Universal Studios, Day 2

Today started out just like yesterday. We were at the park by 7:00 and walked right on to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks and then hit the Spiderman ride again. Both if these rides are super popular, and we all loved them both. But the boys liked Spiderman more (the 3-D was the deciding factor) and Maria and I liked Harry Potter better.

We hit some other rides too - Poseidon's Fury, woody woodpecker, ET, and two more times through Men in Black before having lunch at Mel's Diner. Then we ran into some trouble. The kids wanted Ben to go through ET (he sat it out the first time because he thought it might make him sick, but it turned out to be pretty mild). But ET was broken, so Sam and I went to do the Simpsons ride again, and that was broken too. Defeated, hot, and tired, we headed back to the hotel.

Ben went to the pool, but the kids stayed in the room with me. Sam even fell asleep. Around 5:00 we headed back to the park to visit everyone's favorite rides again. The wait for Harry Potter was 75 minutes, and Maria wanted to do it again, so she and I waited in line while the boys headed over to Marvel island to do the Spiderman ride again. They even got to see Spiderman himself! Maria and I only waited an hour, and we really enjoyed a slower pace through the castle - we saw several things we missed the first few times.

Once we all met up again, we headed to the other park, where we finally got to ride ET, Sam and I did The Simpsons, and the three of us rode Men in Black. We finally headed back to the hotel around 9:30.

This trip to Universal was a huge hit. Ben and I enjoyed ourselves too, even though so many rides are motion simulators that don't go well with Ben's motion sickness. So I was the parent who rode all the rides with the kids, which was the opposite the way these trips usually go for us, but I had a blast riding all the rides with the kids.

Universal Studios, Day 1

I'm updating from my phone, so this will be short.

We arrived yesterday, spent two hours waiting to get into our room, and then spent the evening at the pool. We are at the Hard Rock Hotel on Universal's site, mostly because we are so close to the park here. One perk of staying here is getting to get into the park an hour early, during which they open their two most popular rides, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and the Spiderman ride. This seemed like a great idea, until I learned yesterday that the park opens at 8, so an hour early is 7, and that meant we'd need to leave the hotel at 6:45. But Harry Potter is the main reason we came here, so we did it.

And it was so worth it. We walked right on the ride, through Hogwarts castle, and the ride was just amazing. Then we went to Olivander's wand shop, where we watched a short show and the kids each picked out wands. We rode a smaller coaster, Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a family favorite. We rode it twice and also had lunch at the Three Broomsticks, complete with Butterbeer (which the kids did not like but at least tried it).

By this time Ben was a little queasy from the rides, and tired after our early morning. He and Sam went back to the hotel for a nap and swim, and Maria wanted to stay at the parks so we did. We visited Seuss Landing and rode the Men in Black ride while the boys were gone. By this time Harry Potter area was so packed with people you couldn't even walk through it. The rest of the park was still crowded, but not that bad. The weather was hot (90 degrees) but there was a breeze all day.

At dinner time Ben and Sam joined us again, and we rode a few more rides, did some shopping, and came back to the hotel around 8:00. We are all exhausted.

The saving grace of the day has been our Express Passes, that come free since we stayed on site, but basically get you on every ride with a much shorter wait. Except the main attraction for Harry Potter. For that one you have to plan on waiting at least two hours, unless you get there at 7:00. So we are doing that again tomorrow morning. The ride is just that good. Today was the first time I've ever arrived at an amusement park before the sun is up, and I'm doing it again tomorrow.

Spring Break, Part I

Today we are in the middle of the first leg of our spring break trip.  We have been in Jekyll Island, Georgia for about 24 hours now, and so far it's been great.  It's my third time here, the first being on our honeymoon, and Ben has been here numerous times.  The trip down was pretty uneventful, although there were times on the drive when it really seemed to drag.  We left home soon after getting home from school on Friday, and made it to Hillsville, Virgina, where we checked into a Hampton Inn around 10:30 p.m.  The trip was fine, but the last two hours felt really long, even though Ben did most of the driving.  I drove for about an hour while he caught a little nap.  The advantage of the kids never sleeping in the car is that they were more than happy to go straight to bed when we got in our room and fell asleep almost immediately.

We headed out around 8:30 on Saturday morning and got here around 4:30 in the afternoon.  We drove through some very hard rains during the last three hours of the drive, and I was worried the weather would be crappy when we got here.  (Despite Ben checking the radar on his phone while I was driving and assuring us the rain would be cleared out by the time we got here).  And he was right - it was only sprinkling when we got here.  By the time we got to our room and unloaded, the rain had stopped and we went to the pool - after spending almost all of our last 24 waking hours in a car, we were ready to do something.  So we went down to the pool and swam for a bit - it was a little cool but not unbearable.  Then we walked down to the beach and the kids played in the waves for a few minutes before we headed to dinner.

