Blake competed in Destination Imagination

Blake was asked along with 6 other classmates to participate in a Destination Imagination group for the past few months. Here is an explanation of what Destination Imagination is:
You've heard of spelling bees, quiz bowls, robotics competitions and science fairs. In fact, there is probably a special event for every subject taught at school. Well, Destination ImagiNation is none of those things – and all of those things! Destination ImagiNation is a place where kids take what they know and what they are good at and learn to apply it to solve challenges, working together and cooperatively with a team and pushing the limits of imagination to best not their competition, but themselves.
Destination ImagiNation is a community-based, school-friendly program that builds participants' creativity, problem solving, and teamwork in enjoyable and meaningful ways.
Teams of five to seven members work together to apply creativity, critical thinking and their particular talents to solve a Team Challenge.
The Destination ImagiNation Team Challenge is a Challenge that is solved over a period of eight weeks or more. There are five competitive Team Challenges from which teams may choose, each with its own educational focus. Each Team Challenge is designed to be open-ended and solvable in many ways and on many levels.
Challenge A: Technical/MechanicalChallenge B: Theater Arts/ScienceChallenge C: Theater Arts/Fine ArtsChallenge D: Theater Arts/ImprovisationChallenge E: Structural & Architectural Design.
There are two parts to the Team Challenge: the Central Challenge and Side Trips. The Central Challenge is a set of required elements that all teams must complete. Side Trips are two additional elements teams create and include in their Presentation.
The Destination ImagiNation Instant Challenge is a Challenge teams are asked to solve in a very short period of time at their Tournament, without knowing ahead of time what the Challenge will be. Teams go into a room and are given a Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. They use their thinking-on-their-feet skills to produce a solution, usually in a period of five to eight minutes!
Blake's group name was the "Righteous rookies" . They did well enough in their regional competition to qualify for state. They recently competed at the state competion (April 26) and took 8th out of 22 teams. They received the highest score on their skit and they only needed 30 more points in the instant challenge to win the competition. They received the Divinci Award for creativity. This is the special award for creativity, imagination and risk taking.
It was a lot of work but the skills they gained far outweighed the extra committment. I was so proud of Blake!

Tanner's Baseball team is doing great!

Parker Sky Sox baseball bash way into World Series
The 8 and under Parker Sky Sox baseball team qualified for the Triple Crown World Series by winning the Triple Crown Baseball Bash tournament in Boulder this past weekend. They swept through the field going 5-0 for the tournament and shutting out their opponent in the championship game 6-0. The World Series tournament will be held July 21-27 in Steamboat Springs and includes some of the best teams from across the country.

Blake Michael Giles

I wanted to share some words about my sweet Blakey. He is amazingly wonderful from the tip of his head to the tip of his toes. He is becoming such a mature young man. He is so very conscientious and full of integrity. He excels in everything he does and has been blessed with many talents. I am so grateful for his role as the oldest child in our family-He truely magnifies it! 10 years has just flown by since I held him in my arms for the first time. I loved him instantly and continue to love him more and more every minute.
I love that he gets excited about things. I love that he talks openly to me about his stressors and accomplishments. I love that he is always wanting to do the right thing. I love that he always kisses me and tells me he loves me, before he goes to school or anywhere. I love to watch him play sports. I love to see how much he enjoys a good book. I love to see his eyes when I suprise him with Taco Bell. I love that he lets me highlight his hair-even after I turned it orange one time. I love that he is polite and cordial to everyone. I love that he can talk to adults comfortably. I love that he is not afraid to be on stage or in the spotlight. I love that he is proud in what he can do, but humble at the same time.
I am one lucky mom to have such an amazing boy.

Courtney Allyson Giles

I wanted to share some thoughts about my precious little two year old, Courtney Allyson Giles. I am blessed beyond measure to have such a sweet baby girl. I really cannot believe how quickly 2 years has passed. I have loved every precious moment of her life. I especially cherish the time we have together before bed, as I rock her and enjoy sharing with her special memories of the day we spent together. Her gentle little spirit is full of such enjoyment for the simple things. She loves to show me on her wall how the giraffe licks the pole with his tongue (she doesn't really lick the wall) and how much the peacock, with his big beautiful feathers, liked her. She shares fondness about her brothers and sister. She talks about bunnies she had noticed outside the restaurant window.
I love that I am the one that understands her every word. I love her soft sweet voice and funny expressions. I beg her to repeat over and over again, "it's otay mommy!" and "tourtney needs mommy" and Mommy hold you me?!" and "I not baby-I tourtney (with her irresistible smile on her face) and "tank you"
I love that she is so quick to forgive and so willing to say sorry.
I love that she loves to read stories to me and always gets me to play chase with her every night as I am trying to put on her pajamas.
I love that she loves to carry around her purse and fill it with every girl thing she can find (or borrow from Sydney).
I feel amazing gratitude for her and cherish every breath she takes! I love her deeply with all my heart and soul!!!

Blake is 2 digits!!

We celebrated Blake's birthday this past Saturday. The day started out great for him with breakfast in bed. A great flag football practice and game. A yummy lunch and all chocolate birthday cake. We then drove an hour to Tanner's baseball tournament where Blake became very very ill. He spent the remainder of his birthday sicker than I have ever seen him. It broke my heart to see him so sick and especially on his birthday. Mike gave him two priesthood blessings. Finally, after the second one (3:00a.m) he was able to sleep.
We tried to make it up to him and took him to PF Chang's for his favorite Chinese food. I forgot to take my camera, to capture the sweet smiling face of a boy who re-discovered food. We had a really nice time as a family. Lots of laughs, smiles, and good old fashioned cherished time together. He has a birthday party scheduled for this Wednesday. I will keep you posted.

We had an enjoyable time at the Littleton Historical Museum. We went with Sydney's preschool class.
Notice the purse-Courtney carried it the entire day! :)

This was Sydney with her Cousin, Rachael.Here is a great shot (before my battery died :-( ). You can place crackers on their tongues-It is really cool!