Pine Wood Derby 2014

Kade's car proved to be pretty fast this year.  Darryl has so much fun finding different ways to improve the car's speed and Kade has just as much fun learning about the science behind the speed and winning.  He's always been a kid that just craves that 1st place position.  In the end it was a fun night for everyone.  I just enjoyed watching everyone.  Sure they were competitive but not cruel.  Everyone shared their tips and even their supplies.  Fun night of racing!

Beekeepers are multiplying

Santa brought a kid suit for us last Christmas and Kade and Clint put it to use today to help Darryl move his hives onto the canal bank behind the fence in our backyard.  They were great helpers.  

Side note:  We ended up moving the hives after a few weeks because too many kids play along the canal bank and we were worried they'd mess with the hives and end up getting attacked.  

Eastern'

It has been a couple years since we've made it to the traditional Easterin' spot but this year we made it!  The kids loved hiking in the cave this year and shooting.  Cole loved his little lizard.  He couldn't quit saying, "Awe, it is so cute!"

A Teacher's Reward

I received this text today and it made my week.

"Can you believe "I" am doing Parabolas?  Lol!  Thank you for your help in the past, you are a great teacher!  Hope all is well! Robin Lloyd"

Robin is a student that completely has the ability and understanding but at times is just unable to express the proper process-- so frustrating for her.  I knew one day she would get there.  Good for her!

Oh Ca-na-da

I got to go with Darryl to Toronto for a work show.  I was so excited to get to "explore" a new part of the world.  The first thing I was excited about was something I noticed from the airplane.  Logging is a big industry here and it was so fun to see that they float the logs down the bank of the ocean to transport them.  In the world of gadgets and tools I assumed ways of the past were obsolete.  It was fun to see that they there are still somethings that make sense to do the "good-old" way.  We had such a great time in Canada.  We went for a walk along the boardwalk to a beautiful park that had a cool botanical garden.  Darryl had been there before with a broker and so he wanted to show me an area where a flock of cranes nest in the trees.  They are huge birds that you wouldn't expect to nest high up on thin branches in trees so it is fun to see.  After walking around for a while we found them.  We were caught up in how unusual it was when all of a sudden a large amount of a white substance came pouring down.  Luckily we dodged the majority of the present from the bird but Darryl didn't walk away unscathed.  A small amount had splashed up onto his jacket.  After that had happened we instantly noticed that the sidewalks were "painted" white from the birds droppings--droppings makes it sound so dainty and compact but there was nothing dainty and compact about what these birds were dropping.  It was more like splashing heaps. :-o

Other great things to note about the trip was our view from our hotel room and the food.  From our window we could watch the water planes come in and take off constantly which was fun.  One night we found a great place for Indian food and the next night we found a Japanese place with udon noodles.  We like the udon so much we went back the next night. :-)  

I love being able to see new places.  I never thought I would travel as much as I have just because growing up traveling was making a 25 min. drive to Richfield.  I just couldn't even imagine much beyond that.  I'm so grateful I have had opportunities to travel.

The best thing about the whole trip though was spending some time with my best friend.  It was a great place but all of the experiences  were especially great because I got to enjoy them with Darryl.  Love you.

OUCH!!!

We were in the garage painting beehives while the boys were playing on the various wheeled toys, one of which was Clint's go-cart.  Kade came in holding his finger in his shirt and calmly said, "I hurt my finger."  Noticing all the blood we figured it was worth putting down the paintbrushes to investigate.  Hurt his finger, he did!  He was driving the go-cart and got his finger caught under the wheel.  The road chewed up his finger scraping layers of skin off and making hamburger out of the tissue.  It was pretty gross.  Kade was in shock and so he never cried.  We doctored him up by packing it in clay and then had him lie down with his feet up to treat the shock. These are the pictures of the healing process over 2 weeks, Apr. 9th-Apr. 25th.  It is amazing how quickly the body heals.  The sad part for us was that we left for Canada the day after he did it so we left Grandma and the Nances in charge of taking care of injured Kade.  They must have done a good job because when we got back Kade made the comment that he wished Uncle Ron could bandage it for him.

LooK what I Found

I went to check on Cole during his nap and found him like this.  This is not how he was when I tucked him in.  He apparently didn't like sleeping in his bed and made a bed of his own on the floor.  The other part I love about this shot is how he was sleeping with his hands behind his head.  What a cute little bug!

Boat Engineers

We had Jaxon and Porter over today since they are off track(out of school--they go to year-round school).  They came down to Heber with their dad, who just started working for Redmond in Heber.  Jaxon is quite the creator and so I was not surprised to find he and Kade making boats and floating them down the canal.  I love these little engineers!

The Big Apple-- Here I come!

Clint got his turn to go on a business trip with Dad this month.  They had such a great time.  He was planning on working the booth with Darryl but one of the brokers brought their grandson to play with Clint when they heard he was going to be joining Darryl.  That made the show a little more fun for Clint.  The best part of the tip was exploring the city with Dad.  The next best part was going to Aladdin on Broadway.  What a special experience for a little guy! My favorite comment he made was that he said it is really hard to find a taxi. :)