GRAY
On Occasion
Thursday, September 27, 2012
September 2012
My favorite activity is hearing the kids prayers. Spencer's are so cute! They are almost always the same, but he always says, "We fank vee for the Holy Ghost. We fank vee for Jesus." somewhere in there. I love it. Addison is also striving to pray and usually we have to have more than one prayer per praying instance as she wants to say it too. Can't hurt right?
Jason is still working at Fido-just a long commute. He often takes the bus to Salt Lake in the early morning (still dark out) and comes home late after 7. I miss him! And I'm still working, but from home more often than not. Life is good and we are tired, but happy. The most recent special experience was attending the Brigham City temple dedication with Jason, Jonah, and Jonathan last Sunday. Jonathan was so excited to be in the "temple" as the stake center becomes an extension of the temple. It was a marvelous experience and the spirit was strong there. I hope the boys remember that their whole lives.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Happy 37th Jason!
I think Addison only ate hershey kisses for her breakfast.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Epic Water-Balloon Fight!!!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
In Memoriam
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Murder at the Pinewood Derby
I call Jonah's...the Golden Doorstop.
I don't remember what he called it; the Golden Bullet? the Golden Rocket? The Golden Wedge? It looked better without the weights attached.
Jonathan's is the Silver Speedbump.
I can't remember the name he gave his, either. He designed his own too. He wanted it flat, with a bump in the middle.
Unfortunately, since Jon-Jon technically isn't a cub scout until March, he wasn't allowed to race with the other cubs. He did race in the open heats (free-for-all) after the cubs were done.
Jonah's did pretty well. We decided to have two wards participate since the rental cost of the track is so high. Jonah ran 1st in every heat he raced, but his overall time placed him 5th (out of 25-30?). The funny thing is there was a cub whose car weighed in at less than 3 oz (max weight is 5 oz), so I gave him the weights I was going to put on Jon-Jon's car, and the cub ended up beating Jonah's overall time, though they never ended up racing each other in an actual heat. I think the kid ended up in 2nd place. He kept having to retape the weights on every couple of heats or so.
(Jonah at weigh-in. The weights weren't yet attached. Did I already mention procrastinating 'til the last minute?)
Even without the weight, Jon-Jon's car beat a lot of others in the open heats, though weighing only 2 oz. Now, I have to pause here, and declare that I am NOT one of those dads who pours all this money into the cars, and squirts graphite powder onto the axles between every heat. (Yes, the cars that won all had that kind of attention lavished upon them.) (Oh all right. So I am honest enough with myself to admit that if I had known we could, I would have done that too. The graphite powder between heats, not the crazy money.)
I remember making my first and only Pinewood Derby car as a cub scout. I designed it myself, carved it with a cub scout knife myself, and painted it myself. It was a KITT Car, from the eighties television show "Knight Rider" with David Hasslehoff. I asked my dad for help when I was done, putting on the wheels and weights. He drilled holes and countersunk fishing weights. It was cool. And amazingly enough, I won the cub scout division in my ward! Ok. TMI. This is about the boys, not me.
They both had a blast! I made them design their own cars, and even though I made the cuts on the bandsaw (kudos to you Dave!), they did all the sanding, and some of the painting. I would have made them do all the painting but it was the last night before the race, and after a couple of coats, it was way too late for them to stay up. Who am I kidding, it was way too late for me to stay up.