I'm Grateful for Mitchell

Mitchell on his first surfing lesson. Not shabby at all!!


I thought today I'd share some tidbits on my oldest son, Mitchell. He just turned 16, (he's been counting down for 2 years now) and is a junior in high school. He is on the swim team at school and is doing really well, especially since he's never done it before. Next week is his first meet and I am going to be there to cheer him on. He's a bit nervous. He said it was going to be around 5 hours and didn't think we would want to stay that long. I told him no problem, I would just pack up some burritos and we'd be set. (Now you need to understand that me packing burritos is a HUGE joke in our family. I do pack them about every time we go on an adventure. They don't need refrigeration and I love the way the texture the cheese changes to after it's been rolled for a while in aluminum foil.) Anyway, Mitchell gave me a groan of pleaseeee don't do that. I just smiled. I really can't wait to see him swim. He is a natural!!

Mitchell also loves guitar hero. He is usually found after school, before school and weekends trying to get some guitar hero in. I can only take it in small doses however so I do moderate it. He's gotten enough time on it to become an expert level and is anxious to get his guitar out of storage.

Mitchell also likes anything scary. For his birthday all he wanted was to go to a really scary haunted house. I found one here that was supposed to be one of the best in the U.S. He went with his dad and our friend Pete. From what I understand, it wasn't that scary but he did have a group of girls that found him as the "safety zone" while they went through it. Hmmmmm. We'll leave it at that. A week later we went as a family to the Polynesian Cultural Center and went on their "Haunted Lagoon Ride". Apparently this was scarier and more fun than the one he went on earlier. The two younger boys were terrified. I'm still deaf in one ear from Landon screaming and Grayson was permanently folding inward onto Les' lap. He just kept saying, "Tell me when it's over!!" He didn't see much. (He reminds me of me!! NO scary stuff for me.) Mitchell had a blast.

He is now a priest and has blessed the sacrament for the last three Sundays. I am so proud of him being worthy to hold the priesthood. I see a missionary in training. I have to pinch myself sometimes when I think of how soon that will be for him.

Needless to say, I'm proud of my boy. He's fun to be around, witty, smart, adventurous and a complete teenager. Couldn't ask for a better son, faux-hawk and all.