Jesus Christ Superstar!

Damon,
My parents and brother are in town for the holidays.  We went to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the La Jolla Village Playhouse.  It's a modern remake of the condemnation and death of Jesus complete with a high-energy rock and roll musical score. Ryan came with us too, and because Evan had to work he invited Allison (Rachel couldn't go).  It's an Andrew Lloyd Weber production (he did Phantom of the Opera and Cats among many others).  You would have loved it.  The singing was amazing.  I didn't know someone could sing that high or low.  The stage production was very clever with scaffolding and ladders that the actors could scale up and down with the lighting coming from the sides of the stage rather than from the ceiling in front.

It was like a Broadway experience here in San Diego! We'll have to keep our eyes out for future musical productions at the playhouse so we don't miss out!

Love and hugs,

Nicole

P.S. We know the new school semester is starting soon and we hope you want to come back for that. All your friends miss you and would love to see you!

Hey from Leslie!

Hey Da!!!!

Christmas is on its way and I will always think of the biggest Christmas morning I've ever experienced. It was in 2008 when you and your bros were here with us. I have never wrapped so many presents!  We got that huge tree and filled half the living room. We opened presents for over four hours!

I have my traditional Christmas Eve ornament for you. It's a silly one and I know you'll love it. If you are not here for Christmas, I'll be saving it for you.

Kurt and I miss you so much. We try not to worry but really, that is impossible.  We want you around for Christmas!

I am gathering friends to watch silly holiday movies and the Muppets and Pee Wee Herman's Christmas DVDs will provide some laughs, as you know.

Kelly and Kyle and your brothers will have the annual viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We all want you here to have fun with us.

There are certainly no plans to send you to any camps. I hope you really know that. We want you here so you can see your friends and get back to school and drama and share these good times with all of us.

We love you, miss you and hope we see you very soon.

Leslie

First Vex Robotics Competition for Ryan!

Damon, yesterday Ryan and his team competed in a regional Vex robotics competition at the high school.  Your Dad and I helped referee the matches.  Forty schools from all around the region came to compete.  It was the first time I had seen a competition and I was very impressed by how the students were able to build, program and operate the robots to do complicated tasks.  For this competition the robots had to pcikup 8"-diameter objects (balls and cyclinders) and put them in goals of varying heights which consisted of vertical poles forming a cylinder.  Of course there were lots of rules and ways to score to make the strategy very complex so the best teams did a lot of out-of-the-box thinking about how best to design their robots to maximize their scoring.  Our referring job required us to make sure all the teams followed the rules and then score the match once finished.  The rounds were 2:20 minutes each with 48 matches in the qualifying rounds and about 10 more in the quarterfinals through finals.  Ryan's team made it to the quarterfinals - not bad! 

It was great to see so many smart and talented kids all together and having a fun time.  It gives me hope for the future of America!

After the competition Dad, Evan and I went over to Kurt and Leslie's to celebrate her birthday.  We saw Alison and Ronna and Hal too.  Everyone was asking after you.  They send you their good wishes.

I hope you're keeping up with your writing, and are able to keep your brain sharp.

We're all here for you with open arms when you choose to come back. 

Love and hugs,

Nicole

It's almost Christmas!

Damon, I want you to know how much I (and everyone) miss you!!  It is not the same without you here.  It has been 5 months since you left without a trace.  So much has happened.  Evan is off to college learning what life is really like to be on your own. Ryan is doing Robotics and Engineering, in the school play, applying for colleges, in choir, working on his Senior Project, among other things.  We hosted Thanksgiving here and had a group of 14.  It was a blast to have everyong here for the first time.  Your aunts & uncles & cousins all miss you.  Margaret & Jerry are coming out for Christmas as well as Ivan.  We plan to get a tree this week (and chase Nicole through the parking lot with it! LOL).

Enough about us, what about you?  How are you holding up?  I don't think you really understood what you were signing up for when you left?!  You have missed a whole semester from school, but more importantly, from your frinds and hobbies.  In your departure letter you talk of doing this to fight for "Freedom".  Ironically you gave up all your freedoms when you left: No Ninjutsu 3 days a week with David; No Allison; No Scott; No Ryan; No school play "Noises Off"; No tennis; No computer; No dances; ...and so many more.  I really hope you are safe and not hungry on the streets. 

I do hope you can come back to Poway and start school in January again.  I know all your friends would be ecstatic to see you again! (not to mention us too!)   I know you want to be in a normal school setting again.  Come back so we can make it happen for you!!  You belong in your life (and in all of ours)!  I Love You Very Much!
DAD

Hi Damon

It's been way too long since you've been to our house to have Mt. Dew and hang out with David.  We sure do miss you!  We've been busy doing our regular stuff.  School, Ninja, youth group.  David just earned his blue belt and a blue jacket.  It's pretty cool!  He's strutting around just like you'd imagine!  We are very proud of him.  He's also going to be getting his license in a few weeks if you can believe it.  Now we won't have to be taxi driver for him.
Damon, I have no idea if you'll ever get to read this, but just know that I'm praying for you and your safe return, in whatever form that might take.  It's just not the same without you.  I pray you are safe, and that whatever happens, you'll always have a 2nd home with us.
hugs to you Damon.....
Cheryl and Kevin

Thanksgiving with family

Damon we really missed you last week.  Thanksgiving is usually a time when all the family gets together to celebrate our good fortunes.  We hosted it at our house.  The whole family made it except Uncle Greg who was in Nappa, Uncle Ty and you.  There was a big empty space in the seat where you would have been sitting and a hole in our hearts.  We know how much you love family get togethers and eating good food, especially deserts, so we hope that you were able to have some kind of thanksgiving wherever you are, and that you are being treated well.  Ryan made peanut butter balls and Aunt Teri made chocolate cake balls which were equally delicious so we'll put those on the desert menu for future parties. 

Evan and his friends all got together after coming back from respective colleges.  But he procrastinated doing his 5-page term paper - on the topic of home schooling and the impact on social development. Ryan is scrambling too to get his college app essays completed so he can submit them tomorrow!  Seems that procrastination runs deep in this family!  Except you were always very good about getting things done ahead of time - especially homework :-)

We hope you are safe and at least with someone who cares about you.  But of course we wish you could come home where there's a whole town of people who care about you.

Love Dad and Nicole

Evan's first Frisbee tournament!

Evan played in his first Ultimate Frisbee tournament this weekend with Black Tide.  The team stayed at our house along with the Long Beach men's and women's teams so we had quite a full house!  Although his team didn't win Evan scored a lot of points and had an amazing layout catch in the end zone!

Uncle Joe and Aunt Teri also came out from Arizona to watch the Boisie Idaho Broncos football team play San Diego State.

We're looking foward to having everyone here for Thanksgiving this year.  We hope you can make it!

Love,

Dad and Nicole