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

Grace was the March Hare in a community theater production of “Alice in Wonderland” for the last three nights. She worked hard for the last couple months and it paid off…she was great! Grandpa and Grandma Wride were able to drive down and take in a couple shows.

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!

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.

Grace has been growing her hair out for almost a year to donate to “Locks Of Love” in Ty’s name. He was diagnosed one year ago next week. On Tuesday she got chopped and the new ‘do looks really cute.

Thanks grandma & grandpa for the early birthday shirt!

Saturday Grace and I went to our 6th annual Nutcracker ballet. I was pleasantly surprised by our little hometown production. Oregon Ballet Theater does an AMAZING production every year, so the local show for last couple years was a letdown. This year’s IPB Nutcracker was significantly improved: the sound, costumes, sets, consistence of the dancing. A gigantic rainstorm started during the show, so we got drenched heading back to the car.

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!

Grace and I went to UT for Chase’s baptism last weekend. It was a very moving ceremony. Chase chose Grandpa Wride to perform the baptism.

Grace loves ice skating and trips to UT usually mean a visit to the South Davis Rec Center (as seen in an episode of “Nitro Circus”). She’s pretty good at it and we want to get her in some lessons to see if she wants to pursue it. Mom takes full credit for those genes since she was the star performer at figure skating productions at the local rink in BC back in the day. We also went swimming at the rec center and I got to ride Mike’s new Harleyesque Yamaha cruiser.

I picked Grace up right after school on Thursday and we made a b-line for Vegas where we saw Lion King The Musical. It was an entertaining show. I got a cheap room at the Planet Hollywood Hotel on Hotwire. Since we were only staying one night they upgraded us to the $500+/ night penthouse suite for free! It felt as big as our house, had awesome views of the strip, giant flat screen TVs, etc.

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.

Thursday afternoon and evening we got to hang out with family when Jim, Margo and their 3 youngest stopped by on their way to Disneyland. Always great to have family visit. I had to eat crow for passing along to Will what I had heard the NFL preseason prognositcators saying about the prospects of the Denver Broncos. They had just traded away their pro-bowl quarterback, they had an unproven 33 year old rookie head coach and they had been STRUGGLING in preseason games. OOPS!! They are undefeated and even beat the Patriots last weekend. Will was quick to set me straight.

Grace borrowed the first book of the Fablehaven series from Gavin a couple months ago. Now she is well into the 4th book. She’s always loved books, but she is now an official BOOKWORM.