Last Quiz Meet of the Season. . .

Sometime in the middle of the night early Friday morning, I decided we just wouldn't be able to go on the quiz trip. Zach was still feverish and achy and we were up most of the night trying to bring his temperature down to a more comfortable degree. (I was so convinced we wouldn't be going, I even put together a blog post in my head about my experience in 5th grade when I worked so hard on practicing The Charleston for the school talent show and how I never even got to wear my green and white polka-dotted dress with the fringe because I had strep throat the day of the show. . .). I called Gary and Kristin around 7:30 a.m. to give them the bad news. Kristin suggested we wait a few hours and see how we were all feeling and then make the call on whether or not to go. I let Zach sleep for a couple more hours and then had him get up and around and take a shower. He was feeling much better so I left the decision up to him. He had worked so hard all season and it was the last meet of the year so we decided to take our chances and go on the trip. I was concerned about the others that would be riding in the car with us but they all said they weren't afraid of his germs. (They probably all changed their minds at some point during the trip!!). The weather was OK and the roads were good, so off we went.

The trip over was uneventful. We rode in style in this rented Ford Expedition (at least I think that's what it was. . . )

Gloria had felt fine when we left the house but by lunchtime she was beginning to feel a little bit achy. Her temp was up around 101. . .

Steph took good care of Gloria in the back seat and we made it to North Idaho without any problems. . .

It was a nice treat to stay with Dave and Jeanette who we've known for close to 16 years. They've been in Coeur D'lane for the last 9 years so we don't get to see them very much. . . This is Steph and Gloria with Jeanette's dog:

We all went to Applebees for dinner. . . Zach and Gloria were both feeling much better so I had high hopes for Saturday. . .

We had a fourth quizzer join us for this meet and it definitely worked in our favor. His name is Ben and he did a great job!


I was encouraged during the morning rounds at how well my team was doing. We won 5 and lost 2. Zach didn't feel quite as prepared for the verse-off but felt confident in enough of the verses to give it a go. . .

I knew he would do just fine. There were about 7 high schoolers that survived the verse-off, including Zach.

The afternoon rounds went really well. . .

. . . The afternoon rounds resulted in 6 wins and 1 loss bringing our record for the day to 11 wins, 3 losses (but who's counting??). . .

At the awards ceremony, Zach received his certificate for surviving the verse off. . .

. . . Andrew received a ribbon for placing 8th in the final meet . . .

. . . Zach placed 4th for the final meet. . .

. . . And our team placed 3rd for the final meet of the '08-'09 season!!!

At the last meet, the total scores are tallied and the top eight players have a final quiz-off against each other. It is very interesting to watch all of these very fast jumpers compete with one another as well as encourage each other as they all vie for the top three places. Even though Zach came in third score-wise for the season, he wasn't among the top three to quiz-out in this final round. Here is a sample of how it works:

Chris Lee once again came in first score-wise for the season but he also wasn't quite quick enough to make it into the top three in the final round:

It was good, healthy, fun competition!!

The activity for the evening was a trip to the local roller skating rink. I haven't skated in years and years but I managed to pick it up pretty quickly and had a great time. It was like being in the 80's again!!

Zach wasn't feeling well again so he sat in the corner and took some pictures for me. . .

When we got back to Jeanette's we were all pretty wiped out. I gave Zach his meds and he willingly went to bed. When I checked his temp a little later it was a little over 104! Yikes! I stayed up with him for the next several hours just trying to bring it down to a more manageable level. I was more than ready to go home in the morning. Zach slept most of the way home and couldn't even get out of the car for lunch. My guilt was overwhelming. With good reason. . .