He dreamed a dream.....

The robot competition in Denver was disappointing. Keith, Jakob and Corrine got home late Sunday night. Monday was filled with added sadness as we tried to get back into normal school routine. Tuesday wasn't looking much better. Wednesday morning after handing out the school assignments, London, one of the drivers for the robot called and asked what Jakob and Corrine thought about going to Idaho to compete. I said "Sure we can go" thinking at the back of my mind there is no way Keith will agree to such a spontaneous idea. After all, the robot would need to be in Idaho Wednesday.  This is us at 7am on Thursday morning.

London said he had a dream that we went to Idaho to compete and he was very insistent we needed to get there.  Keith and the team manager, Adrianne, supported London in this crazy idea. In less than 24 hours the robot was loaded up and the entire team was loaded up and on the road for Idaho.

By the time we got there, we had already missed 1/2 a day of robot set up, inspection, and practice. No matter. We got a lot of practice in Denver. We ended the day on Friday ranked #1. We knew it wouldn't last through Saturday, but we enjoyed the #1 for the evening.  We are team 3230.

This is the Boise temple. It was right across the street from our hotel!

This hotel was MUCH nicer than the hotel in Denver.  The kids enjoyed hanging out and watching tv. Kate said she never wanted to leave the "house with 3 beds".  I didn't want to leave the house that had hot breakfast ready, and where someone made the beds AND cleaned the bathrooms. It was almost heaven.

The kids did great being dragged all over for robot competitions. Kate was very good to cheer on the team!

She was also very good to share her movies with her friend, George.

We ended the qualifications ranked #2. The #1 team has been a bit of a rival for the past 3 years. We had no dreams of beating them, but because they already had a ticket to the Worlds Competition, we only needed to make it to the final rounds and we could get to Worlds. We didn't have to beat #1... just be able to compete against them.  The little robot that can do anything didn't disappoint. It had a few set backs, but nothing our pit crew couldn't handle.

We ended up beating the #1 team on their own turf!! Oh, the excitement!  Oh the joy! We never expected to be in Idaho, let alone beat the #1 team!! As bitter and sad as Denver was... this was so sweet and fun!

These are the four graduating seniors on the team. These guys are such great friends! Im excited to see the amazing things they will do in the future!

We also won the "Creatitivity Award".  Corrine said this means "the best use of duct tape and sharpies".  Well, she took great pride in this award since the most of the duct tape and sharpie work was  hers.  They are her favorite art medium.

Have I mentioned before that this is the best group of young adults I have ever been around? They are such great kids. I could not be prouder of them. They are so well behaved. They are so kind. The team is family.  I will forever be grateful we have had the opportunity to associate with these kids and their families.

Now... on to the worlds competition at the end of the month!