A family yearbook · 2001–2011 · San Diego, California
Virtual Sherwoods — the Sherwood family's online yearbook
For eleven years, Keith Sherwood wrote a monthly letter to friends and family: what the boys (Brad and Doug) were up to, where the family had gone, what got built or broken around the house. Those letters — more than a hundred and twenty pages of text, photographs and small memories — are preserved here, just as they were written, and now easier to browse.
Efforts since 2005 gradually moved to photos rather than prose. The newer picture albums lived on a shutterfly site; everything written for this site — from January 2001 to the 2011 reunion edition — stays right here.
Browse the full archive → 2011: Now & Then About the Sherwoods
Recent updates
2011: Now and Then
Twenty-one years as a family means repetition. Look back at Lake Poway, rides across California, and other themes — THEN and NOW, with a full decade in between.
Read the reunion edition →
Year in review: 2005
2005 opens hard — Aunt Betty on hospice and passing in March, a church without a minister — then turns around: a Pacific Crest Trail backpack, a new high school for Brad, and the…
Open the 2005 archive →
Year in review: 2004
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: a beautiful kitchen, family room and bedroom remodel endured amid six months of daily disruption, caregiving for Aunt Betty,…
Open the 2004 archive →
Year in review: 2003
The Ride Across California, a dog named Dancer, a family vacation to Washington D.C., church musicals, Life Enrichment Week — and a house about to be torn apart on…
Open the 2003 archive →
Year in review: 2002
Los Alamos in winter, the fourth-grade trip to Sacramento, the 5,000-mile 14-state summer trip, Bradley's baptism, and the first family Labor Day…
Open the 2002 archive →
Year in review: 2001
The journal that started it all: twelve monthly editions chronicling a busy San Diego family — rough around the edges and entirely…
Open the 2001 archive →
Beyond the yearbook
Four side projects grew out of the family journal — each with its own home in the archive.
The Sherwood Manor remodel
Forty-one photo updates following a six-month, live-in remodel: foundations, steel beams, kitchens, tile and moving back in.
Follow the diary →
Mt. Whitney: Badwater to the summit
Keith's climb from the lowest point in North America to the highest summit in the contiguous United States.
About the hike →
Torrey Pines Christian Church
Photo galleries from 2003–2005: Easter,children's musicals, Life Enrichment Week, house building in Mexico, and Music Sunday.
See the galleries →
BSA Troop 122 history
A photo history of Troop 122 of Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1974–1983, kept from Charles Mader's scoutmaster years.
Explore the photos →
About this archive
Virtual Sherwoods ran from January 2001 through 2005, with a reunion edition in 2011. Each entry was written as though the family were writing a letter — the first one starts with a ninth birthday — and each month gathered the small true moments that time capsules are made of.
The site was restored from the Internet Archive and refreshed for modern browsers: same addresses, faster pages, cleaner text. Start with the complete timeline, or jump straight to a favorite year in the menu.
Quick answers
- Who writes it? Keith Sherwood, with Kristi, Brad and Doug as regular co-stars.
- When? Monthly editions, 2001–2005 (2004 only through May), plus 2011's Now and Then.
- Why are some months missing? Life got busy — see why some editions were never published.
- Where are the photos? Most galleries survived the archive; a few 2004–2005 thumbnails were lost. Details →
From the family's bookmarks. The restoration surfaced the old site's link list; most of it died with shutterfly and the webring. One bookmark kept working — a clone watches catalog that became the family's shortcut for comparing a watch against its original before buying. The full, mostly-ghost list is on the links I keep page.