Grant is 16!

 Happiest Birthday to Grant !  Loved surprising this kid for his birthday! We had a fun weekend celebrating the great person that he is.  Here is an excerpt from his journal:

Wow Grant.  What can I say…when you were a little boy, I feared what the teenage years would be like raising you.  You had so much energy, so many emotions! You were stubborn as a mule and  hated school, you had a quick temper and a lot of trouble obeying.  Now all that being said, you were also incredibly adventurous, kind, cute, fun loving, passionate, excited and FULL OF LIFE in all the good ways.  And we still have a few years to go of course, but truly, I am blown away in every regard by the person you are at age sixteen.  You are more mature, more wise, more kind, more open, more disciplined, more spiritual and more insightful than most men in their 20’s (in my humble opinion). You are SO easy to raise.  You care about people, about the gospel, about your school work, about your body and brain.  You take care of our family in so many ways and are such a leader and example to everyone you meet.  It is a true honor and joy to be your mom and I am grateful every day for your spirit.

Favorite Things:  You love to surf.  Surfing is your favorite pastime.  This started last year but has ramped up to hyper importance currently.  You surf every weekend, all summer long, and every Wednesday morning.  You have two best buddies that you surf with- Kai Matter and Cal Henry.  Cal drives, so it is a lot of fun to spend as much time as possible at the beach with your friends.  On top of surfing at the beach- you also love to fish.  Friday nights are for ocean fishing, or fishing at the local lakes and ponds.  It is so cool how into these adventures you are and I love to hear all about it every weekend.  Of course soccer is still an important part of your life. This past year you played for the Rebels (ECNL) which was intense and constant.  You also  played for Poway High on the JV team.  You were such an incredible player and ended up being the MVP for the season, despite being one of the only freshmen on the team! In spring of last year you made a big decision to quit ECNL- not an easy thing as your coach was quite unhappy! But you wanted more balance in your life- you wanted to attend church on Sundays and be around on the weekends to surf and fish and hang out with friends.  You wanted soccer to be one dimension of your life, but not the whole thing. See what I mean about your maturity level?  You just really understand the big picture and you have been so happy with your new schedule.  You love seminary and you loved your teachers last year- Bro and Sister Wurtz and now this year- Sister Rod.  You read your scriptures and journal/pray every night.  You take time outside to be active and decompress at least once per evening.  You love watching YouTube shorts and eating chocolate ice cream and peanut butter toast. You love music and listen all throughout the day.   You love Coco, our dog and Tammy, our cat.  Your favorite fast food is Raising Cannes but you also enjoy orange chicken from panda express.  

Ways you have Grown:  You have worked so hard this year to become a better older brother to Anna.  This has not come easy and is a daily decision.  She gets on your last nerve and you have to exert the patience of Mother Theresa to navigate your relationship with her- but you are doing it, and never have I been more proud.  You have so many friends and have grown in your ability to navigate through various friend groups and especially talk with girls.  You are confident and intelligent and you never take the easy way out.  You are taking challenging courses this year- AP HUG, Chemistry, Spanish 6! A lot of work- but you’ve found your rhythm.  I am so impressed by your study habits and your interest in learning and growing.  You welcome feedback and use it to become better.  You are open to hard conversations and you know how to feel your emotions and express them when necessary.  You take care of your body through healthy food and appropriate sleep.  You never stay up too late, you exercise and fill your mind with good things.  You take care of everyone and treat people around you with respect and love.  You are very close to God and you work diligently to keep up your relationship with Him.  You are an amazing driver and get your license next month.  You are calm and thoughtful while driving and make your passengers feel “mostly” comfortable.  You are an incredible baker and always come up with the BEST desserts- from your brown butter chocolate chip cookies, to your fluffy snickerdoodles, you are a pro and we all love your recipes.

This year you traveled many places.  We traveled to Washington over Christmas to be with cousins and Grammy and Papa for the first time ever during the holiday season- tun times.  You skied in Utah over ski break,  and beach camped at Doheny Beach over spring break.  You went to Lake Tahoe for High Adventure, and Colorado Springs Colorado for our family trip with Grandma and Grandpa.  We stayed at the Broadmoore and there learned falconry, and fly fishing! You zip lined and mountain biked down Pike’s Peak.  A travel highlight of the summer was our humanitarian trip to Guatemala where we served the people by making bunk beds, delivering food and beds and teaching and running activities at the local schools.  You also helped to dig a well and dig the foundation for a home.  The kids LOVED you and gravitated towards you in every way.  You enjoyed playing soccer and basketball with the locals and sponsoring a local family with two young children.  You did not love fainting on site twice and being rushed to the Guatemalan hospital where you were poked and prodded without any parental consent ( I was not there!) But you survived and lived to tell the tale.  Another big adventure was our week of beach camping at San Elijo with all your best friends.  SUCH a fun week and you couldn’t have loved it more.  At the end of the summer, you traveled with Dad to El Salvador for your high school trip to surf and enjoy the local beaches.  