We went to a local restaurant for dinner, and were pretty much the youngest people there.  But the food was great, and when we got back Ben took the kids to the pool again.  I stayed in the room - I was tired and it was a little too cool for me at the pool.  And the bugs were awful yesterday - we had to buy bug spray and I really hate bug spray.

This morning Ben and I took a sunrise run on the beach - I went 5 miles, he went 10, so we were only together for the first half mile or so.  We've spent the rest of the day at the pool and the beach.  Tomorrow (Monday - our last full day here) we are going to do a bike ride around the island and show the kids some of the more historical parts here.

We are adjusting to all living in the same room - our Hampton room here is pretty large, with a small sitting area, which helps.  It has been an adjustment all sharing a bathroom and I find myself wondering how my family of four all survived with one bathroom the entire time I was growing up.  But everyone has been getting along and there have been no fights yet.  Another weird vacation fact - at both the Hampton Inns we've stayed at, we're in Room 410.  Easy for the kids to remember, though.

So one more day at Jekyll Isalnd and then Tuesday morning we are headed to Orlando and UNiversla Studios.  There won't be anything relaxing about that part of the trip!

Kinsale St. Patrick's Day 4-Miler

Yesterday, after arriving home from OU around 3:30, Ben and I changed into our running clothes and headed out at 4:00 for a four mile race that we had already signed up for before Maria qualified for the spelling bee.  If she had moved on to Round 5 after the lunch break, we would not have made it back in time to race, but it would have been so worth it if she had made it that far!

I had been a little nervous about this race for several reasons.  The main reason was that I was worried about getting back in time to get there and get a good parking place so we didn't have to walk a long way to the car.  But I was also concerned about eating out for the 24 hours before the race, about not being in complete control of what and when I ate and drank in the hours before the race, and I was also worried that my legs would not be ready after sitting in the car for two hours prior.  I wanted to beat my 4 mile PR from last year, which was 39'24" with an average of 9'51" per mile.  Ben kept telling me I could easily beat it with all of the training I have been doing for my half marathon.  I was skeptical, as I have not had much success at keeping miles under 9'51" when I run around here, and never have strung together 4 miles at that pace.

The weather was perfect - a little cold while we were standing around waiting for the race to start, but a cool 50 degrees with a light breeze was perfect once we got running.  There were 1100 people registered for this race, and boy was it crowded.  I started a little behind the 10'00" pacers, and easily passed them in the first mile.  I just ran what felt good, and then looked at my watch and realized I was running about 9'40".  It was then that I decided to keep all of my miles under 9'51" which would mean that I would be able to beat my time from last year.  After the first 1.5 miles, the course heads onto the cart path of a golf course, which makes passing people a little more difficult.  But I just kept my pace, and when I got behind people that slowed me down, I found a way to pass them.  I got passed, too, but I did more passing then getting passed.  When we headed into the last mile, I knew I was going to be able to do it.  All of my miles had been well under 9'51" and I still felt pretty good.  When I was heading for the finish line, I saw Ben and DMC-er Brandon B. cheering me on, and that inspired me to sprint to the finish line.  I have never had enough energy to sprint to the finish line.  I felt so good after hits race I was starting to wonder if maybe I could have gone faster.

But I can't complain.  I ran a great race - I was shocked at how fast I ran and how good I felt during most of it.  My final time was 38'13", a pace of 9'34".  Over a minute better than last year's time.  I came in 429/981 runners.  This training is definitely paying off.

Ben also had an incredible race.  He wanted to beat his time from last year as well, and ended up coming in 9th place out of 981 runners!  His time was 25'37" which is an average of 6'25".  He also beat last year's time by over a minute.  Definitely a great day for us!

Regional Spelling Bee

Maria has been working very hard to learn the 1150 words given to her to study for the Regional Spelling Bee which was yesterday at OU.  These were the same words she had to learn to make it up to this point, but she had taken a much needed break for a few weeks after qualifying for this bee and has been going over the words a lot in the last two weeks.  They give the kids the origin of the words as well, and they learn different rules for spelling words form those different places, which can help them in competition as well.  Tuesday night we finally watched "Akeela and the Bee," which is about a girl from Los Angeles who overcomes obstacles to even compete in spelling bees and ends up winning the National Bee. Maria had to go through two spelling bees at Fairbanks Middle School to be the school champion, and then take an online test to qualify for the regional bee.  Only 70 out of 450 spellers passed that test. So she was competing with some really good spellers, and she was as ready as she was going to be.

