We embarked on our last marathon field trip of the year last week. It was a new record for us... 8 days, four different locations, lots of good food, and a whole lot of fun!
The first phase of our trip was a ride to Westbrook to stay at my Dad's house before heading to Oakland for our Lego Robotics Track Meet! The best part was that since we were staying with my Dad we got to bring Millie... and she always loves a good road trip!
Angela, the boys and I went in on Friday afternoon and had an easy, relaxing evening of movies and chinese food.
We had to beef up for our track meet in the morning!
Saturday we headed to Oakland bright and early for the Robotics Meet! Coffee was a must for this middle schooler.
Here is Quinn's robot for the "fastest" event.
And here's Dalton's "Ping Pong Shot Put!"
Dalton was taking on the steeple chase AND the slope climber with this robot!
The boys had to check-in their robots to register for their particular events!
The opening ceremonies began with a quick run-down of events from the Robotic guru, Tom Bickford.
Then it was time to let the games begin!
Dalton was up first for the steeple chase, a new event this year.
He went on a wing and a prayer... and apparently that was not enough, since his robot didn't do as well as he had hoped. But he was in good spirits about it and that is what matters most to me!
As soon as Dalton was done with the steeple chase he had to run his robot over to the slope climber event!
His robot did AWESOME in this event! I think even Dalton was surprised by how well his robot climbed that slope! It was able to climb at 65 degree angle! That's gold standard material right there!
What I always love about Robotics is how friendly and fun all the kids are at the meets. They all are so helpful and funny. You got to love middle schoolers who still dig building stuff with legos :)
Quinn was finally up for his fastest event... he was pretty nervous.
But his big brother was there to make him smile... pretty sweet.
Ready, set, GO!!!
Weeeee! That was fast! (Gold standard fast!)
Then it was time for our highlight of the meet... LUNCH TIME!
Mmmmm.... meatball subs!
And hotdogs! YES!
The afternoon was the big final competitions.
Check out these sweet lego crocs!!!
One of the final events was "robot building" where kids have to use a robot kit to build a robot as fast as they can. It is pretty impressive since most of the kids can do it in about 3 minutes and they have to do it in front of a big crowd! Talk about pressure!
After the robot building it was time for the ping pong shot-put... Dalton's favorite event...
The boys did a great job working as a team and his shot put did great.
The last event of the day is the bridge contest! We had some technical difficulties with Quinn's bridge, but he kept his head held high. This little guy though had 185 lbs on his bridge! He was the clear winner!
By the end of the day the boys were tired, goofy, and borderline grumpy...
But they came away with three gold standard ribbons and smiles on their faces!
Well done fellas, you kept your heads held high and you were good sports and encouraging to all the other teams! You always know how to make us proud.
