The boys called from scout camp last night. They said the cell reception is better there than at home. Gavin is having a great time: excited about his rifle shooting skills. Dylan is having an OK time. He might be tired of being away from home most of the last 3 weeks: EFY, white water rafting, now scout camp.

Grace is enjoying being an only child. She is painting her room pink with some help from mom. She is also starting a new musical production at her music school.

Pretty Pink

Our elementary school had an awards ceremony yesterday. Gavin won the Harvey Mudd College award for excellence in math and science!! Harvey Mudd is one of the top science and engineering schools in the country: highest rate of science and engineering PhD production among all undergrad colleges and 2nd ahead of MIT compared to all universities. It’s 1/2 mile down the street from the kid’s school. They sponsor an award for the boy and girl who score highest in math and science on the standardized tests in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. He also got a presidential scholastic achievement award.

Grace got recognition for academic achievement, citizenship and writing for the school newspaper.

Dylan got an award for getting straight A’s at middle school.

They all had a great year and can’t wait for summer to start on Friday!

I spent most of last week in Orlando meeting my new employer. Stayed at the Rosen Shingle Creek, near Tiger’s place. Very impressed with the new owner and the corporate staff. I got to meet the greatest American mountain climber: Ed Viesturs. He was a guest speaker and I got to chat him up for ~30 minutes at a banquet before he spoke to the group. Very interesting, amazing and adventurous person. He has climbed all of 14 of the 8,000 meter peaks in the world WITHOUT OXYGEN! He’s climbed Everest 7 times and was there in ’96 with the IMAX crew when all those people died. Got to see my high school buddy Tom while I was there.

Saturday the whole family participated at our stake’s Mormon Helping Hands project. About 300 of us went to a huge children’s shelter to work on various project. The youth were tasked with organizing their 13,000 rubber ducks that they use for a fund raiser. We had to sort them in order, record them and package them up. It was a very tedious task! There were 75,000 of us working on service projects across the state.

Saturday night we had a birthday bash for Gavin. Took the group of 12 kids bowling then went back to the house for swimming and games.

Happy Mother’s Day to my babies Momma and all the other Mommies in my life!

Gavin made this awesome helmet for his 3-D ancient history project. It’s a modified lacrosse helmet we had in the attic: removed the face mask and chopped the chin guard. He was turned on to Greek history by playing Age of Mythology.

Gavin and Grace competed in Piano Festival last Saturday. Grace played Downhill Daredevil and Elegy, Gavin played Snake Charmer and Beethoven’s Sonatina in F, 1st Movement. They both played great and scored a rating of “Excellent”. They had to have the pieces memorized and play in front of a professional judge following their sheet music AND an audience. They worked REALLY hard practicing every day for weeks and weeks. Grace is also taking figure skating lessons until she starts working on the next musical: Alice in Wonderland. Gavin and Dylan are taking a break from hockey to get caught up on Scouts and PS3. Gavin just finished book 2 of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Thursday afternoon I took Gavin to see Cirque du Soleil: Kooza at the Santa Monica pier. It was an AMAZING show and we had a great time. The weather at the beach was perfect: 70s with a light breeze. Gavin is 100% healthy and back to his cheecky self. This was the 3rd of 3 “dates with dad”. I took Dylan to the Canucks-Kings hockey game. Grace and I saw Lion King in Vegas. I’ve got great kids and had a blast with each of them!

Dylan’s middle school flag football team beat Upland in a make up game today putting them in 1st place in their league! Dylan played on defense and the kicking team today.

Gavin is feeling and looking much better. He is even planning on playing hockey this weekend!

Yesterday Grace played soccer (scored first GOAL of the season!), waited a few hours then had a Halloween recital where she played monster mash on the piano and sang “It’s A Hard Knock Life” with her piano teacher and voice coach accompanying her. She nailed the piano part, but you could tell she loved the singing part. She dressed as a princess…bit of a stretch. Today Gavin and Grace were in the primary program. Gavin talked about our ancestor who was the head stone mason on the Logan Temple and Grace talked about her cousin with cancer who has seen many answers to prayer.

Shannon found a baby bird of some sort wandering the streets late at night (the bird was). Guessing it’s a chicken or a hawk? Tried to rehab it, but it only lasted a day.

Gavin is feeling better more often. Still gets nasty headaches mostly in the afternoons.

Last night we had dinner at a fancy restaurant in Riverside with a large Hearst party in the next room. Must have needed a night away from the castle?

Plans for the NFL stadium 20 miles from our house are moving right along, clearing some significant hurdles recently.

The regular running back was sick, so Dylan got to start at RB this afternoon. The first play was a pitch to him that he bobbled and dropped. Next play he took the hike and ran it half the length of the field, setting up a touchdown. Had a solid game on defense as linebacker, too. They were down 12-13 most of the game, then scored a couple TDs off interceptions at the end to win 25-13.

Gavin is on week 4 of feeling yuck. Headache, no fever, no energy. Seems like mono, but blood tested negative for mono. Trying a different MD tomorrow.

Dodgers are KILLING me!

Gavin got a penalty in his game Saturday night for tripping. Dylan also got a penalty that night for hooking.

Grace’s birthday week is over. She had dinner with cousins at downtown Disney, family birthday dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant and friends and their family over for dinner on her actual birthday.