The bee was at OU yesterday, with registration starting at 8:30 and the bee beginning at 10:00.  We decided to head down to Athens after school Friday and stayed in a Hampton Inn, and that way we didn't have to get up extremely early on Saturday morning (Athens is a 2-hour drive), and Maria was able to attend the bowling party for the spellers on Friday night.  Saturday morning, we got to Walter Hall a few minutes early, since we weren't sure about parking and thought we might have to walk from somewhere else on campus.  But we were early enough that parking wasn't a problem.  It turned out being early worked to our advantage - we were able to secure a spot to watch in the second row when many parents ended up having to stand - there were a lot of people there.  The bad news was that we were in our seats at 8:30 and the bee didn't start until 10:00.  Maria spent the time looking over her words and Sam played on his ipod.  I wish I could say the time flew by but it didn't, although we were so lucky that Sam was so patient all day and didn't really complain at all, I thought all that sitting around watching the other spellers wasn't good for Maria's nerves.

Finally the bee started.  All 69 contestants were seated in rows facing the audience - sorted alphabetically by school name.  Then a row of five kids would stand, walk to the mike, and spell the word given to them.  The difference in the kids was amazing.  It was for grades 5-8, so some boys were hardly bigger than Sam, and some 8th grade boys were almost twice their size.  There were also a couple of boys who seemed to be at least slightly autistic (Maria had to sit by one of them), and many nationalities were represented, although the majority of kids were white.  There were some kids who had been trained to ask every question they were allowed of the reader before attempting to spell the word.  Seriously, the first round words were easy (Maria's was "karma"), and these kids still asked for definition, country of origin, and alternate pronunciations, sometimes more than once.  It was annoying, and I was happy to see Maria make it farther than some of those kids.  I understand if it was a difficult word, but many of those first round words were not.  So after the first round, maybe 5 or 6 kids missed their word, but the majority of kids were still in it.  Round two started, and the words were harder, although still not too bad.  Maria's word was "mascara," but some were harder than that.  So much of the spelling bee is luck - some words are just easier that others, even if they're in the same round, and some kids didn't seem to have much of a chance.

After Round 2 there were about 50 kids left, the bee had been going on for over an hour and they took the first break.  Maria came up to us, in a great mood, and her first words to me were, "This is so exciting!"  So the nerves that we could see before the bee started were gone and she was just happy to still be a part of it.  To me, that attitude was important and made the experience a good one for her, no matter what happened next.

After the break, Round 3 commenced and the audience was noticeably thinner, as the kids who had been eliminated and their parents left.  Maria's third round word was "insipid."  That wasn't on the study sheets (after Round 2 any word was fair game).  I could tell she wasn't certain how to spell it as she asked for the country of origin (Latin - which I thought might help since she's taking an online Latin class "for fun"), definition, and for the word to be pronounced again.  She started off "I-N," then pause, and I'm sending her "Say s, say s" thoughts, and then she decides on "S-I-P-I-D."  Pause as the moderator gives a slight nod (they ding a bell when you're wrong, when you're right there is silence while the audience tries to decided if the word was spelled correctly before they applaud) and Maria breathed a sigh of relief and heads back to her seat.  Later she told me she guessed as she had never heard that word before.

Round 3 was rough - it was down to 25 kids - about half were eliminate during that round.  When Round 4 began, the gloves were off and most of the words were very difficult - many I had never even heard of, although the occasional easy word slipped through.  Maria's word was "veracity."  She asked for definition, country of origin, for the word to be pronounced again, but in the end spelled "voracity." She had never heard of "veracity," and so she went with the word she knew.  And then we heard the sound of the dreaded bell, and she had to go sit in the back with the other kids who had missed a word in Round 3 or 4. She was very disappointed, of course, but we are so proud of her for making it that far.  There were 21 kids left when she got eliminated, and only 15 kids left at the end of Round 4.  These students represented 33 counties in Ohio, and to make it to the final third was a pretty big accomplishment.


 Luckily for us, they took a lunch break at the end of the round so Maria didn't have to watch too much of the bee of which she was no longer a part.  We picked up her certificate and left, as Ben and I had an evening race in Dublin that we had signed up for before she qualified for the bee.  In the car, we were able to laugh about things that had happened, and although Maria was disappointed, she was also able to laugh and talk about it.  We stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut (Maria's choice), and then left Athens behind.  Maybe the next time one of our kids has to go to a college campus for a competition, it could be at Miami.

