Grant Becomes a Deacon

Today was a very special day for Grant. He was received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of a Deacon by his dad. He is very anxious and excited to start fulfilling his priesthood responsibilities. He also earned his Faith in God Award. We are so proud of Grant and his choice to serve the Lord as a Deacon.

Another Track Meet

Grant had another track meet this week against Kyrene Middle School. He chose to run the 75m hurdles. He only had one day to practice this event before he ran in it. He did pretty good. He ran it in 16.93 seconds. Here is a clip of his inaugural run. Grant is in the 3rd lane closest to the camera.

Grant really enjoyed running in the hurdles. He plans on running them again in his next meet. The hurdles in this race were set at the 8th grader height which is a few inches higher than the 6th grade height he will use in his next meet. So he should do even better next week on Tuesday.

Grant also participated in the high jump, discuss throw and the shot put.

He totally concentrates when he is preparing to throw the ball.

So if you are in town next Tuesday, let me know and you can come and watch Grant compete!

Happy 12th Birthday Grant!

It's hard to believe that my baby is 12! He is growing into a fine young man and has developed many talents. Today we celebrated his 12th birthday with a few of his friends and with Great-Grandma.

The party started out at the AMC Movie Theater. Here are Grant and his friends outside of the theater waiting for one more kid to show up. Then we went in and saw "The Pink Panther 2" starring Steve Martin. It was pretty funny. The kids had lots of laughs!

Next we went back to the house for a bar-b-que. Brent was in charge of cooking all of the meat and he did a great job. We also had chips, pasta salad and lots of ice cold lemonaide. It was a yummy meal.

Once the food was devoured, Grant opened up his gifts. It took quite a while to get them opened because there always something else going on. Like fighting over who sat on the couch, fighting over who sat where on the couch and of course have a fight with the paper. Here is a video of Grant trying to open his gift from Great-Grandma.


By the way this is typical 12 year old behavior. Boys at this age really do find paper to be exciting.

Here is Grant snuggling with Great-Grandma.

Lastly, we had the traditional cake and ice cream. Grant chose to have Cherry Jello Cake this year. This is a white cake with jello poured on top after it is cooked. Then you top the cake with cool whip. It is his favorite cake ever. Mitchell surprised us with trying to light the candles. Mitchell has acquired a lighter with a big flame. So when Grant was trying to blow out the candles, Mitchell was trying to get Grant with the flame.

Max - The Cute Dog

Grant's dog, Max, is 5 months old and has learned several tricks. He is super cute and super friendly. Watch his great moves...

The Ostrich Festival

For the last 21 years, the city of Chandler has been putting on an ostrich festival. This year's festival was this last weekend. Since Brent and I were privileged to have Julie with us on her birthday, we made her come with us. What a fun birthday activity!! Brent has been to the Ostrich Festival before and has even ate an ostrich burger. So while we were there, he made sure that Julie and I ate one too. They taste like hamburger just much leaner and much healthier. Here is what we saw:

Right when you walk into the huge festival, the ostriches are there to greet you. There were several ostriches in a pen that would come right up the side and try to eat whatever you put close to the fence. Their feathers are VERY soft and fluffy! These birds are very tall.

However, their two toed feet aren't very attractive. Did you know that the ostrich is the only two toed bird?

This is our first ostrich race we watched. The "jockeys" rode on the ostrich's back. It was fun to watch them race around the track. We also watched an ostrich chariot race where the jockey rode in a small lightweight chariot behind the large bird. They had several other races including kids chasing an emu around the track, chicken racing with little kids herding their chicken across the line (chickens are not very cooperative) and there was also a camel race. I have video clips of these too. If you really want to see them, send me an email!

Next we went to an exotic petting zoo. There was an unique assortment of animals. My favorite was the Jacob Sheep. (That's its real name.) This crazy sheep has four horns coming out of his head. Look at the picture closely: There are two large horns coming out of the top of the head and two horns coming out each side of the head. Pretty crazy!

This is NOT a cow! This really is an exotic animal. Can you guess what it is? This is a yak. Have you ever seen a yak before? I had no idea that they looked just like a cow but have a ton more hair.

The last place we checked out was the Famous Flores Thrill Show. This crazy guy and a super crazy gal are circus performers and do very dangerous stunts. The coolest stunt they do is in the "Globe of Death." This stunt is performed by having two motorcycles driving on the inside of a 14 foot metal "globe" at the same time. It is hard to imagine that the two cyclists didn't hit each other. Watch this video clip only if you can handle the suspense and thrill of EXTREME danger!

There were many other super cool things to do and see at the Ostrich Festival. We would have loved to have had Mitchell and Grant with us. They would have had an incredible time on all of the carnival rides, watching the demolition derby and experiencing all the other awesome things! And of course, they would have had to eat an ostrich burger too!

The Bike Park

Mitchell is obsessed with going to the bike park.

The bike park is a cement hole in the ground with dangerous slopes and curves. He loves to spend several hours of the day at the park practicing jumps and hanging out with his biking friends.

On Monday, Julie and I went to observe Mitchell biking. He has no fear and flys through the air. We also brought Grant with us who stayed on the perimeter of the pit.

Some of the bikers.

Going into the pit.
Mitchell is up on the side of the wall on the right.
This is how much air Mitchell caught as he was coming in for a landing. He is several feet off of the ground!Mitchell lands his jump!

So if you ever need to get your heart rate up and have no fear, grab your bike and join Mitchell at the bike park. He will teach you some new moves!

Spring Band Concert

Tonight, after the track meet, Grant played in the Pueblo Spring Band Concert. Grant is currently playing the bass clarinet. He likes being the only kid in the band who gets to play this instrument. Grant says it is much heavier than the clarinet. The concert was as high quality as a 6th grade concert can be. I am so proud of Grant's accomplishment in playing an instrument. He is a talented young man!

Track Meet

Grant had his first track meet today. It was fun to watch him compete in four events. His first event was the shot put.

Next, Grant competed in the discuss throw.

After the discuss throw did the running long jump. He had a good running start and a great jump. He did not scratch on any of his jumps.

Lastly, Grant competed in the high jump. This was the event he was the most excited for. Unfortunately, the jump formation was off today and the bar was set 6 inches higher than what they had practiced. He was pretty upset that he didn't make any of his jumps.

We don't know if he placed in any of his events because we had to leave early to get ready for his band concert. Grant will find out tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!