Knott's Berry Farm

In the lobby of the Knott's Hotel.

 Waiting for Knott's to open.

 Todd & Hannah are up there somewhere!

 Don't you feel sorry for this sad lookin' varmint?

 Aerial view from the Sky Ride. Joshua & I were on this while Todd & Hannah were on that crazy thing.

 Todd & Hannah are 3 cars back/1st row of 3rd car. Yes, her mouth is open in scream mode.

 I went on Supreme Scream with Hannah first & then she went with Todd.

 This was more Joshua's style:)

 We always seem to find the outhouses.

 We splurged on Snoopy cupcakes & a big cookie.

 After we left the San Jose area, we drove to Southern CA to go to Knott's Berry Farm. We couldn't make a trip to Disneyland happen so we did Knott's for one day. I think the last time we went was 8 years ago. We stayed at the Knott's Berry Farm Hotel for two nights & went to Knott's on a Monday. There were practically no lines. I guess everyone is over at Disneyland! Todd & Hannah went on some scary coasters. We saw some of the gang and left for San Diego on Tuesday. Beach pictures are up next:)

Pier 39

 Alcatraz

 Golden gate Bridge

 Joshua making "music" on these piano steps.

These pictures are at Pier 39 the day before quizzing started. We got a little sightseeing in before Regionals. More to come.....

Tide Pool

 Awwww, seals.

 Tons of little crabs everywhere-had to be careful where we stepped.

 Pretty girl:)

 Piece of claw.

 HUGE shell. It took everything within me to not take this. There where signs that it was a "no collecting" area. I know someone else will take it but I only took the picture. It was probably 6-7" in length.

Joshua by a cool tree.

Here's the tide pool pictures. They're pretty self explanatory.

God's Girlz takes 1st place at 2014 Southwest Region Competition!!!!!!!!!

 The girlz on the first day of quizzing (pink shirts).

 The girlz on the 2nd day of quizzing (Regional shirts).

 The girlz with their 1st place trophy (& medals).

Breaking News:

God's Girlz took 1st place in the Southwest Region (in case you couldn't tell from the title!).

All season we had 2 teams because there are 6 girls. Only 3 can be at the table at one time so in an effort to give all the girls time at the table, we split into 2 God's Girlz teams. They combined at State into 1 team. Three of the girls' families decided not to go on to Regionals in California last week. We went with one other family to San Jose. All 3 girls were also in the top 10 for individual high points-Hannah was 4th while the 2 others took 3rd & 9th. Their record was 13-2.

We struggled with whether we should go or not. After much prayer,a little stress, & an anonymous vote, we obviously decided to go. Other teams with more experience at this "A" level of TBQ told us (in a nice way) that we shouldn't expect to do well at our 1st time at Regionals. These girls studied extra hard in the weeks between State & Regionals to learn a lot more info than the 8 books they had already memorized and it showed. We are so proud of them!! They earned a spot at Nationals but due to costs, we can't afford the week long trip to Florida in July. But it IS quite an honor to have earned that spot.

We took the long way home and made a vacation out of this trip since we were already in CA. More pictures coming of a visit to a cool tide pool,Pier 39,Knott's Berry Farm, and Coronado Island.

Compass Kidz at State 2014

 Compass Kidz with their coach

Joshua with all his awards this year:
Three 2nd place high points ribbons

One 3rd place high points ribbon

One high points medal

One 1st place trophy

One 5th place trophy.

Joshua's team, Compass Kidz, went to State competition last Saturday. It was in Tucson so we went down Friday evening. His team and another B league team had to compete against A league teams for the first time. One team dropped out so there were 7 teams competing that day. Their team came in 5th place which is really great for their first time against A league teams. In fact, they came very close to beating the team that went undefeated that day. So close!! We only had one team mate in the top ten for high points at State. Joshua wasn't that far out at #13. Joshua said he had fun so that's all that matters:)

God's Girlz at State 2014

 God's Girlz combined teams.

 Having fun!

God's Girlz combined into one team to compete at State last Saturday. A couple other churches with more than 1 team combined also so there were only 4 teams competing. Two didn't come at all. It was a tough day for the girls. They won 4 and lost 5 which is not what they're used to but you can't win them all! The questions were undeniably tougher than regular season questions. Regionals will be worse! They came in 3rd place at State. 

Some of the other awards you'll see in the pictures held or worn by various girlz are:

1st place over the regular season to God's Girlz Grace Keepers (that's also Hannah's team)

3rd place over the regular season to God's Girlz Kingdom Seekers

3rd place for God's Girlz at State

One girl earned a bronze award (medal) but I forgot how much she quoted to her coach.

Five girls earned the gold award by quoting all 8 books they memorized to their coach with 4 mistakes or less per chapter.

Hanah earned a 3rd place medal for high individual points over the regular season AND at State.

Hannah also participated in some extra "just for fun" one-on-one competitions after quizzing. She did that last year too. She and two others (one was her team mate) tied for 1st place in the Quoting Bee as the quoting was going on and on with no mistakes so the judge called it a 3 way tie. 

We're just missing one plaque in the last picture but you get the idea. 

Regional competition will be in San Jose in May! The girls have some work ahead of them and I'm sure they'd appreciate prayer support.

Andrew Shaw-My new favorite Blackhawk!

Joshua wrote a letter to Andrew Shaw and sent this picture of them from Halloween. He asked Andrew to sign the picture since Joshua went as him and Hannah went as the puck that Andrew took to the face during the Stanley Cup Finals game when they won the cup. Not only did he sign the kids' picture but he also sent TWO signed hockey cards that we did NOT send him. What a great guy!!!