The Pinto Family: January 2022

Here's what we've been up to in January 2022:

Nicholas joined the after school competition club Future Cities of America at the beginning of the school year. It's a 7/8th grade STEM club that meets twice a week. Their goal is to design a futuristic city, based on a waste free circular economy. They research and learn about economies, city planning, energy sources, architecture, engineering, model scaling, presentation skills, teamwork, land surveying, and many other great things - this is right up Nicholas' alley! They had 5 deliverables to have completed by mid January - an essay describing their city, a project plan, a skit presentation, a to-scale model build, and a zoom question and answer session with the judges. Normally all this presented at an in person competition, but this year it was virtual. There were only 4 kids on the team -2 boys and 2 girls. They each had a section they were in charge of but the goal was for all to contribute to all of it. It was a huge time commitment! In the end, Nicholas ended up carrying most of the work load for the team. He was in charge of the model build and so we hosted these middle schoolers at our house most days over Christmas break as they worked long hours to construct the model, while Nicholas continued late into the night after they left many times. Shawn was also very instrumental in helping the kids stay on track. In the end, we were so proud of Nicholas and his team for what they accomplished and learned! At the state competition they won 2 of the 7 awards, one of which was best model in the state!!!! This was the first time a particular STEM school did not win the the best model! What a great testament to Nicholas and his skills and hard work!

Here's a few highlight pictures of Aquaterraces - a futuristic multi-island city in the middle of the great Salt Lake, that is powered by hydroelectric power (created by the terraced island) and wind harvesting fields. Their transportation is via mag lev trains, gondolas and electric cars. The upper terrace is the residential zone, the middle is the commercial terrace, and the bottom is the industrial level of the island city. The model is completely to scale, which was quite a challenge in itself, and it only represents a small portion of the whole city. It was built on less than $100 budget and nearly completely from recyclable materials - only purchased items were the foam board base, some paint, and some grass/tree making materials.

Nicholas designed every one of these buildings - this one is a government building made from parts of Pringle containers on the side.

Residential building

The buildings that house the hydroelectric plants

gondolas made using old fishing weights and line

Vertical farming

Sam got to be good little buddies with Adam, after all the time Adam and the team spent at our house.

The model was put on display in the front lobby of the school and when Bishop Konzen came to visit for Catholic Schools Week, he admired it - this photo was posted on the school Facebook page. We were the only school in the archdiocese this year to enter the competition! Most of the other schools were public and private STEM schools. we are so thankful our school offers such great enrichment opportunities for our kids!

The big event in January for Grace, was 5th grade Cotillion!! Here she is ready for the first of 4 Wednesday evenings learning all about manners and etiquette and of course dancing with boys, the Cha-Cha, the Box Step, and Swing :-)

Boy escorting her up and being introduced.

Dancing the Cha-Cha - every single boy she danced with was shorter than her!

Making new memories with old friends - these 3 have been together since they were in 3yr old preschool.

All becoming young ladies!

In early January I got away to the Carmel Retreat Center for a 3 day spiritual retreat. It was lovely...while it lasted...unfortunately it got cut short by 1 day by a snow storm.

Of course the kids were very excited about the snow. We ended up getting 2-3 inches - which is more than we have had in a couple years so that was fun!

Made by Grace

The boys spent most of the day throwing snow balls at each other and the neighbors.

I captured a cozy moment :-)

Sam's big news in January was he lost his first and second tooth ever - all in the same night! They were pulled out by Daddy since the grown up teeth were already grown in behind them and the baby ones weren't budging on their own.