Well… it finally happened! We all blinked and you turned into a young man right before our eyes. And a pretty amazing one at that. Grant, you have grown in so many ways this year- and not just in the physical sense, though there’s been plenty of that as well. You are thoughtful, mature, wise, disciplined, considerate and you love life. You are a highschool student at Poway High! You enjoy being at the highschool and look forward to playing soccer for the school. You love seminary and especially your teachers: Dianne and Jeff Wurtz. You go to bed on time and wake up without any help from Dad or I. You read your scriptures and say your prayers each night. You love the gospel and love your Savior. You choose the right and look out for others. You split your time at school between your freshmen friends and also the sophomores and juniors. You are well liked by everyone and you treat all the kids with love and respect. That being said, you are not incredibly social after school. You prefer to come home and relax on your own. You go out 1/2 the time on weekends but also really enjoy just spending time with your family and watching the Padres games! Or really any sport.
In your free time you like to lift weights, train for soccer in the backyard, and surf! Surfing is definitely your favorite pastime and you’ll wake up at 5:00am on Wednesdays (late start) in order to get out on the water with your friends. This summer you taught your cousin Wade how to surf and he was thrilled. You are amazing with all of your little cousins and with little kids in general. Everyone adores you! When it comes to your siblings though- you have to put in a lot of effort to have patience! You struggle with Anna on a daily basis, and with Dane and Evelyn. You hold yourself to a very high standard and you do the same for your siblings so it is not always easy for you enjoy and accept their personalities. But one of the most incredible things about you is that you are so self aware and ready and willing to work on any problems you see in yourself. I love how accepting you are of your faults and how important it is to you to work on these things… you get that from your Dad! Your personality at age 15 is mostly serious but you are also adventurous and willing to try anything and everything. You are flexible and easy to be with. You are a hard worker and you have so much passion for everything you do whether that be Spanish or math or soccer or surfing.
At this stage in life your favorite TV show is Simpsons, favorite foods are Canes Chicken, smash burgers that you make at home, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, chocolate Oreo ice cream from Cold Stone and shredded mini wheats. You love watching Mr. Beast and Padres games. Your closest friends are Davis Rodriguez, Kai Matter and Carson Klein. Your favorite subject in school is math and PE.
This past year you traveled to New York City for the first time since you lived there as a baby! You had so much fun seeing Hamilton on Broadway and a Nix game! You traveled to Honduras and West Caribbean with the Stevens and Grammy and Papa aboard the Royal Caribbean. You and Papa went on a 2 week adventure to Outerbanks, NC for an HXP humanitarian trip which you loved and which grew your testimony in many ways. You went on High Adventure to Lake Tahoe, skiing at Brianhead, UT, FSY in San Diego and all over the place for soccer tournaments! It’s been a busy, fun year and we’ve loved watching you grow through it all. You are an incredibly special young man and I cannot put into words how amazing it is to be your mom. You make my job very easy because you are outstanding in every way and you teach me to be a better person just by your example. I love you Grant! Happy 15th Birthday!
