Pinewood Derby

Last night was our ward pinewood derby. Christian and Carson have been working on Carson's car on and off for the last week. Carson designed his car, they cut it out at a friend's house, sanded and sanded and sanded, painted and sanded (repeated 3 times), put on wheels, graphited, ran in on the treadmill, put on the weights and then put the decals on. It was quite the process! Christian was going to be gone again for the races this year so he made sure it was all ready to go before he left so I wouldn't have to worry about it since I was in charge of the pinewood derby.

 

Carson spray painting his car.

We bought the other two boys their own kits this year also so they could have on to race.

Getting the wheels in place.

Running the car on the treadmill. Someone told us this was a good idea to do, so we tried it out and Carson thinks this is why his car did so well.

 

 Their finished products!

Landon made a gold one.

 

Travis wanted a shark shaped car. It turned out really cool and was actually quite fast when he raced it!

Carson wanted Sea Hawk colors this year for his car.

 

 

 This year for our Derby, we held official weigh-ins the night before our races. Our youth had standards night that night also, so we had many parents that needed to be done before 7 to make it to that. It worked out really well for us and made race day a lot less stressful for us leaders and not so long for our spectators! This year, we had 23 racers: 17 from our own ward and 6 from Byron. We had well over 100 people there to support our scouts. Also different, we had separate brackets for each den (wolves raced wolves, bears raced bears, ets) and then we took the top two from each of the three brackets and had a championship bracket. Carson ended up taking 2nd in the bears bracket and 4th in the championship bracket. He did really good and it was so fun to watch his face as he would race. He was so excited and nervous all at the same time! After all the races were complete, we had refreshments and then anyone who wanted to race their cars could, so Travis and Landon got a chance to race their cars too. A big thank you to my mom and dad to came and took care of the boys during the derby while I was busy running around doing stuff. That was the only thing I missed about last year is that I didn't really get to sit and enjoy the races, but I got to be right next to the track the whole night so that was fun too.

 

 

Here's a look at all the weighed-in cars before the race. It's always fun to see the differences between the cars and which ones the boys really did and which ones the dads "helped" do!

Carson was part of the opening ceremony. They were a little nervous doing it in front of so many people.

 

Carson's first race! Winner!

My mom was snapping pictures for me while I was getting things ready.

Winner.

Grandpa Foulger, Landon and Travis watching some races.

Carson watching nervously as his car heads down the track.

Landon was really into the racing thing for the first bit and then he found it was more fun to play with the kids instead.

His face after a close race with one of his buddies.

 

 Race for 1st and 2nd:

I focused in on the wrong thing but it's a good picture of my dad in the background!

Cheering on his car!

 

2nd place: bears bracket and most futuristic looking car award. (It took me and my fellow committee members an hour to think up awards for each car the night before the race. I'm just glad we did it then and not during the races!)

It was a great derby! As I serve in different positions in the church, I am made more and more aware of how grateful I am for the people that have done those same callings before me and for all their hard work. I don't always realize how much some people do, until I'm in that position. I'm grateful for good people to work with that are always willing to help out and have great ideas for improvement!

Pura Vida: Last days

Pura Vida: This was the slogan we saw everywhere!
Our last full day in Costa Rica, we decided to just stick around the resort and play in the pool. We had actually rescheduled (because we went on the Manual Antonio tour they day before instead of doing surf lessons) surfing lessons for this day, but ended up bagging them and just hanging out. The first part of the day was beautiful! We played a game of water volleyball Powell Foulgers vs Worland (and Thermop) Foulger store people. The Powell team ended up winning. Not long after we finished our game, it started to rain and then it started to pour and it didn't quite until evening, cutting our time outside down a bit :(

 

 

Enjoying our last day in the sun.

 

These were the cutest chairs!

It's hard to see but the rain was really coming down!

 The next morning, we got bright and early(3:45) to get on a bus to take us to the airport to head home. We flew from the San Jose, Costa Rica airport to Atlanta, GA, Minneapolis and then to Billings, MT. We got to Billings about 9 and were home about 11 to fin dour little guys all tucked into their beds ready for us to be home.

