Grant's trip to Deer Valley YMCA Family Camp

Grant was invited to go with his best friend William and his family to Deer Valley YMCA Family Camp for a long weekend. The temperatures had dipped a bit with highs only in the 50s and some rain on their first day there, but that could not dampen the fun! Grant joined in with the Etzler family to enjoy hiking, biking, digging, climbing, carving, eating, and sleeping!

I'd forgotten to warn Michael and Becky that Grant is a good sleeper. He took a big three-hour mid-day nap which had them a bit concerned that something was wrong. Nope! He just plays hard and sleeps well.

Many thanks to the Etzlers for an incredible and unforgettable experience for Grant and William!!

Grant's Winning Choices Essay

Here's a nice piece that Grant wrote for a county contest on "Winning Choices".

Good Sportsmanship 

A Winning choices Essay By: Grant Martin  (grade 4)

I am going to be talking about good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship is respect, caring, kindness, and self control altogether! You need to know that I am VERY competitive. That is what pushes me to try my best. Sometimes, though, I get Overly-Competitive. If that happens, I cut myself no slack and I don’t have fun. Most of the time I can balance it. Usually, I push myself harder in the spirit of the game! A great example was at soccer!

So far our team was undefeated. We were up against a REALLY hard team and I was feeling tense. In the first half, they shot 3 times and scored twice. I was the goalie and, naturally, felt guilty. My coach told me that it wasn’t my fault, because it had to have passed everyone else to even get to me. I pulled myself together and was on defense for the second half. Our team scored 2 goals right off the bat. Their team realized they had to step it up as well. We played hard and about 2 minutes before the game ended; Aram scored! I was so happy!!! Nobody scored after that. I saw that their team was upset so when we got snacks I gave a donut to their teams’ coach. He said “Thank you very much!” and we all went home.

See what I mean? Good sportsmanship is being able to congratulate or have sympathy for the other team. Everyone has fun when you do this. No matter what happens and no matter how competitive you get; Remember, it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about having fun!

Bike RIde on the New River Trail

Spencer and I did a 15+ mile bike ride on the New River Trail, a gorgeous park that follow the New River. We had hoped to combine it with some rockhounding. Though the rocky outcroppings and cut throughs were beautiful, there were no real unusual specimens to be found. This trail is a real treasure though and we probably crossed six or seven bridges each direction.

We "put in" in Draper, Virginia, about 26 miles south on I-81, then just a mile or two toward the river.

Survivorman

Grant and his friend Nick spent half a day in the common area constructing a fort. Nick has a lot of good wilderness skills and helped pass them along to Grant.