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!