Tubing!

Today we took the kids tubing at Mad River Mountain.  It's becoming a winter tradition - this is the third winter we've gone.  Last winter we went with the Smiths, and tried to make that happen again this year, but we just could not find a date we were all free.  So just the four of us went today.  The weather was perfect - 35 degrees and partly sunny, although it was little too windy.  The snow this year was all man-made, and boy was it fast.  The crowd was light, which is why we go on Sunday mornings, and we made it down the hill 9-10 times before leaving after over two hours.

Time for Change

Last night we learned that the kids' piano teacher is going to stop teaching lessons in April.  This was hard news for us, as both Maria and Sam love Missy, and I'm pretty sure their love (Maria) and like (Sam) of piano playing is due to their teacher.  Missy has made piano playing fun while teaching them the skills they need.  She has always been great at working with our schedule and communicating with Ben and I when needed.  Missy started Maria on piano in the summer of 2005, and Sam started in the summer of 2009, and is the only piano teacher they've had.  I guess what I'm trying to say is we're going to miss her.  A lot.  The kids both shed some tears when we told them this afternoon.  Here is what Missy wrote about them in her email alerting us of this change:

Your kids have been an absolute JOY to teach! That’s what makes this so hard. I just love them to pieces. Maria is hard-working, diligent, with a lot of personal drive. She has turned from a little sweetheart to a beautiful young lady before my very eyes! Sam has fun with piano, as only a little guy can, while having the tenacity and determination of his sister. I look forward to his lesson every week! We laugh and enjoy our time together. Your kids have stolen my heart which makes this really hard.

So tomorrow we start looking for a new piano teacher, and are hopeful that this will be an easy transition for the kids.

Pinewood Derby

Last Sunday was the annual "Scout Sunday," where the Cub Scouts attend and take part in the church service at their home church, which is followed by a cake auction, potluck lunch, and the Pinewood Derby.  It's always a long day, made worse by the fact that its Super Bowl Sunday.  But its gotten more bearable (for us) over the years as Sam (and us) now have friends in the troop, and the boys are all so excited about their Pinewood Derby cars that its cute to watch.  Ben and Sam worked on the car off and on for about a month.  The theme for his car this year was "Wind" (the last two years were "Lightning" and "Fire," always a natural element - he even has his plan for his next two cars).  Sam helped do some of the spray painting this year, and is very involved of how the car looks.  Ben does most of the work to make certain the car runs well.  And Sam always puts a LEGO character on the car - this year it was Sensei Wu, a Ninjago LEGO that impressed many of the other boys. Sam's car made it to the top six cars this year, but only the top three winners get trophies.  Still, that was an impressive finish with almost 50 cars competing, and he was happy. 

Regional Qualifying Speller!

Monday we learned that Maria scored high enough to qualify for the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication Regional Spelling Bee.  She was declared the winner from FMS about a month ago, and that earned her a qualification opportunity which was done here with a teacher online.  She scored 44 out of 50 words, and anyone who scored a 41 or above moved on to the regional competition.  There were 70 spellers who qualified, and these 70 spellers will compete at the regional spelling bee.  The winner of that competition earns an all expense paid trip to Washington DC to compete in the national spelling bee.

The regional competition will be on Saturday, March 10 at OU (unfortunately) and we are making a family trip out of it.  Since it starts at 8:30 a.m., we are going down Friday night and spending the night in a hotel.  The competition is supposed to end around lunchtime, and Ben and I are already registered to run in a 4 mile race late Saturday afternoon, so we are hoping to be back in time for that.

Maria has worked very hard to learn all the words on her study list - hundreds of words.  Her teacher said she has never had anyone "take the initiative to work as hard as Maria did" for this.  Regardless of how she does at the regional competition, we are so proud of her for making it this far.

Basketball Season

Sam is playing basketball again this winter, and even though its his 4th season playing, its been much different this year.  In the kindergarten through second grade league, kids played half-court, with the nets lowered to 8 feet, and very easygoing refereeing.  This year, 3rd and 4th graders play full court, with the nets at regulation height, and two referees per game who call everything.  So it's been quite an adjustment for the younger kids.  Sam has a practice once a week, where the kids learn actual plays instead of just practicing shooting and dribbling skills.  I think its been a good learning experience for Sam, but he, along with the other third graders, are still adjusting to the new pace of these games.  Sam has yet to make a shot during a game, but has improved and even stole the ball from another player last week and dribbled it to the basket.  Even though he didn't make the shot, it was still an awesome play.