Sawyer Bricklin keeps life busy for his parents, Mark and Heidi, and sister Madison every day.  Whether he’s writing imaginative stories, collecting Pokémon cards or baseballs, performing flips on the trampoline, or taking trips with his family, Sawyer approaches everything with gusto – and plenty of commentary along the way.  

To start, please tell us how old you are, what grade you're in, and where you go to school. 7. And I go to school at ECC and I am in 1st grade.

And what are your favorite things to do at school? Math.

Why do you like math? I like figuring out answers.  

Are there other subjects you like at school? I like writing.

What do you like to write? Stories. About holidays.  Like Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day.

What was one of your favorite holiday stories? Probably St. Patrick’s Day. I wrote about the leprechaun. He stole the coins that I tried to give him and then he dropped 5 coins, and then when he ran, he was too fast, so he dropped 5 more. So, I got $10,000.

And what did you do with your ten thousand dollars? I bought a 3D printer.

Your dad mentioned you also like Spanish. Do you speak Spanish? I like speak Spanish a little bit. My teacher that speaks Spanish in first grade, she goes to English and she doesn't know how to do it. She's from Colombia and we teach her English every day. She doesn’t know how to say “hippopotamus” or “leprechaun” or “axolotl”.

What is an axolotl? It's an animal. It’s pink. It has really weird ears. It’s in the water. [Per Dad, it’s a “clinically endangered fully aquatic salamander”].

Have you ever seen one? Yes. It was like a shop. Like, way down there. In Moab. It was a long time ago, but I remember it. [Further clarification: “only native to a lake in Mexico City”].

How big was it? Oh, it's a little guy.

What other animals have you learned about? Oh! There’s a lot! Even in kindergarten?

Sure. Okay, so… bear - in kindergarten. And another one. Cheetah! Moving on to 1st grade. Axolotl. Oh! We’ve done a lot in first grade. Raccoon. We've done so much that I forgot. Deer. Hmm.

If you could be an animal, what would you be? A Cheetah. And they’re my favorite animal. I don’t know why. Because they're fast. That's why I wrote my story in kindergarten.

And what did the cheetah do? It didn’t really do anything. It just ran. Okay! I just remembered. Racoon. Bear. Elk. Big Horn Sheep. Eagle. Fox. OWL! And we saw one on the driveway and in the tree. Oh yeah, we also learned about penguins. They jump off huge cliffs, way higher than that, like way higher.

So, your dad let me know that you like to collect things. First, please tell me, what is Pokemon? You don’t know? You don’t know what Pokemon is? You don’t know what Pokemon cards are?

No. I don't have a clue. I need you to enlighten me. Okay. So, there are cards. I have 4 cards. You have 4 cards. I put a card down – whichever one I want. Whichever one has the higher score wins, but you have to read about it because there are two. And it tells you the score out of those, and whoever got the higher score wins.

What are the different cards? There's gold cards, rainbow cards, and there's regular cards, which is like blue on the back.

Is gold the most valuable in points? No. Well, gold is valuable, but rainbow is also really good. Like really really good.

How many Pokemon cards do you have?  I don't know. There’s a lot. I am going to count... I think 50.

Do you have a favorite? It’s one of the gold cards I have. I don't have any rainbow cards, but my favorite gold one is the one that I just got, and it has different Pokemon on it, and it's like rainbow. It's gold, but the picture on it is rainbow.

What other things do you collect? Toys. Like balls. Bouncy balls. And baseballs. Oh! I didn’t catch one, but I got a baseball because it went out of people’s hands and the usher caught it and I raised my hand and asked if I could have it and he gave it to me. [In Talking Stick for Colorado Rockies Spring Training in Scottsdale]. And I also have a purple baseball Cubs and another one I got at a Colorado Rockies game that’s got mountains and trees on it.

Which is your favorite ball? The one the usher gave me.

Do you collect any other things? Magic cards. Coins. I have a collection of rocks.

Is there something you would like to collect that you haven’t yet? Oh yes! Dad has a really cool camera. He collects a lot of stuff.

Are you going to collect cameras someday? Maybe.

What do you like to do outside? The trampoline. Ride my bike. I do flips. I do cartwheels. Front flips. So, it’s like this. Front flip. Like that. It's a front flip but you like turn like this. You flip and look over your shoulder, and you go like this. If you actually look at our trampoline, it's so easy.

Do you ski or snowboard? Ski. Not flips. Not cartwheels.

What's your favorite thing about skiing? I LOVE the jumps!

Do you have a favorite run on the mountain? Well, I don't know. There's that one that's off Mid Vail Express. That one's huge. And also, I like the snowboard park. And I love Chaos Canyon.

Is there a sport that you haven't tried yet that you'd like to someday? Football. I kind of played at school but I haven’t played on a team. I like Gaga ball.

What is Gaga ball? Any ball.

How big is the ball? As big as any ball. But not a baseball. Not a football. And not a basketball. [For the unenlightened, Gaga Ball is one the fastest growing recreation games in the country and is considered a "lower impact" version of dodgeball].

Do you kick it? No. You can't kick it. You have to hit it with your hand and try to hit someone's foot. If it hits your knee, you're out. And if it hits up here, you're not out.

What's your favorite thing to do with your family? Going on trips with them.

Where are your favorite trips? Arizona. And Moab too. Oh! I like the Great Wolf Lodge.

What's your favorite thing to do in Moab? My favorite thing… I don't know. I like going down that creek to the waterfall. I met a new friend there. It was a caterpillar, but it probably died.

Did you name it? Joe. And there are people on the rocks - they're like up there and they’re watching you and then they jump into the water, but it's deep. And the caterpillar that I met was actually in the water, but I don't think he's alive right now.  

And finally, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? Oh! I already know that! Invisible enough to go through walls. If a door is locked, I just walk right through!