Latin competition

The Texas State Latin competition was this past weekend in San Antonio. This year, Jill and I offered to help chaperon the trip. These are magnet middle school kids, so they don't require a whole lot of chaperoning - just an adult presence is usually enough to keep everyone in line. Here we are on the bus ride to San Antonio. Jill is flying the Latin club colors:

I did get to see my sister in action as a teacher - a side of her that I usually don't get to see. Very impressive. Her husband also joined us for the trip:

The wild flowers were in a Monet-like bloom all along I-35 heading into San Antonio:

Being a first time chaperon to the state competition, I was amazed how long the days were. The kids were in tests or other forms of competition until past 11:00 at night. Then they started up again at 8:30 the next morning. Jill and I were tasked with helping to judged the art competition. I judged models - which were very impressive - from suits of armor, to metal swords, to a mausoleum made from cake. Jill judged Latin club scrapbooks. They take their judging very seriously, and we were there for several hours.

In addition to individual prizes, the kids ended up taking 7th place overall - based on all their tests and competitions (out of 25 schools). Pretty impressive to me, but my sister tells me that's the worst they've ever done while she's been in charge of the Latin club. But the kids were still excited. This picture was taken about 11:00 at night, when we arrived back in Austin - the kids look like zombies: