You can make history (young again)

Here are a few photos from Lisa's National History Day experience. Way too much happened in five days to fit in one post, so this will probably end up as three or for entries. If I get around to it.

For the competition, kids can enter exhibits, papers, Web sites, documentaries, or performances that have to do with a particular historical theme. This year, the theme was Innovations in History. Each state can send up to two entries for each of the five categories, individual or group, in junior and senior divisions. So, there are up to 20 entries from each state (plus some other regions like Guam and Samoa), for a potential total of over 1000 entries. They said that including participants, parents, teachers, and judges, there were about 8000 people in attendance. It was pretty crazy.

Lisa and her partner Sarah did a group performance in the Junior division, and were one of 79 entries. They didn't make the cut as one of the 14 finalists, but I thought they did a great job in their performance.

Anyway, here are some photos from the NHD-related parts of the trip.

In the airport -- Lisa's trademark cool look.



The student union building at the University of Maryland. This building was kind of the NHD headquarters. Registration was here, as well as all the exhibits and some of the performances. It was always packed.



The building where Lisa and Sarah did their presentation.



Hanging out with Kermit and Jim Henson in front of the student union building.



Lisa and Sarah with the Idaho banner at the opening ceremony.



Lisa looking cool in front of the student union building.



One of the 25 existing copies of the original Declaration of Independence, printed the evening of July 4, 1776, on display at UM as part of NHD.



One NHD tradition is for the kids to bring pins that represent their home state, and then trade them with other kids. Here is Lisa's hat after trading pins with kids from several dozen states.



The crowd at the closing awards ceremony. They gave awards for the top two places in each category, plus some special sponsored award (like "best exhibit related to naval history"). Some of the special awards were pretty hefty -- the History Channel sponsored five $5000 awards, some universities gave full four-year tuition scholarships, and two teachers (including one from Idaho) won $10000 grants.



Back to Aunt Debbie's house, tired but happy!


And some bonus photos of the Maryland cousins that we don't get to see so often.

Graduation

Here are some photos of Rachel's big day.

It was a good ceremony. It wasn't too long, and the talks were all good and interesting. It was very nice.

A couple of things I noticed that were different from the last time I remember actually paying much attention at a graduation (which has been a while...) -- there was no mention of valedictorians etc. either in the ceremony or printed in the program. Also, there was no opening or closing prayers. I wonder when they stopped doing that?

Anyway, on with the photos...

The candidates march in.


Rachel in the crowd.

Heading toward the stand, pausing for an official photo.

Rachel's moment in the spotlight. Her shoes kind of stand out, don't they?

Going across the stand, take two. This time she's escorting a friend who needed some extra support.

It's official! Time to toss the caps...



Afterwards, with friends.



With grandparents.

Planting one on Daniel...

...who is not really into that sort of thing. :)

With the siblings.

With the family.

Extended family.



Just goofing around.





Congratulations!!!!!

Congratulations

Lisa has been busy lately.

Last month she finished her personal progress program and received the Young Woman's medallion. Here are a few photos.

Other recent Lisa milestones:

* Won the recent playing test, and was promoted to first violin, first chair in the orchestra, so she is now the "concertmistress".

* She passed the audition and was selected for the high school chamber orchestra next year -- pretty good for a freshman.

* She passed another audition, and will be playing a piano/violin duet (with Lisa on the piano) with a friend for the middle school talent show the last day of school.

Whew!

And just for fun, here is a self-portrait she drew at a YM activity this week.

Good-bye Season

The spring soccer season ended last week. Daniel's last game was Friday (in which he scored an awesome goal, which I wish I had a video of), and then we had the end-of-season party at our house Saturday.

The plan was for a nice, relaxing evening -- toss some burgers on the grill, let the kids run around in the yard, or maybe even swim, while the parents kicked back and talked and enjoyed the greenery and the warm evening breezes and the setting sun photogenically illuminating a few puffy clouds.

It was a nice plan, but Mother Nature wanted no truck with it.

Instead what we got is 37 degrees and pouring rain (can you believe it's almost June???). So, the party good moved indoors. It was a bit crowded with 50 people (with 12 of them being highly energetic 11-year-olds), but it seemed to work out, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Just for fun, here are a few photos of Daniel's season.

The first couple are of Daniel totally owning guys that are much larger. They didn't have enough kids sign up to have a "select" league, so to compensate they had a few of the younger teams "play up" into the U13 bracket. So Daniel sometimes ends up going head-to-head with kids that weigh at least twice what he does. He doesn't let that intimidate him, though -- he just charges in anyway.

This next bit of ownage is even cooler because not only did he blast the ball past the big kid...

...but it went past another defender and the goalkeeper and in. Woo-hoo!

Here are a few random shots of him kicking the ball. Check out that power on the last one!

Seminary graduation

Woo-hoo! Way to go, Rachel!