Pinewood Derby

A Cub Scout's favorite Pack Meeting of the year....Pinewood Derby. Les knew what to do this year, and he loved every minute that he spent building his truck. He spent a night in March at Grammy & Gramps house, and he and Gramps drew up the shape of the truck and cut it out. We had no idea what he was going to do until we came home and saw it.

Then Brian guided Les in filing and polishing his axels. You will always get better results if you hold your mouth in just the right position while you do the technical work.

Filing the Axels

Polishing the Axels

Les did very well. He won all but one race that his car was in. It was very close.
We combined with the other two packs that meet at our church and only one car beat Les's. And that car only beat him by0.0108 seconds. Les's car was the fastest for our pack though!
Les ran off while I was getting pictures of the boys with their cars. this is the only picture that I got of him with his car.

He took second place, and received the award for the best truck design!And as CubMasters, we were very proud of our boys. their cars were very creative and they all raced very well. We have awesome boys and I am very proud of all of them.

But I am kind of proud of my boy. Les did Awesome, and I'm proud of all the work that he did by himself and his car did so well!

1st Grade Fieldtrip

Last week I went on the 1st grade fieldtrip to the Treehouse & Dinosaur Park. Zak dressed and acted as King Arthur as they learned about how ancient kingdoms were run.

He had a queen, knights, squires, etc.

And The boys loved Dinosaur Park. Zak asked me to take this picture while he pretended to run away scared. He really is such a funny kid!
The dinosaur park is such a fun place for little boys.

I'm always glad that I get to spend these days with my kids.

Easter

Before we went to soccer games on Saturday morning, the kids decided that they better color Easter eggs. The past few years, the Easter Bunny has stopped by our house on Saturday while we were out, so the kids didn't want to be unprepared.

They are now old enough that they can do it all by themselves!
And when we got home, sure enough, the Easter Bunny had been to our house. Since I got my new carpet, I wish that the bunny would fix the hole in his pocket. It is very easy to miss jellybeans in my new carpet, and I'm worried that one is smashed somewhere that we haven't found yet. Everywhere the Easter Bunny went, there was a trail of jellybeans. Upstairs, and down.

We were also invited to an Easter egg hunt at the house of one of Zak's friends. To start out, they sat all the kids on the back porch and explained to them that they couldn't put any treats into their own baskets. They had to put them in someone else's basket. I really liked the idea of doing it this way. It forced them to think about others, and not just a focus on how much they could get. It also slowed the egg hunt down.
Les & Emily, a friend from school

On your mark,....Get Set....

GO!!!

Zak & Miles helping each other

Amber didn't really want to participate, but she didn't want to miss out on all that candy either.

They certainly filled up their baskets. We have almost as much candy as Halloween.

And Zak had to get a few runs on the Zip line in to end the Easter fun!

We kept Easter simple this year. Just a few treats. But we took time to enjoy the spirit of the holiday and learn about and feel the Spirit of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Soccer

It is soccer season at our house again. Fortunately, the weather was clear, and not too terribly cold for the games this week. Les loves to be goalie. It's just too bad that the other team didn't show up. We ended up playing a family vs. team game.

Les is a good little player. He is always in the middle of the action!

And this is for my friend Jamie! She begged me to not put this picture on Facebook, so my blog is second best! Zak had a good game too. He got to play one of his good friends. He scored many goals this week! If you notice in this picture every kid on the field was between Zak and the goal, but he kicked it, and as you can see....he scored!

And Zak likes to stay right with the ball. He is fast!

Zak, and his friend Connor

Annual Hair Cuts

Every year for Brian's big race in May, the gimmick has been to shave your head. My boys like to follow daddy and buzz their hair too. So a few weeks ago, we took it all off. They needed it desperately. I can't believe how much hair they have.

Zak...before.

I forgot to take a picture of Les before.

And here are my boys after. I never thought they looked alike until I took this picture.

TThey are handsome boys aren't they?

After the haircuts and showers, Zak was doing his nightly reading and rubbed his head the entire night. I have video of it on my phone, but don't currently have a way to get it from my phone to the computer. But trust me, you would be on the floor laughing. Just imagine 20 minutes of it!

Temple Square

A couple of times a year, we seem to end up on Temple Square in Salt Lake. I love the flowers there. I always take more pictures of the flowers than anything else. The temple always looks the same, but the flowers are always different. Over spring break, we were passing through Salt Lake, and decided to go see the new Church History Library. (It was also a good excuse to go see the beautiful spring flowers.) It was a sunny warm day, and since we haven't had many of those, we took full advantage of walking around the church grounds while we were there. The blossoms on the trees were beautiful. I'm sure that they only got a day or two because of the rain. We caught them on a good day.

I wish this picture hadn't had quite as shallow of a depth of field. I was trying to get the Angel Moroni in the background to be just a little more in focus, but I was having a hard time with that. Now, I realize what I should have done to solve that problem.

I love this pic. It didn't turn out quite as I intended, but I couldn't get the right angle on it.

I love this reflection of the Assembly Hall steeples in the business building across the street.

And I love the profile of all of the different buildings here. The only other thing this picture needs is an artistic eye and the roof of the Tabernacle

Just a fun pic to add to my collection!

Ogden Temple & Tabernacle

The Ogden LDS temple is the closest temple to our house. It has never been one of my favorite, I think more because of its location than anything, but we are still going to miss it once it is gone. The church has decided to completely renovate it. At first, I was told that they would leave the inner structure, and just tear down and re-build the outer shell and grounds. Since then, I have heard that they are tearing it down to the ground and re-building it from the ground up. I'm not really sure what will happen. Rumor has it that they will also be removing the steeple from the Tabernacle so that those people who don't know what the buildings are can tell the difference between the Temple and the Tabernacle. I decided to go take some pictures of the "old" temple before it is gone. Maybe I'll be able to get timeline pictures of the demolition and rebuilding as they go along. I was very disappointed with my pictures when I got home, and I sure wish that I had photoshop to touch them up, but I'm glad I got the pictures anyway.

The Tabernacle

The mural inside the east entrance to the tabernacle is beautiful. It catches your eye from the street. I think that is why some people confuse it for the temple.

I have always loved this clock on the north-east lawn of the temple grounds. I'm sure it has a story, and I wish I knew what that story was.