Poetry by Grant Ward

Here are some poems written by Grant.

Balls
Basket balls
Soccer balls
Big, round, kick balls
Colorful, soft, beach balls
Those are just a few.

Volley balls
Bouncy balls
Small, crazy super balls
Oddly shaped foot balls
Soft balls too.

Blue balls
Yellow balls
Don't forget silver balls
Last of all, best of all,
I like tennis balls!

Dog Sense
I smell...
Wet fur, dirt, dog food
I feel...
Soft fur, wet kisses, warmth
I see...
Flopping ears, wagging tail,
A wet black nose.
I hear...
A jingling collar, a whacking tail,
Barks of joy.

Pat's Run

Saturday, April 18th was the 5th Annual Pat Tillman Foundation run in Tempe, AZ. The run is in honor of Pat Tillman who was an ASU football player and later a Cardinals football player who died in the war in Iraq. Brent and I both ran in the 4.2 mile race along with 16,000 other people.



It was so crowded running with so many people. You felt like you were going to trip over them. Throughout the run, Brent and I would dodge around people to avoid running them over. Brent could have sprinted the entire race and attempted to have conversations with me while we were running. I found it annoying because it was all I could do to make sure I continued jogging the whole thing especially when we were running uphill. It was fun though that we stuck together through the whole race. Brent's energy was contagious as we approached the ASU stadium where the race ended. This was the last uphill part. We crossed the finish time together with a time of 43 minutes and 40 seconds. Brent finished in 6,874th place and I finished in 6,848th place. However, I came in 2,403rd place overall for the female division. Maybe we will do this again next year. Do you want to come and run with us?

Easter Fun

Mitchell and Grant are getting older. You would think that an Easter egg hunt would be too juvenile for them. However, you would be wrong. Mitchell kept asking if and when we would have an Easter egg hunt. He really wanted to have one. This year we filled the eggs with candy and also filled many eggs with money. Filling the eggs with money is a tradition we got from Bonnie and Ray Ward (Mitchell and Grant's paternal grandparents). The boys loved finding out that there was money in the eggs. Mitchell made over $20 and Grand made over $11. Plus they had enough candy to last a week (or less depending on the child)!

Mitchell searching for eggs and being very successful! Notice his speed and complete concentration as he scours the room.

Grant has his own strategy of finding eggs. He goes back and forth across a room. This might make you dizzy!

Mitchell had a height advantage as he was gathering pretty eggs.Grant was behind Mitchell in finding eggs so Brent stepped in to help Grant. Always happy to help!

Grant still found plenty of eggs and had fun!

Mitchell was the winner with the most eggs and the most money! Happy Easter boys!

Grant's Last Track Meet

Thursday, April 9th was Grant's last track meet for the season. On the starting line.

His school, Pueblo, competed against my school, Aprende, at the final meet. Grant was in three events at the meet: 75m hurdles, high jump and shot put. Here are the final videos of the season.

Grant is in the lane closest to the camera. It takes a while for the race to start and the picture seems to be blurry. This is a varsity meet so the hurdles are at a higher height than if this were just a 6th grade meet. Grant does a super job jumping them. His time for this event was 16.3 seconds.

Here Grant successful jumps the high jump. He loves flying over the top of the bar!

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.