robotic competition...

Hey, so don't forget to comment on my delurk post! Thanks to those who have already said something. It is so great to "meet" you and to be able to go to your blogs too!! Lord knows, I love me some blogs. :)

I never told you all about the robotic tournament that we went to. We drove up to Arkansas Thursday night, and let me tell you something....Holiday Inn Express Suites are awesome. We all camped out in one hotel room on our trip to California this summer and we were cramped! This hotel room here though?? Was huge!!! We had no problem whatsoever fitting all of us in there with room to spare. And it was only 70.00 a night!!! There were two queen beds and a sleeper sofa, so that fit 6 of us, then Rachel in her pack and play, Nathan by us on the floor, Austin by the wall on one side and Aaron by the wall on the other side and we were set. It was so nice. Moving on. LOL... Kids got to swim and all that stuff Thursday night, and then went to the college bright and early Friday for check in. The competition was Saturday starting at 8 am, and was "supposed" to last until 5 or 6 AT THE LATEST. Oh, such a funny statement. We had to check out of the hotel at 11, so the plan was to go watch the competition from that point on. There was no reason to go early with all the little kids, so we all stayed back to pack and enjoy a leisurely breakfast etc.

We get to the college, and boy is it LOUD!! I hate loud...really. So, there I was, trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to leave. I brought ear plugs, but really didn't know how to put them in all the kids ears too. I tried that, but throughout the day, they kept bringing me them back saying they fell out. Argh! So, I improvised and stuck wadded up sections of baby wipes in their ears, which actually worked, but looked odd I am sure. The announcer of each round was loud, the music they played during each round was loud, and the kids were loud. Why did they feel the need to be so loud, is beyond me, but I guess I am old...

Our team made it to 11th place at the end of the seeding rounds, of which they went 8 rounds for that part. The top 14 teams (out of 40) went on to the semi finals. Then the top 4 went on to the finals. We didn't make it that far. The stuff kept messing up and had to be redone so it was frustrating to say the least, but I suppose it was messing up on everyone, not just our team. I was so proud of our team though!!! We had never had a team even make it to regionals, and then to make it to the second phase of that even. Woohoo.

Oh, maybe I should mention, since I did it all in caps earlier, that it was supposed to end at 5 or 6. Well, it didn't end until 8:30. The redos, and the fixing things that were breaking, and the sheer time to go from round to round was excruciating, however we lived....and made it home safely.

They did awesome building the robot, driving it, etc. My oldest 3 children are now engineers. :) Who knows.....maybe this planted a seed in one of them to pursue engineering as a degree?