information on Orange Sky or to book a training or speech, please click here.
In 2003 Talmadge graduated from Weber State University. While at Weber State, he excelled both academically and athletically. As a senior captain of his NCAA basketball team, he helped lead his team to a perfect conference season, conference championship, and a NCAA Tournament berth. After the season, he was honored by the team with the “Highest GPA” award and by the University with the “Crystal Crest Male Athlete of the Year” award.
Talmadge was a full time volunteer missionary in Sao Paulo Brazil from 1998-2000 and is currently on the Board of Directors for Care For Life, a non-profit organization that operates in Mozambique. His areas of interest are travel, humanitarian work, psychology, art, hiking, basketball and tennis. Talmadge is married to Anita Joos Eyre and they live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Noah

Noah Eyre and his wife Kristi live in San Diego with their three kids, where Noah is the Partnership Manager for Imagine Learning, an innovative software company that helps struggling students with language and literacy. Noah is a natural leader and works with people in an engaging and energetic way. He graduated from BYU with a degree in International Relations and is fascinated with the world so full of diversity. Noah spent two years as a missionary in Santiago, Chile and continues to work with children there – helping them learn English through his software company. He has traveled extensively around the world to contribute to humanitarian causes and to present to groups on values, goals, and parenting. He is a founding partner of Orange Sky, LLC which focuses on building character in youth and motivating striving fathers around the world. Noah adores his family and considers convincing his wife Kristi to marry him as his absolute single greatest accomplishment. He loves being a father despite the sleep deprivation and poop on the face. After college Noah and Kristi spent 5 years in New York City where Noah found great success introducing and expanding Imagine Learning software to the largest school district in the nation. Each of their 3 children were born there and Kristi mastered the art of getting around the city on public transit with 3 kids in tow. Noah loves to travel to experience new cultures, waterski, camp, and twilight (not the book, the time of day). Noah also loves basketball and played some in college – more importantly, he beat his older brother Tal in their most recent one on one game. You can follow Noah and Kristi’s family at eyreblog.blogspot.com.

Eli

Eli and his wife Julie live and work in Washington D.C. Eli works as a Partnership Manager for Imagine Learning Inc., an innovative company that develops software that is used in schools across the nation and around the world to help struggling students with language and literacy acquisition. Julie works as a nurse at Children’s National Medical Center in the Hematology/Oncology unit. Julie brings light into the lives of her patients and their families who find themselves in very trying situations. Both Eli and Julie realize the unique opportunity they have to work in positions to help serve kids and love doing so. Eli is also a founding member of Orange Sky LLC, a company that he started with his brothers Noah and Tal. “This company aims to travel the globe speaking to and mentoring youth on the importance of building character, setting goals, and living life to the fullest. Eli and Julie are both graduates from BYU, where they met while studying abroad in Jerusalem after Eli’s mission to Japan. This couple loves travel, sports (Eli especially), photography, art, reading (Julie especially), and cooking. They both hope to work together throughout their lives to help “bridge the gap” in today’s society between affluence and poverty. You can follow Eli and Julie’s blog at elijahcseyre.blogspot.com.

Charity

Charity is the baby of the family and grew up cheering at brothers’ basketball games, visiting siblings all over the country and babysitting nieces and nephews. Charity recently moved to San Francisco, where she is ardently enjoying life with her characteristic passion and diligently looking for a full-time job (and a stellar husband). In the meantime, she works as an independent contractor on several different projects and is trying to soak up the flexibility of her schedule while it lasts! Charity studied sociology at Wellesley College, spent semesters in Utah and in Jerusalem and summers in New York and D.C., and has loved traveling all over the world and seeing how different people live. After graduation she served a mission in England, spent a year working with troubled teens at a residential treatment center in Utah and lived in India for a short time teaching in a school for children from leprosy colonies. Charity is always planning her next adventure, and struggles with a constant case of international wanderlust. She is always is an avid art lover and Red Sox fan, enjoys writing and dancing, and they say that wherever she goes, the party follows. Charity blogs at drippingwithpassion.blogspot.com.

Further Information

When a group requests one or more of the second generation to accompany their parents for a speaking engagement, or to present independently, we send out further information, prepared by the requested speaker and answering the questions or needs of the client. For example, here is a statement written by Talmadge in response to a group that wanted to hear from him:

“At age 28, Talmadge is 6’9″ former NCAA Basketball player. He is currently employed at Black and Decker as an Account Executive in Phoenix, AZ and is the sixth of nine Eyre children. Talmadge has had a variety of eclectic experiences in his life that make any group able to relate with him.”

“In elementary school Talmadge suffered with learning disabilities similar to dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. But in Jr. High, he found ways to compensate for his weaknesses in the classroom and has become an honor student ever since.”

“Talmadge finds a way to get things done. His charismatic personality as well as his comfort in sharing important and personal experiences that have impacted his life makes him an interesting addition to any discussion. He has been known to talk about making “decisions in advance” (i.e. abstaining from pre-marital sex, illicit drugs, and alcohol). Talmadge also likes to stress the importance of parents’ heartfelt words of affirmation to their children. He firmly believes that through positive, heartfelt words of affirmation to children can form their true identity early and this empowers children to make the right choices in crucial moments.”

Please use this website to get more familiar with the Eyres and then contact them directly to book a speech (please do not contact them for support. Use the contact link at the bottom of each page for that).