Destination Casino!

Last weekend the State finals were held for Destination Imagination at Central Michigan University.  The main purpose in going is so Spencer can participate with his group, but the perk that the kids were looking forward to the most was the pool and the arcade at the casino.

 

West Michigan was in the thick of some record heavy rainfall and river flooding,  so on the way to Mt. Pleasant we drove by the Croton/Hardy Dam to see the massive amounts of water going through it.  I didn't even know this dam existed, let alone saw it before, so it was a pretty cool experience.

 

 

 

One of the parks near the dam was closed (due to the high water) so we had to drive around the corner until we found another stop.  We saw lots of people heading down a little trail with cameras slung over their shoulders, so we figured there must be another view point.  After a quick trek through the woods and snapping a few shots of the dam and the kids with the high river in the background, we got back into the car and trudged on toward our hotel.

 

The kids wasted no time getting on their bathing suits and heading for the pool.  We let the kids leave school at eleven, so when we got to the casino, the pool was almost empty.  It was really nice and I am so glad we decided to let them ditch a bit early.

 

 

 

The next morning Spencer had his challenges on the CMU campus.  We lucked out this year due to the fact that his Instant Challenge was the first one of the morning and they were finished with their Central Challenge presentation by noon.  We had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted.

 

Whatever they wanted turned out to be the arcade followed by more pool time.  Unfortunately, most of the families headed home after the challenge so we were not surrounded by familiar faces like we were last year.

We had the arcade pretty much to ourselves as well.

Hailey became addicted to Fruit Ninja.  She is constantly stealing my ipad to play it now.   Evan cashed in all his tickets for some candy and the eagle stuffie.   Pretty fitting since the Soaring Eagle is the name of the casino - he named him Talon.

The next morning we had to wake up pretty early and head out since Trent had a rehearsal scheduled for later that day.  Spencer offered us an upcoming glimpse of the teenage years.

Evan tried to cruise through some levels of Candy Crush.

And Hailey was just thrilled to run across the hall and fill the ice bucket.  This was her job and she was loving every minute of it.

It was a fun little break from the ordinary.  I don't know if Spencer's DI team will stick together for next year or not.  Middle school is a whole new ball game.  Regardless of the future, going to the State finals for two years in a row is a pretty awesome accomplishment.  I am proud of Spencer for choosing to participate in DI.  I think in the last two years with their Humane Society project and this year making the blankets for sick children in the hospital, he has learned a lot about compassion and how just a small group can band together and help people and accomplish amazing things.