Science Olymiad Regionals

On Saturday, Kevin competed in Science Olympiad regional competitions in Madison.  He competed in four events, two of which he took on in the last couple of weeks.  He had a geocaching event, a tower building event, a levitating magnetic vehicle event, and timed gravity vehicle event.

His team won a silver medal in Gravity Vehicle, where they needed to send a vehicle down a ramp, and try to stop it at a specified location.  He also won a bronze medal in Mag Lev, where the vehicle moves down a ramp on fans while it is levitating with magnets.  The vehicle also pulls a sled with weight on it.

Kevin and his high school team are now on to the state competition.  Way to go!

Merrell Kids Trail Glove Review

Zack has been waiting a long time for these shoes, the Merrell Trail Glove Kids.  He has been searching stores for several months, and he finally found them at REI last weekend. He chose the flashier blue color over the gray.  So excited about his purchase, he of course needed to wear them to school yesterday.

 
As soon as he got in the Jeep after school, he handed out his review.  "They are really light and the bottom is flat, so it makes you run fast.  The bottom is shaped like your feet, so it's like running with no shoes.  They are like wearing socks"  Sounded like he put them to the test at school.  He raced another kid across the playground to show how fast his shoes were.  Zack lost, but he said the other kid was breathing really hard when he crossed the line, which according to Zack was because the other kid's shoes were so heavy.

Summary:  Zack thinks the shoes are awesome.

Madison Winter Festival

Satuday the 18th was the day for running races at the Madison Winter Festival.  Zack and I were both signed up to run and my mom came along to supervise us and take pictures. Zack ran first and I went along with at his request. He ran a good race pushing hard until the end. If I'm lucky the new shoes he is reviewing, post coming soon, will have him interested in the 5k next month. I ran a good race even with a sore foot, 22:36 is the fastest I've run a 5k so far.

                                              Zack and I nearing the finish of the kids race.

                              That is Zack's award, a squishy penguin, not the medal he was expecting.

Zack and I before the 5k race.

Thanks mom for coming along and standing in the cold.