There Really Is No Such Thing As Catching Up

I seem to be in an eternal conflict.  Why recording my life publicly is so important to me is hard to understand.  I imagine it's due to moving often and not having an easy escape with friends to share my events and feelings with in person.  So I turn to the next easiest avenue I have...online outlets.

And why not?  It's a great way to keep friends and family updated as well as creates a record of the happenings of our family.  We have a wonderful collection of stories dating back to 2005 of the funny, momentous, and important activities that happen to our family.  So many of the things I have recorded have ended up being new to me later when my kids read them to me in fits of laughter. My memories are not very reliable, unless I write them down!

Unfortunately, once I started using Facebook, the time spent updating the blog became too much.  I was getting nearly instant feedback on my FB posts, and much more attention.  That was enough to keep me going and eventually my blog was ignored.  But not forgotten!  Facebook is great for short paragraphs, but I have a need to TYPE!  I have missed my blog.  I have also missed story-telling.

Because FB is a little too public and less intimate than I'd like, I have struggled with feelings of guilt due to sharing so much.  I attempted to fix that by limiting my friends lists and only sharing with certain groups, depending on the topic.  However, that hasn't been the best answer and I believe that many people have become upset when I have removed them from my friends list despite their inactivity in my FB life or real life.

So I have decided that I will open up my FB interactions to be more public, but less personal, and return to blogging the many details of our life.  If someone is truly interested, they will find their way here and I will be rid of the guilt of over-sharing!

I regret that I can't catch up with everything that has happened since my last blog post.  But there really is no such thing as catching up.  I would never be able to share all the details that have been since forgotten. I can only start from now and try to keep up with current events.

But I can share some recent photos.  Joseph recently got a cat.  It's mainly to help him with his anxieties that have followed him for a few years.  The cat, an orange tabby, is named Rusty.

He's had all sorts of attention, from the dogs chasing him to copious boxes presented for his cat-like hiding.  Joseph and Sarah made this box in Rusty's likeness.  It looks pretty good, don't you think?  I'm not sure how Rusty feels about it.

And in other news, Nathan and I enjoyed a morning of running errands.  One of our stops was Hobby Lobby.  While I searched and contemplated trims for Sarah's dresses, Nathan found some trim of his own. We call this his rapper chains!  lol  We don't really call them anything, but it's what I'm thinking.  I'm glad he's willing to be silly with me sometimes.  Oh, and during this morning out, we stopped to see ourselves reflected in the window of one of the stores.  I can confirm that Nathan is taller than me now.  2017 has been a good year for growing!

Birthday Boy is 14!

Nathan had a bithday this week (Tuesday) and had a nice couple of days celebrating. 

We opened presents and went to dinner on Monday but had cake on Tuesday.  We had to divide the fun because Chad had some appointments at the church on Nathan's day. 

Nathan got a few presents that will keep him occupied for a while in addition to a backpacking backpack that he wanted.

He's looking forward to being ordained a Teacher this Sunday.  He's getting older and we're counting on some growth spurts to help him look his age!

Happy 14th Birthday, Nathan!

Update on Daniel

Many people have been asking me if there is any news on Daniel's jaw problems.  The answer is, "No."

The oral surgeon we saw has been trying to consult with other medical experts before giving us his final diagnosis.  We had been going off of "Monostotic Fibrous Dysplasia."  But now that may not be what we are looking at.  The doctor took Daniel's scans to a radiologist at a nearby hospital for an informal reading (which means I didn't have to pay for it).  The radiologist said his initial thought was that it looked like a result of abuse.

Huh.  I told the doctor, "Well, I know it's not that, so keep looking."  He wondered if there was anyone that could be abusing Daniel that I might not expect.  Really, we are a boring family. I am the main caregiver.  He doesn't play sports.  He isn't part of any clubs and doesn't play at a friend's house very often.  And for 3 1/2 years?  Yeah.  It's not abuse.  Keep looking.

And he was.  He'd mailed the scans off to his colleagues in Iowa.  (These are the doctors he does training with and he considers them the experts.)  I had this conversation with him the week before Christmas.  Meanwhile, Daniel seems to have suffered a flare up of some kind.  The medicine doesn't seem to help very much.

I left a message with the doctor today and expect him to call tomorrow.  He's been very good at explaining things and assuring me he's trying to get some answers.  We may be looking at doing a biopsy to get a little more to investigate.  After this long, I'm just waiting for him to tell us what to do...we will do it!

