The Pinewood Derby

Last week was a crazy week with a couple conflicting engagements every evening.  But I knew it would be crazy and expected some hard stuff and all worked out (that Power of Acceptance stuff on the Power of Moms has really been helping me!).  Somehow just accepting and expecting the craziness really helps.

One of the big things for last week was the Pinewood Derby.  Jared and the big boys worked hard on their cars and Eliza even made one too.  The boys invited a couple neighborhood friends to participate too so Jared somehow pulled off 5 pretty darn nice Pinewood Derby cars over the course of a couple weeks (and he loved really using his big workshop in the basement of this house for the first time).

Ashton came up with this door-stop-style car that seemed a little dubious but he forged on with his plan and low and behold, he came out as the overall winner of the derby and was SO happy about it.  Our little neighbor Shai came in second and everyone was so happy for him.  Isaac was a great supporter to his brother and friends even though his cool-looking car didn't prove to be a winner.  And after the scouts were done racing, Eliza got to race her car against the others and low and behold, she beat them all!

Here's Ashton's winning car (I'd put up all their cars but I can't figure out how to get photos off my phone and onto my computer quite yet - Ashton figured out how to send me this photo - I'll have to have him teach me how.  Nice to have an 11-year-old around who can help his poor old mom with technology).

Got to love the Pinewood Derby.  There's nothing like a bunch of wild scouts racing their hand-made cars down a rickety old track in a church gym with their families cheering them on.  I looked around the room at all these cute kids and this very diverse bunch of families and had this peaceful feeling that we're in the right place.  We're really supposed to be here in Odgen.   We're supposed to be with these people.  I love those feelings of "rightness" you get once in a while - often at an unpredictable place and time!

Sadly, our Derby happened at the same time as the Jazz player appearance for the boys' basketball teams.  They rushed over there to try to catch the tail end of that event when the Derby was wrapping up.  But it was over.  Oh well.  Another little life lesson.  You just can't squeeze it all in sometimes and you have to miss some things to accommodate other things.  That's life.