1.22.15 Pinewood Derby

Tonight was the much feared/anticipated Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. AS we've had our children we quickly learned what a trial little girl hair is. The snarls, the crying, the repetition. Ugh! I hated little girl hair and was so thankful to have sons who had short hair no drama everyday. Then we entered Cub Scouts, which I love!!, until we came to the Derby. Our first year was horrific as we watched our super excited son go from top of the world to the dumps in a matter of minutes as he was the first out. We felt like failures as we had spent a lot of hours finishing the car and thinking we were pretty good parents. Well we felt pretty awful after that lesson.

Isn't that Hershey Bar cool? We always have some really creative cars.

 So for the past few years we used our collective genius and headed to Greg's brothers house in Twin Falls to make the car with someone with a much better record. This year we missed the handout meeting for the cars and didn't get our box until after Christmas Break. This was during the official no travel mom is as big as a whale time period of our lives so we scrambled for a new source of help. One of our friends had graduated his boys from scouts so he graciously agreed to help Greg and John build the car here in our town. 5 hours later on a slow Saturday at Greg's shop they had a pretty nice  car. They learned about baking soda toothpaste sanding, and wheel alignment, and some other pretty spiffy stuff. However John was not able to paint the car as it takes too much time to dry in this cool weather. He was disappointed but we learned the hard way on car one dropping it is a sure determent. So we left the car locked up in a safe location until tonight.

Pinewood Derby is always the biggest event of they year. About 25 boys participated tonight, with lots of family to cheer them on.

John after another win. The track is wired to a computer that determines speed and transfers time to brackets.  It's fast and non-emotional. It's taken some years to adjust to the efficiency. We are seeing the blessing of an out-of-town not involved monitor.

John was the fastest car and he won! It was pretty exciting for him and Greg and Mr. McKrola.

We can totally relate to the parents who did not win and we truly understand the sadness of lost races and hopes. However for a few minutes we were also very proud of John and grateful he had the experience of winning tonight.

With a smudge of a refreshment cookie to add to the fun! First time trophies were awarded too.

 It's nice to have some differences when you are in a big family. Titles only you can claim and tonight John could claim winner. Funny note the kid that was second was first last year and John was second or third. Fun that they flipped. Not fun John and Mark will be eligible to compete next year.