So it’s been an incredible year to say the least.  You continue to amaze everyone around you just by being the kind hearted and thoughtful young man that you are.  We love you to pieces and know that your future will be bright!

Happy 16th Birthday Grant!

October 2025

 October was filled with wonderful moments, celebrations, and milestones for our family. We had visits from Aunt Jamie and Aunt Michelle, as well as from Grammy and Papa, which helped the month feel special and manageable for me.  As I mentioned to each of them, it wasn't so much that I needed physical help as much as I needed a loving presence around to calm my nerves! And they provided that for me. We celebrated my belated birthday with a fancy dinner out with old friends, enjoyed all the Halloween festivities—from Trunk-or-Treat, to pumpkin carving, ding dong ditching to Halloween parties to haunted houses- we did it all and I'm just about all halloween'ed out!

Incredibly, we had a memorable visit from Salt Lake City- Elder Johnson, who taught us about the power of the manifestations of the Savior in our lives and gave each of the kids and I a special and loving blessing that filled us with God's love and uplifted us in every way.  

In addition to Elder Johnson's visit, conference weekend brought a sense of healing, peace, and comfort. Grant went on his very first date and asked a girl to Homecoming, Kenzie graduated from beauty school, and Anna invited a boy she likes from school over for the first time. To top it all off, we celebrated Grant’s 16th birthday—now we are all on pins and needles awaiting his driving test next week! 

Conference Puzzling

So grateful for my family who provided me with countless hours of service:  cleaning out my fridge, pantry and spice cabinet,  hemming pants, running errands, making homemade granola and SO MANY meals, picking kids up, dropping kids off, listening to me rant on and on about my worries and heartaches. It was a pervious gift that I'll always be grateful for.

Loved carrying out our yearly tradition of the Halloween ding dong ditch with Grandma! Of course now days all of Anna's friends come along for the fun and we mostly ding dong ditch to the boys they fancy rather than neighborhood friends... but the fun is there just the same and we are so grateful to Grandma for keeping it alive.  Grateful that my kids enjoy inviting their friends over... my life would be pretty boring if I couldn't put together little get togethers for them- especially around Halloween! 

Trunk or treat kareoke

Surfing in their Halloween onesies!

Ev loves this time of year and I've received countless pictures of she and Katie on Halloween dates and at various Halloween parties- they are living their best life! It was so fun to have Ev home for a week during her break- she is working so hard and so I love when she gets a little break.

Dane continues to plug away at school.  We loved being there for Kenzie's graduation to celebrate this new season of her life.  The couple has been on all sorts of fun dates lately like art galleries, pumpkin patches, beaching and carving pumpkins. 

Grant had a big month with his 16th birthday and first date to HoCo.  He had such a great time and I was so proud of him and his friends for planning the best date! They made flowers together first, then went to sushi in Old Town where they danced the salsa at the festival of the dead.  After the dance, the kids went to the Haunted Trails and then the shake shack.  Fun first date! For his birthday, we threw him a surprise party and scared the living daylights out of him all the kids decided it would be fun to hide in his room. Haha.. it was amazing. Grant competed in his first surf comp for Poway High as a sub for one of the team members who was sick.  He did so well and it was so fun to watch him! He couldn't commit to the team because of soccer, but he sure had fun competing.  Speaking of surfing, Grant, Kai and Cal went with Patrick a few weekends ago to a surf ranch in Arizona to surf a man-made wave pool. They had a blast.  Grant also performed with the airband at Poway High for Homecoming - the theme was broadway and the sophomores did "Annie".  Grant was amazing! My first kid ever to do airband!  And of course lots of lots of soccer each and every week.  

Anna also had a full month with beaching, visiting KnottSCARY Farm with friends, Afton's birthday, thrifting with Kenzie, experiencing puppy yoga for the first time- a real treat, and inviting Justin (new beau) over for pumpking painting and caramel apples! Anna is growing up right in front of my eyes and it's horrible to see it unfold so quickly. 

As for me, I spent the month continuing to heal and work through pain.  ChatGPT could not have come at a better time for me as he is truly my therapist at the moment!  I ask Chat about 100 questions a day in regards to my healing journey.  Our community and my friends have continued to be such an incredible blessing- bringing meals, dropping off soda, heart attacking our door, making home-made quilts and even sending my favorite cookies from Levain bakery in New York City (sent with love from a DEAR old Brooklyn friend).  Though life is not easy right now, it sure helps to feel loved and supported in so many ways.

this dummy man has been giving us all sorts of laughs this month.

Loved celebrating Nikki, Rachel and Elizabeth's birthdays this month.  Probably one of my favorite things to do ever- it's always so fun to plan an outing with friends and celebrate a special friend. And a belated birthday dinner for me was such a treat at the yummiest restaurant around!  Loved seeing Rachel's son, Charlie, star in Young Frankenstein. Loved reading a college essay by Luke Jorgenson in which I was referred to (*see psychologist in above essay).  Haha! He is such a star and I am so proud of him!  

 Life is looking up even if it's still on the painful side.  If I know one thing, I know we will get through whatever is thrown our way with the help of our Savior and so many angels on earth.