Nathan's pain has also returned.  He'd had such a good run of no pain, that I was beginning to wonder if he'd somehow healed.  I guess not.  We have a scheduled appt. next month, but I may have to call sooner if the pain gets much worse.  I don't want to have to make another trip down to SL.

Maybe I can make appts for both boys down there on the same trip!

Nathan's Hip

Many people are wondering what is happening with Nathan's hip.  Join the party!  We are also still wondering.  Here is what we know so far, and the questions our knowledge inspires.

Based on an MRI and a CT scan, Nathan does not have cancer.  We were unsure about that for a while and spent a long weekend wondering if that would be the diagnosis.  There is a higher bone density on the side that he is experiencing pain. The "impression" from the doctor reading the CT scan is that there is a "mild chronic stress reaction" of the iliac bone.  But that is an unusual place to have that problem.  The fact that something like that should have healed long before now has meant we get to see a doctor at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake.  The doctor mentioned something about possibly having fluid "in there."   I can't elaborate on something I don't understand.

We did that on Tuesday this week.  They also agreed that nothing too serious or scary was going on (like cancer), but they were still unsure what was happening - exactly.  Nathan had some blood drawn that day and we have an appointment next week for a full body scan.  The scan is supposed to be even more in depth than a CT scan (which is more in depth than an MRI).  They will have to give him some contrast of some kind and wait for it to work before they do the scan.  We've been told to expect the appointment to last about 4 hours.

So now we are trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the kids on that day.  School is out.  It seems unnecessary to make them also take a 10 hour trip.  It's the day before Thanksgiving so we could just hang out with family for the weekend, but Chad would have to meet us separately and there are animals to care for and we'd have to add packing to our plans.  Besides, with all of the traveling we've been doing, and the stress we've been feeling, nothing seems more appealing than being home.

And that's an update on Nathan.  Thankfully, his pain seems to have lessened.  I think the physical therapy, while helping straighten out his back, was aggravating his hip. He is nearly pain free unless he has a day of a lot of extra activity.

Maybe my next post will be an update on Daniel!

The Taming of the Ewe

Nathan had a birthday!

Nathan waited all year for this day (or so it seemed)! He was so looking forward to taking treats to school and then a scout activity (his first one as a Webelos) after school. The day dawned and he was sick! So he had to stay home. :(

But as you should already know, we are used to such birthday illnesses and made some adaptations. We postponed going out to dinner, but we carried on with presents and cake! (We are quite stalwart, I know.)

Here is the newly turned ten-year-old, surrounded by eager siblings. What was Nathan going to get?!?

Among his presents were his scout book and Webelos colors. He also got a real CTR ring (meaning it won't turn his finger green and cost a few pennies) and socks. I spared you the pictures of that!

Chad and I were excited to give him this present. It's a series of pieces that snap together to form electrical circuits and includes things like magnets, motors, light bulbs, etc. It's call Snaptricity. Learn more about it here.


But even that gift was upstaged by the pocket knife/key chain that Daniel passed on to him. Boys!


Don't forget the cake! I wanted to make a cake that would be something interesting to Nathan. I decided to make him a Hexbug cake, but was dismayed to not find any examples on the internet. What? I can't have that original of an idea. My first thought was to cut out the hexes and tracks from the cake but decided that would be too difficult and resorted to "drawing" everything on. The actual Hexbugs still vexed me and I took another easy road...I used real ones!


It's not to scale, but it still tasted good.

Nathan blew out the candles and served up the cake.

The girls liked it. (Sarah is always climbing on the table...it drives me nuts!)
The boys liked it, too. I did learn an interesting lesson about serving sizes. This was just one cake mix, baked in a 1/2 sheet pan. We got skinny, but wide pieces of cake and tricked ourselves into eating only half the cake. In past experiences, we have polished of the entire thing! It's a small stroke of genius...that I'll probably not do again just for the sake of eating less.


After cake, the kids "helped" Nathan assemble some circuits. The kit comes with a booklet that gives a diagram and instructions and explains what is happening. The kids were really just intrigued by the fan that they could make fly straight up into the air. Boys!

Happy Birthday, Nathan! We hope you know how much we love you!

Sarah has been practicing her smile. It's getting better (less "bull dog")!

Creative Writing

The boys have brought home some of their schoolwork over the past few days and I made sure to flip through it all to find the creative writing. I found some interesting things. (I won't be using spell check on this post, due to the developing skills of my budding authors. So, I apologize now for any spelling errors I make!)

