Robotics State Championship

So I am a little behind in my whole journal/blog thing. I am going to try and catch up. who knows. Braeden had his state robotics championship on Oahu in December. The last Saturday before Christmas. Not the best time for me to take off for the weekend but oh well we made it work.

I went as a chaperon with the robotics coach and the principal. I was in charge of the boys (there is only two of them) it was pretty funny to share a hotel room with them. While the other teachers were waiting for the girls to primp I was saying are you sure you washed? come here let me smell you that was SO not a long enough shower.

We went over a day early for the kids to have a day of fun. We went straight to the Honolulu Zoo on Waikiki. Then off to Dave and Busters which is a kind of more mature Chucky Cheese. Cameron went up to the ski ball picked up a ball and chucked it at the target like a baseball. I was laughing so hard I could not control myself. He eventually figured it out. but not until the poor machine was dented beyond repair. :)

We did a little shopping after that which was me following 9 year old boys around a mall. It was interesting. We spent the majority of the night in game stop and candy stores. It was a little different than following my girls around a mall.

The next day was the competition at the Blaisdell Center. It was soooo stressful. wow. The pressure, the drama, the chaos and the noise. It was CRAZY!!!! They are taken up to do their presentation for the judges and then they get ready for the robot performance. They have three rounds just like the other one. And off they go. They had some problems with their robot the first two rounds and didn't do so well then the last one they did awesome so they ended up feeling pretty good about the outcome. In the end they won the Judges Choice award. Which is for a returning team that has demonstrated a lot of work and progress. They were very happy about it. It was so fun to be able to spend the time with Braeden and all of his buddies. It was so exhausting and fun.






The boys. How did my son turn into such a teenager?
Our view from our hotel room.
The ZOO
Dave and Busters

It was hard to get a picture of the actual competition because only the "handlers" can get close. but here is Braeden in action.




Does he look stressed?
This is his team with the Governor. It was so funny they are all lined up like this except Braeden who was working on the robot and everyone is saying come on Braeden the Governor wants a picture. and he is like "just a second I am working on this". that went on about three times. Til I finally pulled him over. He told me later when I was teasing him about it "I am not embarrassed I needed to fix that first." oh my children.


You have to blow this last one up and check out the cute little trophy made out of legos.