A New Plan

I'm sad that The Piks blog has been on the back burner.  This is such a great place to keep track of our life and adventures and share them with our family and friends!  I've realized though that at this time, I don't have the time or energy (mostly energy I think) to blog several times a week.  It's become so easy just to post a picture to Facebook, but I don't want to abandon the blog!  I actually really like writing, and I love going back and looking at what was going on with us at different times.

So I'm going to try something new:  one post a week guaranteed (I'm thinking Tuesday) and possibly more if we have some excitement around here!  Even though it's not Tuesday, here's a little something...  Because we had some excitement around here!

Today was the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby.  I had heard about this, but I thought the boys made their cars, then got together and rolled them down a hill.  Really, I don't know where I thought they would find a hill where we live.  Anyway, turns out this is a major, intense, big deal, official weights and measures kind of event!  Yes it was fun and exciting, but also serious business!  I got to help check in the cars, which means I helped make sure they were regulation size, would roll on the track, weighed no more than 5 ounces, and then put the number sticker on the car.  Once a scout or family member checked in their car it was whisked behind the track and they couldn't touch it again until the races were over.  Brian got the job of placing the cars at the top of the track and releasing them for each race.  While all the official business of checking in the cars was going on, kids could build a Lego car to race after the pinewood cars.

This was a new track for our pack this year.  Pretty cool!

Screens to let you know who's racing, what lane they are in, and who's on deck.  Pretty cool!

Voting on their favorite Lego cars

I tried to get some pictures of the screens when the boys or Brian would come in first in their heats.  The lights affected how my pictures look.

 Brian in his official role as track starter!  These two pictures were of the Lego races.

I'm pretty sure Coleman won in the Youth, non-Boy Scout category.  Brian won in the Adult category, and Spence made it to the Grand Finals in the Boy Scout category.  There were four heats, and he was looking good to win 2nd, but in the final heat his car jumped the track!  It was pretty exciting, but left him in 8th place. 

This was really a fun event!  And yes, I was surprised by how much fun it was.  Can't wait for next year!