Closing Day of the First Championship

Wow, it has been quite a week.  Today we watched the top FLL teams compete in a tournament, and then we watched the top presentations.  They were awesome.  We have come away with great aspirations for next year.  They gave out the High 5 awards and the teams created the longest High 5 line I have ever seen.  It stretched at least a football field long!

 

We went out for some traditional bar-b-q at lunch.  Whoa boy, did we get Texas sized portions.  But it was crazy good.

We then went back to the convention center for the Award Ceremonies.  It was awesome to see all the teams from America and other countries come together and congratulate each other on a job well done.

The closing ceremonies were held at Minute Maid Park (where we watched the Astros play.  They set up the Tech Challenge field and the Robotics Field so we got to watch their championship matches.  They were awesome!!!!  Most of the boys want to build bigger robots.  They are definitely looking forward to being old enough to start a Robotics team.  So start saving parents.  We looked it up and it costs $4-5,000 dollars just to register not including the cost of the robot.:)  On a side note:  It was cool to see Will.i.am at the ceremony.  He gives out an award every year, too bad he didn't sing.

 This picture is from the freeway right before the turnoff to our rental.  The over passes are lit and they turn the whole rainbow of colors.  I


We came home and cleaned up ready for our flight.  We are now ready to get up at 3:30am to begin the trek home.

See you soon!

Competition Day!

We came, we saw, and we conquered.  The boys have had a ball!  Really, there has been no down time.  Everything about this World Championship has been go, go, go.  You get to meet so many people.  You learn about their projects, you get to see their robot designs, and you talk and get to know them.  Each boy met people from all different countries and states.  It really is awesome to think of all the interactions they have had.  The Innovation Faire was an all time favorite.  They were able to go and see awesome experiments (I bet they all want the supplies to do some at home!), be introduced to new concepts, and fall in love with bits of technology and of course new legos.  They also got to tour the older groups "pits" (which are their display and holding areas) from the Tech Challenge.
Our boys did great today.  They learned a lot (well we figured out a lot) about their robot.  It did great in practice today, but did not deliver in competition.  It was heartbreaking, but they all have great attitudes.  This is where the core values kick in ;).

Waiting to take the field

 At our 1st comp.

At the practice table.

 The other team practicing was from Peru.

 Getting ready for the 2nd round.

 After we did a bit of clean up in our pit, we decided to have some fun tonight.  We found a beach about a half hour away and headed off straight from the convention center.  We skipped the 1/2 trip home to get swimming suits, because hey they can dry, right!?  Some boys were more hesitant to get in at first, but they all ended up trying to jump the waves.  We walked the fishing pier and had a great time letting the boys jump into the Gulf of Mexico and have a relaxing evening.  On the way home, we stopped off at a buffet that gave everyone something that they like.

A very tall bridge over an inlet to let the freighters travel through.

 Funny thing, right after we took the picture, a wave came up and soaked the boys shoes.

It didn't take long to just dive right in.       

 Some went right into the water to get in a good  swim.  I think Caleb is a fish.

 Getting the sand castle going on, just before high tide washed it away.

 All the boys got in and were wave jumping.

 Here is the flock of birds that a lady was feeding so she could take pictures.  Karma happened to Justin and he ended up with bird poop on his shirt! :)

 Walking the fishing pier, it was perfect weather for a stroll.

 It is impossible to get a picture with all the boys looking in the same direction.

 There were parts of oil refineries all over where we drove through.

We look forward to the finalists tournament where  we get to see the best robot designs and attachments.  We also get to see the best presentations.

Watch LIVE

First Championship Channels

Our first competition is at 8:55 am Central Time.
I will text or put on here which camera will be on them once I get to the Competition area and count out the tables.
Almost every practice round was on time, so leave some time to get the website up.

1st Official Day at the First Championships.

 My humidified lens this morning.  Oh it was way too early to wake up this morning!

We started off the day right into Practice Competition.  What a wake up call to why we are here.  We definitely had a few glitches, but the boys were great in taking it in stride.  They definitely practice their core values today in prepping and supporting each other.
Here is a view from the scoring table I was sitting at.  Our team is right at the first of the short clip, on the right.  8 tables go at one time.  Then there are 8 tables that get set up and go right after.  There were 106 teams that practiced today.

 Here the boys are huddled up at their team practice for their Core Values Presentation.  They spent the early afternoon practicing and then presenting their projects.

 This is right outside of the Convention Center.

 Group photo

 Opening Ceremonies was tonight.  Here some of the boys are playing ping pong

 And then some are playing soccer.

We ended the park a bit early.  The boys were tired.  We went out to Olive Garden and then back to the house to sit and be still.  It was very nice to come home earlier tonight.  We have to be back at it, leaving at 7am again.

First Day in Houston

It was setup day at the First Championship.  The best way to describe it, remember the part in Harry Potter where they get to the Quidditch match and all the people are wandering around the tents, people are chanting, music is playing, and there is a lot of meet and greet.  That is exactly what Setup is like in the Pits of the FLL league.

We start the day a bit slower.  Needed food, so we took a shopping trip down the street, and decided that when you are hungry a parking lot is a great place to have breakfast.

 We set up our booth.  We are a bit out of our league.  There were some awesome setups!  The boys had an afternoon of fun meeting people from across the world.

Here are a few picks Mason took as they looked at everything.

Now off to dinner.

We were exhausted by the time we hit the Astro's game.  We stayed until the end of the 7th.  Luckily we were able to see a homerun!