If you can believe it....my little man is 12! SUCH an incredible kid. For his birthday... I kid you not, we truly celebrated ALL month. I mean to say, the kid had THE greatest month of his life. Below you will find evidence that I am not exaggerating. But hey, Grant deserves it. He really is amazing and he's struggled with the start of middle school and the stresses of higher level academics. Though he doesn't enjoy school, he has worked so hard to try to have a good attitude. I couldn't be more proud of his hard work and effort to be happy despite his challenges. For his birthday, Grant asked for salmon for dinner and wanted a cookies and cream ice cream cake for dessert, he asked for new wheels for his scooter from Grammy, a trampoline scooter from Blake and I and a few cool shirts and pants to wear to the skate park. Grant and Brandon enjoyed a luxury weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house complete with a trip to the movies, pizza from dominoes, 2 hours at an amazing trampoline park, hot tubbing with Grandpa and plenty of time with Dutch.
The fun didn't stop there because the very next weekend, Grant traveled up to Woodward West with Blake for a weekend scootering getaway! Very few pictures were taken since Blake was in charge, but there was no limit on the fun this kid had. He arrived Friday at 2 and scootered until 10pm. Then the next day- spent THE WHOLE day scootering at all the different parks and even stayed all day the next day- (Halloween) to scooter before driving home. Such a fun weekend and such a lucky kid! Not birthday related, but fun nonetheless...this month Grant had a blast at Knottsberry Farm celebrating Brandon's birthday. He got his braces off! Won a soccer tournament. Finished up the quarter with straight A's. AND won a character counts award at his middle school! It was such an honor!!! Only 10 kids out of 1150 win this award for showing good character. So proud of Grant. Loved when he asked me to accompany him on his school field trip to write poetry at the cemetery. He is one in a million and we adore him. Here is an excerpt from his journal:
Grant what a year it’s been! Full of so much growth and so many wonderful learning opportunities. So impressed with the young man you are growing into and all of the choices you make on a daily basis. So proud of your hard work in school and sports and your diligence in your church responsibilities. You are a helper and a leader and the best kid on earth. Here are a few of your favorite things on your 12th birthday: Favorite food: dominoes parmesan bread twists, cold stones chocolate ice cream, Papa’s grilled salmon ( now you can make this on your own), oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip balls, Oreo shakes and strawberry kiwi ICE drinks. Favorite TV shows: YOUTUBE Dude Perfect, Odd Ones Out, and any YouTube-r featuring scootering! Hobbies: scootering, soccer, lacrosse, listening to books, playing with the cats, surfing, skim boarding, wake surfing on the boat, skiing. You are an adventurer in every sense of the word. You are truly up for ANYTHING and always have the energy to go the distance. You are excelling in all of your sports and you are never afraid to take risks and push ahead at top speed. You love competing and practicing; you are disciplined and a hard worker in everything you do. I have no doubt you will do amazing things in life. Favorite subject in school: math!! Favorite books: Percy Jackson/ Harry Potter.
Grant- you are an incredibly talented kid who has a lot of passion in life and likes to keep busy. This year you received the priesthood. You took this duty and responsibility very seriously and you arrive to church 30 minutes early each week to help set up for sacrament meeting. You were only slightly nervous to pass the sacrament- you mostly felt very honored to be able to do this. You gave your first talk in church a couple of months ago— filling in for Evelyn who didn’t want to do it... you said, “I’ll do it!” And you worked with me to put together a talk that you nailed in every way about friendship from For the strength of youth. Speaking of helping your sister out.... Last spring when Dad asked Evelyn to research cars and come up with 3 safe and functional options for a car our family could purchase as the 3rd car, Evelyn felt overwhelmed. You quickly took up the task and came up with the 3 cars and reasoning behind each— you printed out the options and gave them to her and she presented those options to Dad who was mightily pleased. Ha! You are a great little brother. She’s so lucky to have you.
This year you started middle school as a 6th grader. This was no easy task seeing as we’ve been in a pandemic for the past 17 months! You had been used to elementary school for 2 hours a day!!!! And then WHAM..... off to 7 hours of middle school! It was very unpleasant and hard at first but you hung on tight and gave it your all. You tried your very best to have a positive attitude and enjoy school despite the length and level of difficulty. And you’ve been so successful in learning this new routine with 6 classes and so many teachers! You are responsible every night to make your lunch and plug in your Chromebook. You check canvas for homework and pack your backpack. I’m truly so proud of you and the positive attitude and hard work you put into place every single day. You told me that you had read a book that mentioned that you needed to view life as a privilege— work and school—- even though it might not seem like such, it was an opportunity to learn and grow and that you needed to have a good attitude to get through it all. So mature!
This year you have taken up scootering at the local skate park. It’s been so fun to watch. YOu’ve gone from not knowing the smallest thing about scootering.... To becoming a pro, actually entering competitions in a matter of a few months! You LOVE to spend time at the skate park. You love the independence and the time with new friends. You love scootering to dominos or to taco bell with your buddies. Scootering has added a whole new level of excitement to your life that really makes you very happy. So fun to watch you. And of course
you still love soccer and lacrosse and practice 3 times a week so scootering just kind of fits in whenever possible. Life is very busy- but you take advantage of every minute.
This year we’ve enjoyed a few ski trips up in Utah in the winter, a thanksgiving visit to Tucson to see the Rustands, Las Vegas and St. George (tennis camp) for spring break. Lake Powell with all our BYU friends for a big bang as school let out! You’ve traveled to Midway Utah with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Stacy and our family for a fun filled adventure— even stopping in at Woodward Park City! You spent two weeks in WA with Grammy and Papa, Pismo Beach with the Paces, beach camping with the Tylers and High Adventure in Northern California river rafting! You held “Grant camp” for a week and made $400! Taking in 15 kids and planning and executing activities for hours- this was no small feat, but you were amazing at it. So many soccer tournaments and camping trips.... Its been a busy, fun filled year and you’ve loved every moment of it.
Grant you amaze me in every way possible. So grateful for the bright, responsible, kind, loving, talented, funny, hard working and helpful young man that you are. So glad to be your mom. So grateful you are the little brother in this family. Love you to pieces.
