ROBOTS

What a weekend!  Robots weekends are some of my favorite of the year. This past weekend, our robotics team competed in the Utah regional. What fun! I love that kids hang out with their friends. 

I loved watching Sariah help with the field set up/clean up.  She was running for 3 days straight!

I loved watching Corrine do hard things. She overcame a huge fear and represented our team well.

Kate loved learning how to drive on another robot. She is ready for the big time! She does ask how much longer till she can be on the team... only 10 more years.... so....

Driving takes A LOT of concentration. So much that its impossible to keep your tongue inside. 

Kate had fun teaching Greta all about the proper techniques for cheering on the team. Train em' young, right?

Hayden and Kate LOVE to go down to the "pits" to collect buttons. Its pretty much like trick or treating for geeks.

 We loved having Aunt Karen and her kids join us!

I love watching Keith be the coach. He is so good at what he does. He is so good to work with the kids and help them think about how to build the robot and then how to compete with the robot. 

I am not the only one to recognize how good he is at what he does. The kids wrote and essay about him and submitted it as part of the competition. He was nominated for the Woody Flowers award... which is basically for the best coach or mentor. Keith won!  He won a major award!!  He is the first coach from Utah to win this award. Yep, its cool.

It was kind of funny when he won though. He did not participate in the "mentor parade". When they called his name, he wasn't even there! I think that shows what a good coach he is.  He wants to be where the robot is. He wants to be where the kids are.  He doesn't want to be in a parade to show off how cool he is for being a mentor.  He is a coach of the people... er.. kids... the team.  He is with the team.

We also won the "Creativity" award. We aren't exactly sure how that happened.  Our use of sharpie marker and duct tape was unusually low this year. No matter, an award is always nice to get. 

As the weekend went on, we only lost one match in the qualification rounds. We ended up finishing 2nd overall which is pretty darn cool. We also won a ticket to the World Championship in Texas!  Ya, thats pretty cool as well.

Kate just loves Keith... major award or not. 

At the end of the robot build season, I start to think we should quit this stuff. We should just be done. But then I go to competitions and see the kids. I see how they work together. I see how good Keith is at this. I see the lessons my kids are learning. I see the friends my kids have made. PrototypeX is family. We have been so blessed to be a part of this group of people. I will never be able to repay all that ProtoypeX has given me and my family.