We went out in the pouring rain on Sunday to walk through the mud (Katy in shorts, flip flops, and a short sleeved shirt) and cut down our Christmas tree. After we let it dry out enough, we trimmed it last night. (The kids and Elizabeth did, I just took pictures.)
Notice Katy is in almost every picture. She wouldn’t let me take a picture without her in it.
Margaret (and the rest of the Reassembling Robots) did well enough at the Google FLL tournament to make it to the next level. This tournament was much more like the first round tournaments that the kids have been to. The judging seemed more similar to those tournaments as well. It was an ALL day event and our team didn’t advance, but they still had fun and it was a good experience.
We travelled back to Mississippi for turkey day again this year. It was great seeing my family. My cousin and uncle showed up. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins (we don’t get to do this enough). Caught up with old friends and all in all had a great time. I even was able to get the whole family groped by the TSA. Lots of the pictures are of my first cousin once removed, I let his mom borrow my camera and she got a lot of good shots.
They did it!! Our FLL team has just one the best project award at their first round FLL competition at Google. They invented a “Spider Cast”. It is a brace that allows you to walk without putting weight on your lower leg. They are moving on to the regional level competition on either 12/4 or 12/5. We’ll see where it goes from here. They are trying to improve for the next competition.
Katy started driving today. I think if you are in another state you might be safe (but don’t count on it). Here, once she has her permit, she has to have an hour with a professional instructor (she did that today) before she can drive with us. She has 4 more hours with the instructor and then she has to log 50 hours (10 at night) with us in the next 6 months then she can get her license. By they way, those are chorizo stains on her permit.
Margaret has finished her first season of running cross country at her middle school. She ended up getting 9th in her group at the league championships. She was able to go to the Silicon Valley championships as well. Her times got better and better each meet. She got most improved. I think she would have done better if the distances had been a little longer as well. All of the meets were about 1.5 miles.
We picked up Katy and Margaret from camp yesterday. It turns out that Katy got “peed” on by a bat, now she is getting shots for rabies. It turns out that rabies is transferred by saliva and the drop landed near her eye, so just in case, she is getting the shots. The other thing about rabies is that once you have symptoms, it is too late.
Just a few pictures from one of our evening sojourns to the end of the canyon. Also, here are a few pictures of the flowers in our backyard.
Because we had planned a quick trip, we didn’t have much time to spend in Yellowstone. I think we saw a lot in a short period of time. We managed to see lots of big animals (Buffalo, Elk, Deer, and a Moose), lots of thermal features, and the Tetons.
We got up early and were on the road around 7am. We made our way to Norris Geyser Basin. We came up over a hill and there it was a huge field with steam rising from everywhere. Margaret made the comment that it must be hard to tell if there is a forest fire because of all the steam always rising from everywhere. It turned out that we were pretty much the only people in the basin while we were there. After we had been there a while, a few other families showed up. Here we saw a few geysers spewing from time to time, and lots of hot springs.
After that, we made our way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Again, we were there before it was crowded at all, so we got to wander around Artists Point without too much distraction. We made our way further into the park stopping and seeing various things along the way. The thing I was most interested in was the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was about as I expected really cool, but you need to be about 100 feet above it to get a really good picture. The springs are varying in color because where they are hottest, no bacteria can live, as the water cools down, bacteria of different colors live in the water.
As we made our way further into the park, it got later and we had to deal with more people. By the time we got to Old Faithful, it was pretty crowded. But all in all not as bad as it could have been. After spending a little time around Old Faithful, we made our way down by Yellowstone Lake and through Grand Teton National Park and spent the night in Jackson, WY. A very full day, but very enjoyable.
After Missoula, we made our way to Yellowstone. The first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. We stayed in the old hotel there in the park, saw some elk, learned a little bit about the thermal features of Yellowstone. The biggest hit was something called the Boiling River. It is a place where a pretty sizable hot spring flows into a river. With the river water being very cold and the hot spring being very hot, you can sit where they merge and find exactly the right temperature that you desire. It is a hot tub without the chlorine. If you ever make it to Yellowstone, find this. It was the highlight of the day.