Some sights of Costa Rica from out my window of the plane as we flew out!

 

 We were sad to see you go Costa Rica, but maybe we can visit again!

 

Manual Antonio National Park

On Tuesday, we made a last minute decision to book a tour to Manual Antonio National Park. One of the things we wanted to do while we were in Costa Rica was see a sloth. We asked around where we could see them and we were told that if we wanted a good chance of seeing them to go on this tour, so we decided to go. We loaded the bus at 8 in the morning and drove for about 1.5 hours to get there. We unloaded and walked over to the gates of the park and waited and waited and waited for them to let us in. After about 30 minutes, we asked what was going on. Our tour guide (who a really good guide) informed us that the park only holds so many people and it was full so we had to wait to until enough people came out of the park for our entire group (of 50) could go in. We ended up waiting well over an hour in order to get in! We were all ready to give up and head back to the beach somewhere instead when a large group came out and we were able to get in. At one point, the police were called because one tour group was getting a little out of hand and were eventually asked to leave! (We discovered that the Costa Rican tours weren't always very forthcoming about the tours: like you might not get into the park that day if it's full or you probably won't be able to see the volcano you drove for 4 hours one way to see). After all the wait, it was actually a really cool thing. We got to see lots of neat animals that we don't get to ever see.

Loaded on our bus and ready to go the Manual Antonio National Park.



Waiting, waiting, and waiting some more to get into the park. The line was all the way back about a block plus about 50 people in front of us.
 

 

There was some pretty good razor wire on top of the gate to the park.



Just inside the gates of the park, we found this little green frog hiding on the leaves.



Right after the frog, our guide spotted a sloth up in a tree. It was hard to find at first with the naked eye, but once we saw it through the telescope, it was easier to find.


One of the coolest things was to hear Howler Monkeys howling back and forth to each other. The one in this picture was sleeping, but his buddies sure had a lot to say!

Our tour guide telling us about the jungle.



Our group (my dad, mom, Christian, me, Jabin and Megan) right before we went "into" the jungle on a path. It was super hot under all the trees! There was NO air movement at all making us all really sweaty (like run down your back sweaty) and hot.
 

Ready to enter the jungle selfie!



A look at the sloth through the telescope. You could actually see it's face this way.

We loved these monkeys, but they come with a warning. Our tour group had to pile all their gear together and the tour guides guarded it while we went down to the beach because the monkeys will come and steal things out of the bags if they are left unattended! They are sneaky little guys!



A group of monkeys grooming each other.

The beach at the end of the walk was beautiful! We were happy to have some water to cool off in for a bit before we had to head back out of the park and have lunch.

These little grey crabs were all over the black rocks at the beach.

Megan, Jabin, my dad and Christian bobbing in the waves of the ocean.

Hermit crabs were all over the beach and rocks.

 

 

 

Christian and I went for a walk down the beach and discovered this really long snake. He wasn't very fat but sure was long.

These two were trying to redirect water that was bubbling out of the sand.

A big old iguana chilling on a rock.

This monkey had been eyeing this half eaten mango for a while and finally decided to make a run for it and steal it.

Enjoying his mango.

 

Monkey selfie! The dang monkey decided to run down the tree directly above our heads scaring us both!

 

 

 

We got to spend about an hour at the beach before we had to head back out on the trail.  We saw a few more cool things on our way back:

butterfly cocoons.

 A stick bug.

This was one big nasty spider with a huge web!

After we made our way out of the park, we had lunch at a little restaurant. They served tradition Costa Rican dishes to us. Christian and I both signed up for the fish with rice and beans and it was DELICIOUS! We had a traditional drink made from cas fruit (like a sour pear) and for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream served over chopped bananas, pineapple and mango in a sweet syrup! YUM!

Jabin, my dad, my mom, me, Megan, Christian, Mindy and Eric at lunch.

Our traditional Coast Rican meal!

 

This was a funny statue outside the little restaurant we ate at.

That night, we had dinner at a really good steak house down at the marina.