Universal

At Christmas Universal was running a special where if you bought annual passes, you received six months free (18 months for the price of 12).  We have been wanting to go back to Universal, and after checking things out Brian discovered that buying an annual pass was more cost effective than buying regular tickets at the gate.  Knowing this, he purchased annual passes for our family as my birthday present.  The only catch was that we had to activate the passes by April.  So, last weekend we headed to Universal for the day to get our passes. We left our house around 6 a.m., arrived at Universal around 10, had a great day, left the park at 7, and returned home around 11 p.m.  It was a busy but fun day.  We rode several rides including the Hulk, the Mummy, Gringotts, and Men in Black.  We also had a great meal at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.  And the most exciting part?  We can go back whenever we want!  Universal is my favorite theme park and I am definitely looking forward to getting our money's worth out of these passes.

Owen's Basketball Season

Owen had a great time playing basketball with the rec this year.  His team did well and won about half of their games.  Owen played better with each game and ended up scoring two points in the next-to-last game.  He was very excited about that. 

Busy January

 We have had the busiest January in recent memory.  In addition to all of the robotics practices and tournaments, we have also had other academic competitions to prepare for and participate in.  Both kids presented projects at the region tech fair, and Olivia won second place in 3-D modeling. Owen's device modification project did not place, but he was excited to have made it to the regional competition this year. 

 Owen spent all month working on his science fair project.  He tested how much electricity a small solar cell could produce when it was held under the light of bulbs with different wattages. His project received a first place ribbon. 

While I'm happy that the kids participated in these events, I must admit that I'm glad they are over.  It has been go-go-go all month, and I'm looking forward to slowing down a bit.

Robotics Season

January was certainly a busy month for Olivia's robotics team.  They completely re-worked their robot and attended three competitions.  They improved at each competition but did not qualify for state.  Still, I am so proud of them.  They did every single thing on that robot by themselves, and they learned so much.  I think that they are in a good position to start next year because of the things they learned this year. While the regular season may be over, the excitement for robotics will not fade because some of their teammates had qualifying robots, and Olivia's team will be happy to cheer them on. 

Owen's January was not as busy.  They have had robotics practice regularly, but he only attended one "mock" competition.  His school has only been able to register a limited number of teams for the past few competitions, and his team has not been chosen to attend because they are already qualified for state.  He did accompany his team to our local Pre-K before Christmas to do a robotics demonstration for the Pre-K students.  He loved being able to do this.  

Owen's robot will compete in the State Tournament in early March, and we are hoping that his team does well.