Kenzie got contacts this week. She's had glasses for so long that it's strange to see her without. It was the same with Jordan and I can't hardly remember what he looks like with glasses, so I'm sure I'll get accustomed to her new look soon. Aren't those beautiful eyes?
Our history with the pinewood derby has not been all that great. 2009 was Jordan's (or should I say Brad's) first pinewood derby. It was in Moses Lake. Jordan had decided that he wanted a pinewood derby tank car. He had a toy army tank that we took off the top and nailed or glued to the car. He painted it army green. I think he even had nails sticking out the side. I used to have a picture of it but I can't find it. Anway, we followed the instructions on the pinewood derby box and came to the race. When we got there all the fathers were making last minute adjustments to the cars, putting on graphite, gluing on pennies, drilling holes whatever was needed to make the car go as fast as it possibly could and to be as close to the 5 oz. weight limit as it possibly could. We didn't even know what graphite was. Needless to say, Jordan's car came in last every run. He got one of those consolation awards for the "toughest looking car". It did look tough. After the derby Brad called up his good friend from Idaho Falls who claimed to have all the secrets to making a top contender car and gleaned all the information from him that he could. After his phone conversation and many hours spent online researching the construction of derby cars he was determined that Jordan's car would be in the top three in 2010. Afterall, for someone that does as much wood work as Brad does he should be able to help his son make a car that at least comes in at 3rd place, shouldn't he? While Jordan's car's performance overall was much enhanced from the prior year he only placed 4th. 2011 rolled around and we hadn't made a car. We had just barely moved from Boise to here. Not wanting to let Jordan down, the day of the derby we pulled out his car from the prior year (which I found out is against the rules by the way), made some adjustments and got ready for the race, only to find that we had no graphite for the wheels. Brad thought that maybe cornstarch would work as well, but after the race knew that cornstarch was a poor replacement for graphite. Every time Jordan's car came in about the middle of the pack. Brad was quick to console Jordan by telling him that there was next year....only I had to point out that this time, for Jordan, there wasn't because he would graduate from cub scouts in a few months. Brad was devastated. Looking over at Ben I realized that he would be in cub scouts by the next run around and told Brad as much. Brad held tightly to this. When we got home he made me order this book:
so he could begin to plan for Ben's future cars (and Riley's and Jake's). Ben and Brad began to work on the car in February. While hoping only to come in as one of the top three, Ben won first. I guess all their hard work paid off in the end. Of course upon parking our car in the "garage" (a cute place holder the stake had made for the cars), we found out that the derby rules had changed (two years ago) and Ben's axle was too long. The stake ran the race for each of the wards because they had an electronic track (which was SO nice by the way) and they said a lot of boys (who won) in the other wards had this problem too. I guess Brad's not the only Dad who owns this book. They let Ben race anyway and said if he wanted to run his car in the stake race next Saturday (they have all the winners from all the wards race each other) that he would have to put his axle back to where the stock kit had it. So, for you out their who may read this book, you are no longer able to lengthen the axle.
Now, I know I've talked long about the pinewood derby, but I have to say one more thing about it. Our pack leader, to make the race fair, decided that upon arrival every boy should be able to make last minute adjustments to their cars. She brought graphite that they could all apply to their wheels before the race, pennies to glue on for added weight and drills to take away weight so that they would all be as close to 5 oz. as they possibly could. While we were prepared to make any adjustments necessary to Ben's car, we certainly hadn't been prepared in the past and there were plenty of boys and their fathers in attendance who weren't prepared in this way either. Her idea was wonderful. Because the boys' cars were as equal as they possibly could be when it came to the "tricks" the times were extremely close and the races were more fun for everyone involved.
On a lighter note, I've fallen in love with a new (to me) musical artist, Ben Rector. Have you heard of him? My favorite song of his is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHCrFA2X26I, have a listen. I would marry his voice if I could. Really, I would.
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