Joshua had his piano recital today! We brought Great grandma and that was nice.
Afterwards we went to a Christmas party. Isaac and Joshua joined in the grab this year and it was fun. Joshua opened a blanket. We don't need more blankets. Ben kindly stole the blanket from Joshua so he could get something more fun. And what does Joshua do? Steals another blanket because it was super soft. Ben and I rolled our eyes at each other.
In the end I got some mind teasers, Isaac picked up a game (that we brought), and Joshua had a blanket. Ben had the blanket at the end, but the candy that we brought ended up with some people that didn't want candy. So we switched and were both very happy.
We all went to South Bend today for Isaac's final competition. It was so nice to have a comp 'close' to home! We were able to get stuff done this morning and still be home in time for dinner.
This was yet a different format: complete isolation. He went in through a different door and wasn't allowed to even look at the wall until his four minutes started. It wasn't my favorite format. I haven't asked Isaac what he thought about it yet. Also, scoring seemed a little off during this competition. There were several routes that we all thought Isaac should have gotten the next milestone but he didn't get credit. He coach was very supportive afterwards; giving information as to why things might have been scored like they were.
He was in the zone. He completely ignored us while waiting for his turn.
Route 1: Isaac did well and got low zone. I thought he got zone but he didn't actually use the hold so it didn't count.
Route 2: I don't have any pictures. This was a rough one for a lot of climbers. His coach thought he should have had low-zone, but the judges didn't. It was a jump to a big, hard to grab onto hold. Isaac was trying a different way that worked as well as jumping, but he used the hold.
Route 3: this was a run and jump, and Isaac is still working on dynamic moves.
Route 4: oh, this was probably his best one. He learned some things, and really got pretty far. If he had two more minutes he would have probably gotten zone, but he works through things slowly. However, he did make progress with every attempt and it was a fun one to finish on. He got low zone and thought he had zone, but the judges didn't give it to him.
Luckily, while the competitions are done, team isn't! Isaac enjoys the practices more than the competitions. Some athletes will get to go to regionals in January and then a top rope season starts. Isaac doesn't love top rope, so we probably won't go to any competitions. (Also, there are only a total of three. The closest in Indy and Detroit, but those are still a drive.)
The week: classes finished. There's a ton of grading to do. There was a snow day. Ben stayed home with the kids. Isaac has a lot of work. We have a busy weekend coming up.
I made some porch pots with Jamie and Cheryl this evening. It was pretty fun. I thought it'd be interesting, but it was more fun than I expected. I decided to put it on the deck because then I get to see it more. As I was bringing through the house Horizon was very excited to eat it. Very excited.
First of all, it snowed on and off throughout the day. (I thought it was going to melt, but now it might not happen right away.) While we did have a dusting last week, this is the first real snow.
We finished up Joshua's D&D campaign. It had a few quirks, but overall was really cool. Isaac, the mage, got a spell called "fire surg". Instead of reading it as intended, Isaac kept saying "fire surg". After correcting him several times Joshua finally said that Isaac would lose health if he said it wrong again. Well, I had a question and used fire surg (it was somewhat appropriate for the question, but also I wasn't thinking), and so I suddenly lost a health point! It was fair.
We also were attacking some purple gems. I hit it with one of my golden drumsticks: 1 pt of damage for me. I hit it again: 2pts of damage for me. Oh well, I was done at that point. Then Ben said, "so how does this increase? Plus one damage each time? Double? ...Exponential?" At which point I had the loudest hiccup and everyone laughed at my surprise. (It was double by the way.)
I also have a cold. Probably the one that Joshua had earlier this week. It's not much fun.
The kids didn't have school today, so we had a pretty easy day. We got the Christmas decorating started. Joshua was excited to put stuff up; he just kind of put of this or that but slowly made progress. He also put up the Christmas tree!
Isaac did the upstairs lights. They're awesome. I didn't get any pictures (yet), but lights are everywhere.
We finally gave Ben his birthday presents, although we haven't actually sung Happy Birthday yet. Maybe tomorrow.
We went rock climbing, hoping to see some of Isaac's friends. However, it was busier than normal. Joshua didn't love it, but it meant that Isaac was willing to belay me.
We went to Red Rock with family to celebrate birthdays for dinner; it was lovely.
