It's Robotics Time Again

Chris's team getting ready to score a tube

Yes, it is once again robotics season and Chris's team is off to a great start. They got their game way back in January. This year it was to build a robot that could pick up inner tubes of different colors and shapes and hang them on a wall. They would get 3 points for the top level, 2 for the middle, and 1 for the bottom. If they could program the robot to hang a tube by itself during the first 30 seconds of the game, they would get 6 points and their points on that level would double. If they could put the inner tubes in a certain order on the wall, that was also worth points. In the last 10 seconds, they could release a mini robot to climb a pole. First one to the top gets 30 points, second 20, etc.

The kids worked until the last week of February, when the robot had to be sealed up, and then hauled it to Kansas City this weekend to compete in the Kansas City Regional. They got off to a pretty good start. They had a couple problems, but were always one of the teams consistently scoring. Despite having problems with their minibot falling off the robot the first couple games, they had it running up the pole by the last match.

The way the competitions work is that they play 9 qualifying matches randomly sorted into alliances of 3 teams. At the end of those matches, the top 8 teams pick 2 teams that they want to compete with in the quarterfinals. Chris's team didn't finish high enough to be one of the top 8 teams, but they were picked by the 2nd seeded team. Their alliance dominated their quarterfinal matches, winning 2 games to 0. They then made a real fight of it in the semifinals winning 1 match and losing 2 other real close ones. In fact, they were leading in the last match by over 40 points, but one of their teams sent their minibot up the pole too early and it didn't count. If it had, they would have made the finals. Very exciting!

They also brought home 2 awards, the entrepreneurship award for how they run their team and a runner-up award for safety.

They will now come back home with everything they learned in KC and get ready for the Denver regional on April 8.

Deploying the minibot

Old man's still got it

We went out to watch Kurt play hockey Saturday night. I haven't actually been to one of his games in quite a while, but he still moves around pretty well out there.

Senior Portraits

Chris is a senior this year, so of course that means senior portraits. We spent an afternoon out shooting with Johnny Wilson, the same guy that did the reunion pictures 2 reunions ago. We have around 200 pictures to sort through and then send back to him for editing, but here are some of my favorites.

Catching Up On October

Well, I'm only a little over a month behind, but here was our October:

We started out with the Coronado High School homecoming parade. Chris has marched in this every year and then, the last 2, they have run the robot for it as well. This year, Justin hopped a ride on the sophomore float and, since Nate goes to one of the schools that feeds into Coronado, he got to ride a float as well.







Next, a big milestone; Chris turned 18, is now officially an adult. We had both sides of the family over for pizza and cake.




And finally, what would October be without Halloween. We let Nate carve his own pumpkin this year. Unfortunately, that ended with a nose that was so huge the whole face collapsed before I got a picture of it. He dressed up for school and then we always invite my brother's family to Trunk or Treating. Nate is the skeleton.

What's the point of having a blog if you can't brag about your kids?

Chris is in his senior year, so lots of AP tests and college entrance exams this year. He took the ACT and PSAT at the end of his junior year. Kurt and I have been telling him that he has to beat our scores on the ACT if he wants bragging rights. The only person I know who beat my score in high school was Art, and I think Kurt and I had the same score. We're thinking we each scored 32.

Well, Chris gained bragging rights with a near perfect score of 35 on the ACT test with a 36 being the highest you can receive. He also received a letter from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation that runs the PSAT and SAT tests congratulating Chris on scoring in the top 50,000 students out of some 1.5 million who take the PSAT test, so the top 3.5%. In September, approximately 30,000 if those 50,000 high scorers receive Letters of Commendation, which he has now received as well.

Way to go Chris! You earned your bragging rights.

Catching up on June

I knew when I started this that I would have a terrible time keeping up with it, so here is June in a nutshell.

June boiled down to pretty much one week, June 19-26, which is when Kurt and I went out of town, Nate went to cub scout camp, and Chris and Justin went to Zion's camp.

June 19 was just crazy with me working, trying to get the all the camping stuff together for Zion's camp, and trying to get Nate packed to stay with my parents and have the things he needed for day camp. We finally dropped the dogs off with my parents about 9:00 and then took Nate to stay with John and Rachael for the night since my parents had just gotten back in from Arizona the day before and were still trying to get caught up from their trip. Kurt and I finally left for Crested Butte around 11:00 that night.

Twenty years and counting:
Kurt and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on June 22. Kurt arranged for us to go away for a few days in Crested Butte. I think this is the first time we have spent any real time away from our kids ever, so it was kind of nice, especially with Kurt working 6 days a week with his training schedule and running bike tours on the side.

I have to say that it didn't start out well as we got into Crested Butte at about 3 in the morning and found we couldn't get into our condo because we didn't have the code for the lock box the key was in. Kurt had set up the condo through a guy John knows at ReMax, so many thanks to John for getting up at 3 in the morning and helping us figure out how to get in.

We didn't get a whole lot of rest as we spent most of our time hiking the area. I probably got more exercise in those 3 days than I normally get in a month. The first day, we hiked around Crested Butte and saw some scenery.

The next day, we were up early to drive to the Maroon Bells, where we hiked around and saw more scenery.

Kind of all looks the same, huh?

Crested Butte is known for their wildflowers and we saw a bunch, but mostly lots and lots and lots of these yellow ones that seemed awfully familiar:


Though, okay, we did see a few of these as well:



















Saw some critters, too:


But mostly we just got to spend some time together.

Zion's Camp:
Chris and Justin left Monday morning for a week at Zion's camp. This is basically a missionary prep course up in the Colorado mountains. They camp out all week, along with scripture study and a lot of outdoor activities, like high ropes courses, rappelling, and canoeing. We went up Friday night for parents' night and were met by all the boys singing (Justin is in the middle behind the kid in the camo coat).


The boys then served their parents dinner. I had to have pictures because you know this is the only place it will ever happen :) (and, no, that isn't Chris's tie - he had to borrow one because he forgot his).
















All the boys then put on an after dinner show where they went through some of the things they did over the week. Chris's group sang and Justin's group sang and signed (they do a lot of singing at Zion's camp).






We then came home and the boys stayed until Saturday and came home very, very dirty, cleaned up, and went to bed.

Cub Scout Camp
Nate spent 3 days at cub scout camp. I am a bad mom and don't have any pictures, but he had a great time.

And that was all the exciting stuff for June.

Kurt's new job

Everything always happens at once, so when I have something to put here, there is a whole lot of stuff and no time to do it, so it will all just have to wait, but this one is quick, so I'll go ahead and put it up for everyone who hasn't heard.

Over a year ago, he interviewed for a tech position and was told he got the job. However, Atmel then went into a hiring freeze and they couldn't actually hire him for it. Then, a few months after that, they laid everyone off. So now, a year later and after being re-hired, he got the position. He has been training for the last month and will probably stay on the day shift for a while, but then will have to move back to nights, so nights=bad, but extra money because he is working nights=good. Hopefully, he will eventually be able to move back to days, though, or everyone will get laid off again and we'll start over.

So, yay, more money and a job he likes a lot more.