This first one is from Nathan. It's even illustrated!


In case you can't enlarge the picture, here is what he wrote:

My snowman is really naughty at night, he quiety climbs over the fence around my yard, goes across the bumpy street and across the long field. Finaly he gets to the park and believe me its wild.

A Night in Monsterville
I ran after my naughty dog into the old and deserted house. "Midnight," I yelled, but there was no one there. then I herd a bark at the far end of the hous. I ran in the diretion of the bark and I was in what must be the living room. "Midnight," I called again. Then I saw the fire come on and then of again. I looked around and saw chairs covered in cloth, suits of armor, and a piano playing by itself. I walked to the end of the room and and opened a creaking door that lead into the kichen. I opened a cupboard and there were half a dozen skeleton shaped cups. Then I herd a noise behind me. I turnned around and saw something walk into another door. I followed it into room after room. It started to walk down the steps but I could keep hearing my dog walking upstairs. Then I remembered, I was looking for my dog not what was downstairs. When I looked back at the stairs, the door had shut. I open the door and instead of seeing it going down the stairs went up. This must lead to the room I heard my dog in. I went up, but there was a dead end. Just then the ground collapsed, and down, down, down I went and hit his bed. "Crazy knightmares" I said in disgust.

My Morning
When I wake up I see the faint shadow of my dad standing over me. Every morning I wake up and get dressed. If I'm lucky, the heater will be on. Once I'm dressed, I go downstairs to the laundry room put on my coat, gloves, hat and maybe a head light By the time I'm ready to go outside, my dad is already pumping water into a bucket. He opeans the gate and I say, "water." It seems that breakd Ice is easier the giving hay to the animals. Now that I have my stick I start the process of breacking ice. "Thud, thud, thud, crack, thud, thud, thud, crack", the sound of hitting the inch-thick ice rings in my ears. Well there goes the first one, Next its time for the other one. Finally, now that the buckets all contain ice water and the hay is given to all the animals, I can go back inside to a nice, cozy, warm, house.

The Day of Snow
The news report said there would be snow in the moring. As soon as I could, I ran downstairs. Then I found my boots, gloves, and hat. Before you knew it, I was running back upstairs to tell my little sisters the good news. After I told them, I told my brothers the wonderful news to. They were pretty excited about the possibility of having a day off from school. My mom was the only one who didn't think that a snow day would be fun. She said that weekdays were the time for her to relax and for us to think. We told her that we would just outside and play, and it would be like we weren't even there.


At the very least, the boys keep me entertained. And who knows, maybe one day they'll break through the mechanics and grammar rules of writing to earn lots of money and make me a mother to an author(s)!

Rain Gutter Regatta

The cub scouts held a Rain Gutter Regatta this year.  This was the first regatta I've ever attended.  Chad said he'd never done one when he was in cub scouts.  Daniel just missed being a cub by 3 months.  Darn.

Anyway, Nathan sanded and painted a little boat and anticipated the event.  The weather was a little warm, so it was a good night to be outside and playing with water!

There are a few differences between a Rain Gutter Regatta and a Pinewood Derby.  The biggest difference was the lack of regulations.  There weren't any serious requirements to building the boats.  No one weighed or measured or qualified the boys' individual boats.  Some of them even had sails made from paper instead of the sail that came with the kit.  They had a rule that you couldn't touch the boat, but when they got stuck, someone usually reached in and freed the vessel for the sailor.  They did give first, second and third place, but I don't think that really represented the boats very well because the races weren't really monitored all that closely. (I don't know if these differences are specific to our pack, or if the regattas really are more just laid-back.)

Another difference in a regatta vs. a derby is that the boys have to do the work!  Gravity and a little skill in building a sleek race car are what make or break a winner.  In a regatta, a strong set of lungs is what really counts!  Unfortunately for Nathan, while he has a strong personality, he doesn't have much in the way of blowing strength.  He huffed and puffed out his cheeks with a steady determination.  I don't know how much
he filled his lungs to do that, though!

Nathan raced several times and got ahead several times, but life on the high seas still waters of a rain gutter can turn treacherous and snag a sail boat in an instant.  He lost more races that he won.

And he usually wasn't very happy about it.  Of course, a younger (7 yrs.) boy had come up to him before the races started and told him that his boat wasn't very good and he wasn't going to win.  That made him feel bad and he admitted that he didn't like that kid very much.  I felt the same!  Some people should teach their kids better manners so my kids don't have to feel so bad!

