29 April 2010

Pine Wood Derby

Today was the day that Les has been waiting only semi-patiently for for 8 years. Today was
PINE WOOD DERBY DAY!!!
As long as he has known what the pine wood derby was about, he has counted down the years until he got to participate. And because this is only his 2nd pack meeting since he turned 8, he made it just in time.
Tonight he also earned his Bobcat award!

Now on to the important stuff....
The car....The racing....The graphite.....

Here is the car!

Here is the racing!

And at the finish line....

He won EVERY race!!!!

He was so proud. He even got the coveted certificate for the fastest car!
Les designed, painted, and got the car ready mostly by himself. Of course Gramps and Dad had to help some, but Les did everything that he could including polishing the axles.

GREAT JOB LES!!

After the race we got to talking to the man who owned the track, and he was telling us how this particular track became his. It turns out that he got it from a man in east Layton that is kind of a pinewood derby enthusiast.....It just so happens that that pinewood derby enthusiast was the man that Brian learned all of his tricks from when he was in cub scouts.

Brian called that friend after we got home, and we found out that the track that Les raced on (and won on) tonight was one of the ones that Brian raced on when he was a boy all the way down in Tucson!!

What a way to end the night with the legacy of Brian, Blair, Grandpa, Roger, Blair M, and all the gang. Thanks for the memories Roger!

Limo

Yesterday I was asked to help the PTA with a fundraiser reward for some of the kids in the school. The reward was a ride to and from McDonald's for lunch.

Zak got to come with me since his school is out by lunch time!

Amber and Les were pretty jealous. Zak and I had fun going out to lunch in the limo!


Gary Paulsen

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a big fan of reading. But as a kid I found the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, and loved every minute of it. Then, as Brian started teaching reading, my mom suggested that he try it with his students, because it is one that they could relate with as well as be successful in reading. He loved the book, and has read the entire series over and over again with his students. He has also managed to track down a movie version of the book.

Amber has found Mr. Paulsen's books too, and has loved everyone that she has picked up. Which is why when we heard he was going to be in Salt Lake doing a book signing, we had to go.

I think that we bought one book, but we also had him sign about 5 others. It was a fun night.

20 April 2010

Made the News!


My mom called this morning
and said that she saw my apricot blossom
picture on the 2 News weather!
I just had to share!

14 April 2010

I Looked Out the Window

There is Popcorn popping on my apricot tree!
Enjoy!


06 April 2010

Spring Break, Easter Weekend, Accident, and New Baby

What a weekend. We really didn't do anything huge. Most of our plans were set aside until a weekend with better weather. We had a great time with Grammy & Gramps and the cousins at a little lunch and egg hunt on Saturday. They filled a children's swimming pool up with sawdust and hid eggs and money in it as well as a few outside. The excitement of the kids was fun, but the most entertaining by far was watching the adults sift through the sawdust looking for the left over change. In all they probably dug for an hour, and we were informed by Gramps later that as he cleaned out the sawdust, he still found over 120 coins that we missed.

We returned home from their house to find that the Easter Bunny had come. We aren't sure what happened, but he forgot to hide the real colored eggs that were in the fridge. So we had fun Sunday morning waiting for conference to start by hiding them from each other.

On Sunday afternoon, we had tickets to go to the Conference center for the final session of conference. However, kids under 8 cannot go, so we dropped Brian, Amber and Les off, at the Conference Center and Zak and I parked the car and walked back to Temple Square. He and I watched at the Tabernacle instead. After Conference, we headed out to go spend the night with my family and to see the new baby. This is when the excitement began!

As we were heading to I-15, we were in a wreck. We had to stop quickly, and the car behind us didn't stop. They rear-ended us. Brian and I both saw it coming and knew it was inevitable. I turned around to see if the car behind was going to stop in time, and all I remember seeing was everyone else being flung forward from the impact. It is kind of an eerie vision in my mind. Everyone's chest being thrown forward, and their heads all back (typical whiplash). And then was the instant screams of horror from the kids. They were terrified. They didn't see it coming like Brian and I did.

We instantly all had the headache at the base of our heads from the whiplash, and Les was crying enough about his that they had the paramedics check him out on scene. I wish now that they had checked out Brian too. He is hurting really bad today, and has a headache that won't let up. No one severely hurt, but we all have stiff and sore neck muscles, and minor headaches that come and go.

By looking at the vehicles closely, you wouldn't know anything happened.

Our car The License plate cover on my van got broken from the accident, but there is really no other obviously visible damage. The damage that we found was because the rear hatch wouldn't close right becasue the plastic trim wouldn't seat the way it was supposed to because around the door latch was crumpled a little. Also, the bumper is a little damaged from the impact.

The other car

You can see the small dent in the center of their van, but really it isn't too bad. The worst part for them was that both of their air bags went off, and so legally, this made their van un-driveable.

The interesting part of all of this is that the two girls were both just recently returned from their missions. The driver (Tiffany) returned from Brazil 4 months ago, and the passenger (Angela)just returned from Korea 3 weeks ago, and had wrist surgery late last week sometime. Neither of them had a valid drivers license, in fact the driver got a ticket for a suspended license, as well as for following too closely.

Me and the passenger from the other car (Angela)

After we finally made it out of SLC and to my parent's house, we went and saw the new baby. He is so tiny. I forgot how small of packages they come in, and was reminded how big my kids are getting.
Amber with little London
What a cutie!
He doesn't like the camera flash at all!