Ryan's Year in Review 2014

11th Grader

Ryan's year started off with track season. After trying out for various track and field events, he realized that he was best at the Triple Jump.  Maybe his success was due to his lengthy build, or maybe from his years of Taekwondo practices where he had to time his advanced jumps and kicks. The result is that he was very successful in his track meets against other schools.  At the end of the season, Ryan was invited to the Junior Varsity Los Angeles City Finals where he won a Gold medal.  He enjoys Track and Field much better than marching band.

After the season was over, Ryan's summer was full of different short trips and events. Ryan and Henry invited some friends and their dads to a weekend in Mammoth Lakes, CA where they spent a few days fishing. They caught freshwater trout from a couple small lakes. Henry cleaned and cooked the fresh fish both nights.

Ryan was a natural and caught more than a dozen trout, the most of anyone in our group.

The second highlight of the summer was Ryan's missions trip to Flagstaff, AZ to serve alongside Mike Hendricks and native americans on the Navajo reservations.  For one week, Ryan spent 12 hours a day with the local kids, getting to know them, teaching them, sharing their faith and testimonies with them and just playing and having fun with them. Although the days were long and hot, the missions trip was a success.

The final highlight of this year, up to now, was a family trip to Las Vegas.  Ryan was able to see 2 shows including The Blue Man Group and The Penn and Teller magic show.  Though the shows were exciting, the highlight of the trip was the Gun Garage, where Henry and Ryan rented and shot fully automatic machine guns and a high-powered, long-range sniper rifle.  They shot a Mini-Uzi, a MP5, and the infamous AR50, long-range sniper.  The AR50 shot 50 caliber bullets which packed a punch.  The instructor was very helpful and taught us the proper stance, position and firing technique.  The AR50 was so loud and powerful, that they had yell aloud and warn everyone in the indoor shooting range that a 50-cal. was about to make a big boom!    

Ryan using clip-on cleats for the first time.  This was our annual 25 mile roundtrip ride to Redondo Beach to get fresh steamed crab.  Serious noms.