But Nathan did win sometimes and Chad caught one of those moments in motion.

(By the way, this movie wouldn't load in Internet Explorer, but only took 10 minutes or so in Google Chrome.  Glad to have options!)

And while the real sailors competed, there was a splash pool for the tiny sailors to keep busy in.  They even had little boats to sail.  Joseph really enjoyed himself.  (That little girl in the back is Ady.  Joseph says he'll marry her someday since he can't marry Sarah.)

And then there are little trouble makers like that little girl in the purple shirt.  She was the smallest one there and was getting everyone the wettest.

I don't think she was one bit sorry for it, either!!

Nathan's tooth saga

It seems like this kid does everything slowly. He wakes up slowly, he eats slowly, he pouts slowly (and endlessly), he grows slowly, he listens slowly, he works slowly and he loses teeth slowly.

At the end of May, we were dealing with Nathan's first loose top tooth. He is 9! The thing was taking an excruciatingly long time to loosen up. It tilted, then it tipped, it twisted and then started to wave at passersby. I could finally take no more and started pestering the child to get rid of that tooth. Eventually he agreed to put a piece of floss on it.

Nathan was enjoying the attention. We eventually got the floss high enough and tight enough that he HAD to get the tooth out to get the floss out.

It took him a few moments, but Nathan managed to get it out somehow and showed me his new smile. For some reason, he thought he should open his eyes really wide for the picture, too. And then after all that fighting over the darned thing, Nathan lost the tooth! Oh well, the tooth fairy was kind.

Several weeks later the other front tooth started showing signs of coming out. But it did the same lazy tricks, including doing a little dance right there in his mouth. I told him last night that today was the day; that tooth was COMING OUT!

We reminded Nathan of the experience Daniel had getting his tooth out on the 4th of July 3 years ago. It involved extreme measures. Read about it here. It must have made an impression on him because he came to me today and asked me to put some floss on it and pull it out. I almost fell over. I knew there was a good reason I liked this kid so much!

It took 3 tries, but the tooth is out. He flinched, but didn't cry. He did bleed and wipe in on my yellow hand towel - darned kid! ;) Now he looks much more respectable. He also looks 7. Slow teeth.

Compositions

Nathan has been cleaning out his desk and has a few funny things he's written. Here are several from one notebook.

How I Help at Home is helping out in the kitchen. I set the table, wipe the table, do the dishes, or sweep. But sometimes I forget to do my job.

(I can vouch for that last statement.)

I made someone feel better when my little sister, Sarah was crying. Sometimes I help my little brother. Sometimes I can't help them because I have to do other stuff.

(Other stuff, like sitting on the couch, I'm guessing.)

My favorite thing about trees is that I can climb them. At my house there is four trees that I can climb. Except I don't like the ants.

(I don't like the ants, either.)

My home is big, but not too big. My room is mostly clean but sometimes it isn't. I wish my attic was one that I could go in. Sometimes my home annoys me.

(Sometimes it annoys me, too. Anyone know anyone who wants to buy it? And I'd like to argue that comment about his room being mostly clean.)

I could teach someone to ride their bike. I teach three people. But one of them are not old enough yet.

(Bike riding lessons anyone?)

A Person I Admire is my Brother. Because he gets gets to have everything that I want to have. But sometimes he is really rude.

(I'm not sure he understands the fine line between admiration and jealousy. But he's right about that rude stuff.)

I would do the running part. Because I like running and I couldn't do anything else. But I would only do it if I HAD to be in a talent show.

(I have my own aversion to talent shows.)

I didn't think I could ever ride a bike. At first I was a little wobbly. When I was finally better I still had a problem. I couldn't control my brakes, I kept running into my dad's truck. But now I can.

(Yes, that is a problem!)

My favorite season is Summer, because I don't have to go to school. I kind of like Fall, but I get to play outside more in the Summer. I like Summer because I get to eat ice cream.

(Ice cream is often the final decision maker for me, too!)

The most important person I konw is my dad, because he is the one that fixes the bathroom. Sometimes I help him.

(The bathroom is very important in our house!)


I hope you got a little chuckle. Nathan is a funny kid. Here is how he described himself, using the letters of his name:
Nice
Artistic
Tiny
Happy
Awsome
Noisy

Slow-growing

I gave Nathan a haircut this morning, literally minutes before the bus arrived. It was a quick and sloppy job involving the 1/2" and 1/4" guards on the clippers. We quickly dusted him off, sent him up for a new shirt and out he went.

