Today Debate, Tomorrow the World

Ruth competed in another debate tournament this weekend. She was competing in two new categories, Oratory and Poetry Reading, as well as her normal Humorous Interpretation (HI) category.  She won first place in HI varsity, and first place in Declamation (which was open), and she got second overall in speech categories for the entire competition; that's second out of hundreds of students.  Her wins also put her in first place on her school team which she was pretty excited about.

I spent all day Friday judging at the tournament, but I'm not allowed to judge any student from Ruth's school, so I never saw Ruth.  Still, it's fun to watch these bright and talented students compete.  They come into the room all giggly and goofy like normal teenagers, but once they stand to compete they are all very impressive.

First Band Concert

This week was Jared's very first band concert.  He played the snare drums, jingle bells, and bell set.   He did a really good job and seemed to really like it.

You  might remember that I basically forced Jared into band this year, but this week when a friend asked him what his favorite class was he said "band."  I'm amazed.  I hope he decides to stick with it.




Wedding

We went to my niece Amy's wedding this weekend.  My sister put on a beautiful lunch and reception, and we enjoyed visiting with family and celebrating with them.   Another niece brought face cut outs of my nephew Benjamin and Kaitlin, both on missions for the LDS church, and we passed them around and took pictures with them.