Pinewood Derby Champions

Since Jacob won first place in his Webolos den at the pack pinewood derby, he got to compete in the city-wide pinewood derby race.  We weighed his car at home and it weighed exactly 5 ounces (which is the maximum weight for the race.)  However, the scales at the competition weighed differently.  They showed that his car was .04 ounces over weight.  Luckily Brent had brought his tools to do any last minutes adjustments.  He and Jacob drilled two holes in the bottom of the car to take off just the right amount of extra weight.

Jacob names his yellow car, "The Striker".  There were a lot of interesting cars ready to race.

The race track they used was GREAT!  It was much longer than the one our pack has, and it was all electronic.  As each car crossed the finish line, it recorded the actual time and also converted the race time into miles per hour.

"On your mark, get set, GO!" 

Considering that Jacob's car was racing against the fastest cars in the city, it did quite well.  Jacob came in 9th place out of 17 cars.  He raced four times.  His average speed was 3.2734 seconds which is 209.3 miles per hour.

This was Jacob's last year to race in the Pinewood Derby.  It was a great experience to be able to race other cars in the city.

                                                           We sure love Cub Scouting!

Pinewood Derby

One of the most exciting events for a cub scout is the annual pinewood derby.

Even before the official race began, the boys had fun running their cars down the track.  Whether your car is fast or not so fast, it is just fun to see it race.

Jacob had a great time designing, making, and painting his car.

He won an award for the most "creative car".

Jacob also won a first place award.  His was the fastest car in the Webolos den.  Yeah!  Since this was his last year to participate in the pinewood derby, it was great to be the first place champion.

Cub Scouts is a wonderful program and Jacob is lucky to be in a pack with so many great boys.

Got Milk?

I belong to a milk co-op where we get fresh milk, cream, and eggs from a dairy farm.  Everyone takes a turn to drive out to the farm to get the milk.  I have been a member of the co-op since last July, but January was my first time to do the "milk run". 
In March, the assigned person couldn't go, so I volunteered.  Brent wanted to see the farm, so he took a day off work.  It was Jacob's spring break, so he came along also.
It is about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the farm.  Along the way, we saw some moose eating some bails of hay.

The cows at this farm are grass-fed in summer and fed hay in the winter.

When the cows are milked, the milk goes straight into a big refrigerated holding tank.  We then fill our empty jars from the holding tank.

I was very glad that Brent and Jacob were there to help lift the heavy coolers with milk jars back into the car.

I love having fresh milk from the dairy.  I grew up drinking that at my grandmother's house and there is nothing better.

Detroit

Even though Jacob and I enjoyed sight seeing in Chicago while Brent was in his conference meetings, the real reason we tagged along on this trip was to visit with Amy and her family. Wednesday morning, Brent took the train to the airport and picked up a rental car. He then drove back to the hotel to get Jacob and me. We drove four hours to a nice suburb of Detroit where Amy and Jeff live. We had so much fun visiting and playing with Olivia and Ethan.

Olivia and I put together this great puzzle.  Olivia loves dinosaurs.

Ethan is such a happy boy.

Since Jacob was missing school, one of his assignments was to write a paper comparing and contrasting Chicago and Detroit.  Since we had stayed in downtown Chicago, to make it a fair comparison, we needed to visit downtown Detroit.  On Thursday, Amy suggested we go downtown and ride the People Mover tram. 

It was about a 15 minute ride around town and gave us a good overview of the city. (We rode around city route twice--and it only cost 50 cents a person!)   It really was interesting to compare the two cities.  (I'm not a "big city" kind of gal, but if I had to choose I think I would rather live in Chicago.)

The next day, Jeff took some time off work and we all went to the Edsel and Eleanore Ford house. (It was nice that we could all drive together in Amy and Jeff's new van.)  The house was beautiful and the tour was fascinating.

Not only is the house wonderful, but the play house that they had built for their daughter is incredible.  The living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom are fully furnished and even include running water. 

Olivia and I wished we could have stayed and played house together.

We had a great time being together.  After the little ones went to bed, we watched movies and played games.  Jacob loved being one of the "big people" and staying up after Olivia and Ethan went to bed.

Brent and I loved spending time with our grandchildren.

Jacob loved being with his sister...

and playing with his niece and nephew.

Even though the trip was short, we are glad we got to visit with Amy, Jeff, Olivia, and Ethan.