He was just telling me that only two people noticed his haircut...his best friend, Robert and his teacher. Then, he wisely deduced the reason why his teacher noticed:

"Because my hair didn't have very much time to grow."

Very true. Maybe she wouldn't have noticed anything by tomorrow. ;)

Compositions

I've been saving several papers from Nathan and Daniel's school work. Because I saved, but didn't share, my stack is now pretty big. I'll share them with over the next little while, starting now with one from Nathan. When I first read this one, I asked him if he wrote it himself or only copied for handwriting practice.

He assured me he wrote it himself, with guidelines/required elements from his teacher.



My Favorite Place
by Nathan Collett

I like the forest.
I like the forest, because I like to see the tall trees towering over me, and the long branches stretching over the sky.
I like to lay in the soft, brown, warm dirt and see the green leaves, and the colorful birds soaring through the sky.
I like to see the yummy fruits on the big plants.
I try to find out what kinds of strange animal trackes I can see.
(if there are any)
Except there's one thing that I don't like: SPIDERS!! They freak me out when they crawl on me!
Sometimes when I'm walking through the forest I hope I'll see a monkey, but I know I won't.
Sometimes when I'm walking through the forest I get very thirsty, and I just have to go get a drink.
So, I get a drink and go back to walking.

I love getting things like this crammed into the bottom of the boys' backpacks. :) What funny kids I have. And what makes this even more humorous is that we rarely make it to the "forest." Nathan has quite an imagination!

Get out and give me 10!

I had to run into town today to get Leah's glasses tightened (have I mentioned she got glasses?) and exchange something. On the way home, the boys got into it in the back seat.

I am SO SICK of those two and their misbehaving in the back seat. If it weren't for car seats and boosters, I would have them as far from each other as possible. I screamed at them on the way home from a store on Saturday and that had some effect for a short while. (Another reason why I'll never receive any parenting awards.)

So after listening to at least 5 minutes of laughing and screaming and watching arms flying, I turned the opposite way off our freeway exit and stopped on the side of the road. I opened the side door and told both of them to get out. Daniel was seriously distressed. I think he thought I was going to make them walk home. I admit to wishing it was possible, but we were still a good 5 miles from home.

What I DID do was make one of them stand off to the side and told the other to go around the van 10 times. When he was done, they switched places. It was cold and windy and neither one of them grabbed their jacket on the way out. I wouldn't have thrown it to them anyway. Even though they laughed and goofed off while they did their laps, they were silent the rest of the way home. And to me, that is a success. Even better, I didn't raise my voice or spank any rear ends. Maybe I do deserve a parenting award. But just a little one.

I will definitely do this again. *wink*

Work of Art

It's Nathan's job to do the dishes this week. We're lazy parents...doing the dishes just means rinsing them. We're working on loading the dishwasher, but the complaining has scared us off (just as it is probably meant to do).

Nathan may have enjoyed himself a little bit this evening. This is what the sink looked like after he walked away.
The top cup is full of silverware.

If you look very carefully, this masterpiece has "nine-year-old boy" written all over it!

Half A Smile

Daniel and Nathan got fillings today. Daniel said he was numb, but I couldn't tell by looking at him.

Nathan, on the other hand...

Typical Moment

I was thinking about the personalities of the kids on Monday when they were all home. Things were energetic around here, to say the least! Though they aren't robots, the kids are fairly predictable. If someone was to come by at any given time (and we didn't overrun them in excitement) this is likely what they'd see of each child:

Daniel: he is running from person to person, room to room, stirring up trouble and delighting in the squeals of his siblings

Nathan: he is curled up in a corner somewhere with a book (probably hiding from Daniel)

Leah: she is screaming...at Daniel and then she's reporting it all to me

Rebekah: she is prancing and dancing through the house, singing a silly song and laughing (maybe Daniel has made her insane)

Joseph: he is coloring a picture he made me print off the computer, while he waits until I think it's snack time -or- he is watching The Wiggles (he mostly flies low and stays off Daniel's radar)

Sarah: she is exploring, investigating, climbing, crawling, running and falling...she has quite a bruise collection (Daniel knows not to tease her!)

