For those of you who keep track of Holden on his blog at elderhays.blogspot.com, this isn't news, but for those of you who do not, he was bitten by a dog while hiking in the mountains on his PDay a couple of weeks ago. Because church protocol says that anyone bit by a dog needs to go through the rabies series, and because Bulgaria does not have the rabies series (which is a little crazy since they have a multitude of stray dogs!), he had to fly to Frankfurt Germany last week to go through the rabies treatment. While there, he is tracting with the german Elder's and his German mainly consists of being able to say "Hi, I'm Elder Hays, Nice to Meet you, I'm sorry, but I don't speak German".
It is a challenge for him, but he feels that he can learn a lot from the experience. He will probably be there another week and 1/2 before they send him back to Bulgaria.
Jordan has turned into quite the hilarious little person. She makes us laugh every day. It is nice because Holden used to be our comic relief, and now she has stepped into that role. It makes us miss Holden ever so slightly less (though obviously, we still miss him like crazy). She has been heavily involved at school. She's on the yearbook staff and she is also in STUGO (which is Student Council). She loves both and plans on doing them again next year. She's a very BUSY person and loves to be busy all the time. She always does well in school and both she and Brennan never need to be reminded to do homework (for which I am hugely grateful). She has the easy confidence that I wish I could have had at her age. In short, we think she's kind of amazing.
Brennan is very involved in both speech & debate and choir at school. He's loved both, and has tried a little of everything in regards to speech & debate but thinks he's decided he might like LD (Lincoln/Douglas) debate the most. Next year, he may concentrate and focus on that more. But he's tried Impromptu, Prose, Poetry, and Storytelling. Holden's major focus was always Prose and Poetry but I think Brennan has decided his strengths lie more in the Debate area. He may even try policy debate next year (policy debate is not as big of a thing here in Arizona as it was in Utah so that not very many kids actually participate in that type of debate). They call him Baby Hays on the team because his brother is still remembered fondly by the seniors who were freshman when Holden was on the team. He has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. He's on the choir at school but he also loves to sing in the church choir, both the ward, and the stake choir, whenever he gets a chance. He has also taken his piano playing to a whole different level this year. One day last week I came home and the beauty of the piece he was playing on the piano almost took my breath away. He has been very dedicated about practicing this year and it has paid off. Almost all of his pieces he is learning now are classical pieces and they sound wonderful. I never have to ask him to practice, in fact, sometimes we have to ask him to please not practice so that we can have a moment of silence. :) He is equally dedicated about school, loves science, is very good at math and adores literature. He's planning on taking AP European History next year because he's very determined to do well in school and get scholarships for college. He's warm and loving and when he gives you a hug you just sort of want to melt.
(*this last photo of Brennan is of him doing his best portrayal of a nerd for show choir - they performed a number and had to dress as nerds...Scout shorts are pretty much perfect for pulling off the nerd look)
Both Brennan and Jordan are planning on doing Swim team again this summer, as well as Junior Lifeguarding. Jordan will be going to Girl's Camp and is excited about that and Brennan is going to both Boy Scout Camp and on a 3 day Pioneer Trek in the mountains (Jordan isn't old enough to go, which she is bummed about) - Kirk is also planning on taking Brennan on a fishing trip with Ken in June.
Does it sound like I'm bragging about my children? Yeah, I kind of am - it's just that they are worth bragging about, and I thought you might all like a little update on what's going on with them.
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