Raffle Winners!

Thank you to EVERYONE who purchased a raffle ticket to help us get to Atlanta! Winners were drawn on Sunday, April 25th -

• 09 Honda four wheeler- Scotts Track and Wheel Winner: Sheila Peterson
• Dell Laptop- donated by MT Technical Solutions Winner: Kathy Adkins
• Two Fort Peck 2010 Theatre Season Passes-donated Winner: Curt Clampitt
• Black an...d Decker Drill- donated by Farhlys Winner: James Fewer
• $200 Groceries- donated by Gordons Foods Winner: Serena Heig
• Troy Bilt Brush Cutter- donated by Agland Coop, Nashua Winner: Keith Bennett
• $200 Gas- donated by Jody's Conoco Winner: Sarah Fauth
• Wheel Alignment- donated by Glasgow Auto Safety Center Winner: Vern Steiner

Day 7 - Awards, Festival and Dessert

Today's pictures are here!

We didn't have to get up real early this morning, which was nice (although it was still early). We chose to leave the hotel and have a regular breakfast today instead of the hotel provided stuff. We found a cafe not far away, and the food was good! Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs - and everyone tried a little grits! The team has been fantastic at trying new foods. While there, we noticed that they had some amazing cakes and pies and decided we needed to come back later for dessert!

Heading to the GWCC, we arrived at our closing ceremony. It is always fun to see the big table full of LEGO trophies. All the teams were announced and got to run across the stage and all were given World Festival medals. We watched all the awards, and cheered for several teams that we had gotten to know over the week. We did not bring home a trophy, and of course the team was a little disappointed. But, we learned so much and we all realize that we are winners just for making it and being there.

We ventured over to the FIRST closing ceremony next. There we got to see the semi-finals of the FRC (the big robots). Pretty exciting! They basically are playing a robot game of soccer, at the end of the match to earn more points the robots have to attach to a pole and lift themselves in the air. Very interesting all the ideas and ways that the teams chose to do this last part.

There were many speakers, including the Director of NASA, a taped message from Bill Gates, Dean Kamen, etc. The FRC and FTC awards were handed out, then we went on to the festival!

FIRST goes all out for the closing festival! There was a full carnival of "bouncy" things to do, batting cages, games, karaoke, and more! A great dinner, free pop (Coke of course!), and it ended with a great fireworks display. The kids all split into groups and ran around doing as many things as they could.

We left the festival and headed for dessert. Wow, the cakes and pies were wonderful! While there, we also listened to more karaoke singers, and even danced with some people until they kicked us out of the bar area. It was fun, the kids were actually getting a little rhythm!

Another late night, but totally worth it.

THANKS again for all your support and for reading about our trip!

Day 6 - Competition and Baseball

We should title this one - RUN! Seems as those we never had a chance to catch our breath today!

See today's pictures here!

We left the hotel at 6:45 this morning. Because our robot competition time as one of the first ones, we had to be there early so we could sit in a special place at the opening ceremonies. The ceremony started out with a drum line marching in. That was pretty cool. Next came some remarks from Woodie Flowers (the National Advisor for FIRST) and Dean Kamen (founder of First and the inventor of the Segway). An interesting fact we learned is that in 1998 only a small fraction of people were employed in Engineering, Math, Science and Computer skills. With the help of programs like FIRST, that number is now almost 60%.

Our first robot run went ok. We received 175 points. Our trouble mission worked partially, but lost the loops on the way back to base. We then had a call back for another judging session. We were called back to the teamwork judging. The kids seem to enjoy the judging sessions so they do pretty well.

We quickly headed back to the competition table, and this time scored a 105. Two missions bombed out on us. But, as usual the team was still proud of everyone and cheered and congratulated everyone for their effort.

A quick lunch, a time or two on the practice mat, then back to our final round. Our trouble mission worked GREAT and we almost missed the rest of the match just jumping and hugging each other! We scored 210 points. Although we came in 76 out of 86 teams, we are very proud of our efforts. We do realize that we need to step up our robot design and use of sensors. We saw some fantastic examples and can't wait to see if we can put the ideas to use.

Our competition day ended about 2:30 and we rushed off to the Atlanta Braves baseball game. We were really early, but it was nice sitting in the outer area enjoying the sun. Several of the kids played a little catch and some frisbee. As game time got closer, and vendors, etc starting showing up - we noticed a radio station setting up a remote broadcast. Our talker (Ryleigh) headed over there and asked if we could be on the radio! They said yes, and gave the kids some freebie stuff and then they got a "shout out" to Montana and got to give the station id.

Into the game, and the first stop - hot dogs of course! Then off to our seats. WOWWWW is all we can say. THANK YOU to Agland Co-op for purchasing us field level sets at third base. We were literally at the Colorado Rockies dug out. We got to catch a couple of balls thrown from the players, and even got some autographs! We even got to see our name in lights! THANK you to our parents for the note on the light boards! We were very excited to see it! The game was great - the Braves won and we even got to see a home run. The night ended was a great fireworks show!

In all, a fantastic day for us!!

Stay tuned

It's 1am and we just got home from the Atlanta Braves game.... too pooped to blog! Will catch up hopefully in the morning!