And with all this, at least I can say that I know what to expect (for the most part).
_________

Some moments from the morning so far:

While horsing around, Daniel threw his hat which then knocked something behind the piano. I gave him a look and a "DANIEL!" to which he replied: "It's Nathan's fault! He ducked!"

Joseph is watching The Wiggles, "Wiggly Safari" and he just saw two characters in a pond of water imitating a kookaburra. It was rather animated. When it was over he said, "That was weird." I laughed because I had just been thinking the same thing!

President someday

I love finding little gems like these in the kids' school work. (Sorry it's crooked. I am a lazy perfectionist.) I hope you can read it OK. This is very Nathan.

Nathan is NINE!

I still can't believe we've kept him alive this long...he hardly eats anything. Not only is Nathan is alive, but he is FULL of life! (And sometimes just "full of it.")

I felt a little guilty for rushing through Nathan's birthday this year. We had gone out to eat two night earlier, so that wasn't rushed. But this year, Nathan's b-day fell on the same night as my Relief Society meeting and I had to do something for it.

So we had a quick dinner and moved onto presents. Luckily, we'd scaled back and Nathan didn't have as much to open. That didn't lessen the magic any.

And then it was time for brownies and ice cream. (My sincere thanks to Nathan for wanting brownies. I would have had a hard time decorating a cake this year!)

Nathan said he wanted the brownies warm, so they were baking while we had dinner. They were cooling while we opened presents. Too bad they didn't cool longer. Do you know what happens to wax candles when you stick them into hot brownies? I wish I'd thought ahead about 10 seconds.

See the candles tipping over? It was not pretty in more than one way.

While the wax was dripping on top, it was melting inside. We were nearly left with only the candle strings!

I assured the kids the wax would not hurt them, though it might stick in their teeth. What a lovely birthday for Nathan. Sorry, bud!

But they were troopers and undaunted by the blue wax. They ate 7/8 of the pan. I had my share when I got home. I think I got a wax-free piece. (Thank goodness!)

Nathan's favorite gift was a little hex bug he got. He's still dreaming up what to do with his birthday monies, but hasn't sent any thank you notes, so he isn't allowed to go shopping yet. I think more hex bugs are in his (our) future.

Nathan's Talent

The elementary had a talent show a couple of weeks ago. They went through a bit of a selection process by having classroom talent shows and letting the kids vote for their favorite two. The winners of the voting moved to the school-wide show at the end of the week.

Before I understood this process, I was a little surprised when Nathan said he'd advanced to the Friday show. Not that I don't think Nathan is talented, but his talent was a grandfather clock he'd made in 1 hour (or less) with K'nex...by following the directions. But I understand that the kids all gasped and ooh'd when he brought it out. I guess the colors were dazzling.

So we (Sarah, Joseph and I) went to the school to support Nathan. We waited almost an hour before it was his turn. Finally, he walks up with his clock, holds it in the air and says, "This is a grandfather clock I made by K'nex." After a moment, the audience realized he was done and started clapping. Then he walked back to his seat. Yep, that's our Nathan!

Pinewood Derby!

It was Daniel's 3rd and last derby and Nathan's first (he missed it by 6 days last year). I was looking forward to watching the boys have this experience together.

They made their cars. Chad did help (of course) but they have satisfaction knowing that it was their car...their design, their work. Several boys in our troop can't say that and I think they missed out on a great learning experience as well as a great memory. But their Dads were sure strutting that night!!

Here are their cars...Daniel's is blue. Nathan's looks like a stretch SUV. Surprisingly, they were pretty good little cars.

Here is one of the earliest races. Nathan's car was the clear winner. And this is one of the few times I got a clear picture.

The younger kids all wanted to get as close as possible to the action...much to the irritation of the "officials." It didn't take too long before they were bored with the tedium of race after race...they all ran off.

Do all Pinewood Derby tracks look the same?

Handsome Daniel (Webelos) waiting for his turn.

Adorable Nathan (Wolves), doing the same.

And the blur of the races. Nathan's isn't winning here.

But it is here.

I did get pictures of Daniel's car winning, too. But it's just more blurs. The final result was that in the Webelos division, Daniel came in 3rd place. It came with a ribbon, which apparently gave Daniel a HUGE self-esteem boost! In the Wolves and Bears division, Nathan came in 4th. Not bad for his first race (and his monster SUV)!

This night, Nathan also received a special pin for completing all requirements in the achievements. He worked hard for that!

I am thankful for the scouting program and the experiences the boys get from participating.