Pinewood Derby 2018

April 21, 2018: Pinewood Derby 2018

This is Versii's last Pinewood Derby and Paxton's very 1st!

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Special Thanks to my brother Jeff for adding the weights, wheels and axles to the cars for Versii and Paxton!  The boys really enjoyed designing and painting their cars, but the weights, axles and wheels are one of the most important parts of derby car designing!  So many thanks Jeff, we really appreciate all hard work!  I am confident that their cars were so fast because of your skills!

 Paxton's car is #1...but the "Pax" probably gave it away haha!  He painted it purple and I helped him paint the flames and cut out the letters Pax.

He named his car "The Pax".

 Versii's car is #26.  He painted the base gray and then I helped him get the design effect he was going for by adding a little water to the dark gray and black paints and flicking them on using a straw.  Then we cut out the "V" and strips from silver tape.

Versii named his car "Silver Arrow".

 Versii's friend Dathan, from down our street, came with us to the derby.  They enjoyed having him there, although none of their faces show it here haha!

Video of the boys cars racing and the awards!

 Here's the final derby numbers: 

Versii came in 2nd place overall, with his best time being 2.5175 and average speed of 196.4 MPH. 

Paxton came in 4th place, with his best being 2.5380 and 194.8 MPH 

 Versii with his 2nd Place trophy (He also was awarded a certificate for "Smoothest Finish"- not pictured) and Paxton with his Award for "Most Colorful".

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 Kaden wasn't at Derby since he had a sleep-over with his friend Gabe the night before, where they enjoyed a movie and playing disc golf. 

New Additions to our Garden

April 20, 2018: We picked out some new trees and plants for our garden.  I love our new magnolia tree!  (top left)

 The magnolia blossoms!  So beautiful!

 Bleeding Heart

 In the back yard we added a lilac tree!  I'm so excited to see it bloom!  

 We also added this Coral Bark Japanese Maple to the backyard.  It will be really fun to see it grow and mature over the years.

The cherry blossom trees aren't new, but they are blooming and I love them!

 I actually had this plant in a pot for several months and managed not to kill it! I decided it was finally time to add it to the yard.

We still have so much more work to do in our yard.  After the remodel we started the yard with a blank canvas, no grass and not a single plant in the front yard.  Over the past few years we have added plants and trees little by little.  I love how it's turning out and I love added to our garden.  I especially love spring and watching everything start to bloom and grow!

Paxton's 1st Lacrosse Game

 April 14, 2018: Paxton's 1st Lacrosse Game - 2 games back-to-back in Hood River, Oregon...which is about an hour drive from home.  It was a windy day, but dry and about 60 degrees, which made for good game weather.  As a spectator it was a little cold.  Josh, Versii and I huddled together in attempts to stay warm!  They tied the first game and lost the 2nd, but Paxton had fun playing.  

Video from the game and playing at Waterfront Park afterward.

 Beautiful Waterfront Park in Hood River.  

April 16, 2018: 2 days after the first set of games, Paxton had a home game here in Camas.  Josh was sick, so I ended up going alone.  Luckily, it did not rain on us, but the field was muddy and the weather was in the 40's with a breeze.  I nearly froze!  It took me hours to warm up after.  

I caught some lighting in this video clip of the game.  It happened a few times in the last ten minutes of the game.  Glad it was time to wrap it up when that started.

McKenzie's Party

 April 7, 2018: Driving to Aunt Mandie's for McKenzie's birthday party.  Versii rode in Papa's truck with Aubry, Mimi and Zita.

Josh and I with AO.

Josh and his sister Mandie.

Mandie and Marcus.

Jenn, Josiah and his girlfriend Genna.

Josh with his Mom, Ari and Versii.

McKenzie and Paxton.

 Most of the days we were in Texas, the temperature was in the 70's...except on the day of the party, the temp dropped to 40 degrees and cloudy.  Although the kids did not let the low temperature stop them from enjoying the bounce house.  They played hours and hours, only coming in for snacks and short breaks.  

Josh and Joe.

Ariel handmade a bunch of these tiny personal unicorn pinata's for the party.

Jenna, Josiah and Damian.

Joe, Ariel and McKenzie.

Versii and Mr. Lemonade

Mandie, AO and Marcus.

All the Texas cousins, except Abi...pictured below with Josh.  L to R: Paxton, Kaden, Logan, McKenzie, Aubry, Versii, Ari and AO.

Video clips from the party.

The kids laughing as Josh and Mandie put on a puppet show using the finger puppets we got McKenzie.  (clip of said show in above video montage.)

Thanks for the great party Ariel and thanks Mandie for hosting us all at your place!  We had so much fun hanging out and playing!

The top photo is of Josh with his "Texas" siblings taken during our visit in 2015 and the bottom is from this trip (2018).  L to R: Ariel, Josiah, Amanda, Autumn and Josh