Pictures - well, having some issues there. Will try to fix that too. I don't know where day 4 pictures disappeared to!

Day 5 - FIRST World Festival

Wow. Wow. Wow. Amazing. Today was the first day of the World Festival.

Pictures are available here!

We started off fairly early this morning as we had our judging. First was project, then technical, then teamwork. Janet and Patti did not go in judging rooms, we didn't want to distract the kids - but that is so hard cause all we want to do is peek in! We did hear bits and pieces at each session, and are very proud of our team. The kids talked a lot (although they do need to speak up!) and really represented themselves well. When we asked the team how they did, they told us they "rocked". Must have done well, as they have been called back to judging on Saturday! We don't know for what area - but the kids will go back and talk with the judges again.

When we returned to the pit area, everyone scattered! Visiting other pits, talking to members of other teams, trading pins, playing games, etc. Ryleigh has the pin trading down! I think she has the most - and talks to everyone!! We were really proud of Jordan and Shaylin who at one point during the day stood at our pit and encouraged people to try our trivia, add their star to our map, and gave out brochures. We took some time to visit the First Tech Challenge, and First Robotic Challenge pits. Now those are some cool robots!

After a quick lunch out in the amazing warm, sunny afternoon, we had our robot practice rounds. We did ok, not the best we have ever done - but the kids still encouraged each other and remembered to rerun when needed. I believe we had 110 and 105 rounds. There were a few 400 point rounds we saw on the score boards, and we have seen some REALLY cool robots.

One of our missions (morgan/natasha's) isn't cooperating with us even though we thought we fixed it before we left. We spent the rest of the time until the pit closed with Morgan, Sandy, and RJ working on fixing it. Not sure if we did as we ran out of pit time. It's ok, we will do our best with what we have!

The FLL opening ceremonies were after that. Several teams from around the world did songs, dance, etc. We also got free ice cream!

Back to the hotel now - showers and bed on the agenda!

Thank you all for your support and comments (you can leave comments on the blog for the kids!) So, want to see us in action? You can! Nasa is broadcasting LIVE from the event! We are in the Einstein area, and will be there MONTANA TIME - 8:25am, 9:55am, 12 Noon. They do NOT run late - so be sure to "tune in" a few minutes early!

Check it out - click here!

Day 4 - Fish and Foreign Countries!

Another bright sunny day here in Atlanta. We are sure it got to over 80 degrees.

Today's pictures are here!

We slept in a little this morning, and then headed for the Georgia Aquarium. We were told that this is the largest aquarium in the world. It was pretty big - one of the "tanks" is as big as a football field. This aquarium was a gift to Georgia from one of the owners of Home Depot - given to them free of debt, etc. We saw penguins, and touched many sea creatures - including shrimp. Our favorite part was the huge aquarium that holds 4 whale sharks, several Manta Rays and lots of other fish. We thought it was cool that many of the smaller fish are "Nascar Fish", they "draft" the whale sharks so they don't have to swim. One of the people working there used to live in Choteau! We seem to find Montanans all over!

Next we headed over to the Sun Dial restaurant. 72 stories in the air, the restaurant rotates slowly while you dine so you can see the whole city. AMAZING! The food was really good - and it was great for us to have a special "fancy" meal.

Finally, we headed to the Georgia World Congress Center to sign in and get started with why we are here, the FIRST World Festival. We have already met so many teams from around the world. Our Teamwork Alliance team is from Ottawa, Canada. Next to us is New Zealand. We have traded pins with many people, and still have more yet to meet! One of the teams, from Egypt, are all deaf. It was fun learning to communicate with them.

We headed out to the CNN Center after the pits closed to get something to drink, and hung out there awhile - and eventually grabbed some dinner. I think there were more people in that small area than there are in all of Valley County. Teams eating, people coming to go to an Atlanta Hawks game, and others just there. Wow - lots of people.

Back to our hotel, we practiced our skit - talked about what to expect over the next couple of days - and a reminder that just by being here, we are already winners. Have fun, enjoy the experience. Our first judging is at 9:15 am, so early to bed tonight!

Day 3 - Ends with a smile

Blog today courtesy of Ryan S.

Today's pictures are here!

Another great warm day! This morning we went to the zoo. We went rock climbing, rode a mini train, and a carousel. We also saw lots of animals and exhibits. (Warthogs are really kind of ugly!)

After the zoo we went to the cyclorama. It was a giant oil painting (over a 100 years old) that had a painting of the battle of Atlanta from the civil war, in addition it had a diorama that was blended in with it, that gave it a real 3d feel. It had bleachers that rotated around so you could see the whole painting.

We then went to a really good restaurant that had amazing bbq (although I don't like bbq, everyone else liked it) the place kinda reminded us of home, and after that the taxi driver took us on a small tour and we learned all about the stadiums and the Olympics. (we even saw a car crash that involved a Highway Patrol), we even went to the old Fulton County stadium (the old Braves stadium) and saw the part of fence that Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run over. They also had the whole diamond lined with bricks and we ran the bases.

Back in the hotel, we played a little hallway soccer - and soon it will be bedtime!