Darren's big day

My little baby is 2 years old! So hard to believe. He was so much fun on his birthday. Here is a glimpse of the festivities. Hope you enjoy!


A word about Barney...Aaron says he has no shoes because they are cement shoes and Barney is about to sink to his death in the lake. Graphic and cruel, yes. But my children introduced him to Barney (on demand) and he has really loved him. I can't get Darren to sing "I am a Child of God" which I sing to him daily but he will sing "I love you" after watching Barney a few times.

Pinewood Derby

I know that you are all on pins and needles awaiting the result of Alex's first pinewood derby so I won't delay any longer. We've known that this is coming for about 2 months and had time to actually build two cars. The first car was ready for the ward derby that was held about a month ago. At that time we discovered that the first car wasn't very fast, so we started over and developed the "Black Widow". Alex developed the design and color scheme and Aaron helped him cut it out and paint it. They both worked on the axles and wheels together.

(graphiting the wheels to make it as fast as possible)

Alex's car did pretty well. There were a total of 20 cars between three wards. He had seven 3-car races and took 1st four times and 2nd three times. That was well enough to qualify for the top 8 and the single elimination tourney to determine the final champion.

(Listen for Alex's "YES" after the race is over)

(The top 8 cars)

Well he was matched up against one of the cars that beat him in the opening rounds. He won the first race, but it is a best 2 out of 3, and the other car came back to beat him. We had fun. Aaron was in charge of the races and we enjoyed watching Alex do a little fist pump every time his car came in first. One year we might actually place in the top three, but not this year.