19 March 2017

Brandan, Sofi and Becky had one more chance to attend the temple together before Sofi went back to school.  We had a lovely visit with her and attending the temple was the highlight.  One note: Brandan's stepmom, Martha, gave Sofi Brandan's mom's temple suitcase.  Linda used the suitcase for over 40 years and Sofi is happy for the connection to her grandma.  Plus, after 40 years, the suitcase is stylishly vintage.

Becky made a strawberry pie to celebrate pi day on March 14th (3.14).

 We drove to Wilsonville for the weekend so Abe could compete in the state Mathcounts tournament.  This year the competition was held at a large engineering firm called Mentor Graphics.  This is a photo of Abe before the competition began.  The morning started with the individual events.  First up was the sprint round where the kids had 40 minutes to answer 30 math problems without a calculator.  Next came the target round which are harder problems with a calculator allowed and a rather complicated timing system (2 problems in a set,  6 minutes for each set, 4 rounds total).  An engineer must have thought up the event.  Abe was nervous and excited, in a room full of about 75 other nervous and excited middle school kids.

 The team event followed the individual events.  Since Abe was not on a team, we took advantage of the time to get lunch.  We ate at a fun restaurant where ordering was super fun.  Each customer used a clipboard to customize a burger.  We had so many choices-- vegan, gluten free, over 30 toppings-- lunch was the highlight of trip for Abe and Gib.

 After lunch we headed back to Mentor Graphics for the scores and awards.  There were trophies for the top 5 teams and the top 5 individual scores.  The top 4 individuals, even if they're from different schools, form Oregon's state team and will compete in the national competition in May.  Abe finished in the middle of the pack.  This is a group photo of all the kids.  You'll have to take our word that Abe is in the photo, slightly to the left and down about three rows from the bottom of the screen.

 Helen stayed behind with friends for the weekend because she had her own event to attend: the regional Battle of the Books competition.  Her team of 4 girls won their school's tournament to advance to regionals.  They each read 16 books and then battled other teams by answering quiz questions about the books.  Helen's team didn't win any matches at regionals, but Helen had a lot of fun with her first weekend away from family.  She and her teammates made t-shirts for the competition.  Their team name is a compromise after not being able to settle on a name everyone liked.