The Great Race

Well, we didn't win first or second place this year in the Pinewood Derby, but we figured we would still post about it because we did have fun! And, our cars look amazing!

As you may already know from this post, Andrew's car was "The Lightning Bolt" and Brianna built the best looking race car in the world. Here are some more pictures of our painting process.

Andrew made some cool looking wheels as well, by painting inside the spokes, and then he wiped off the paint on the lines.

And here are the finished products:

A whole lot of planning, time, and masking tape went into making these stripes. Also, in case you can't tell, that is a plastic spoon on top of the car (Andrew's great idea).

The Pinewood Derby, as always was crazy, but lots of fun! There are so many kids who come to race a car or just watch. Combine a lot of kids with a lot of energy and a lot of popcorn, and you've got one heck of mess to clean up...and a great adventure! There were other adults who raced cars too, but not as many. I guess we are just big little kids! There were 32 cars that raced in the Open Class race, and out of 32, we both did better than half the other cars! Brianna tied for 10th place and Andrew got 14th!

Here are some other pictures from the night to document that we did win a few races. And if you really want to see something cool, watch the movie clips we recorded on our camera. Disclaimer: Brianna here and this is the first real time I've recorded a movie on our camera. I turned the camera on its side because then I could get the whole track. Unfortunately, videos can't be rotated as easily as pictures. So, please, turn your screen or your head to the side, and you will enjoy the movies a lot more!

There really is another car here...Andrew's was so fast, that the other car is still racing; hidden behind the sign.

This is Brianna's car...watch how speedy it is!

Here is Andrew's close race:

A Penny Saved

So do you have a jar that collects spare change? Do you have a special place where you put the money that you harvest twice a year from under the couch cushions or out of the vacuum after cleaning the car? Do you pick up pennies in the parking lot or swoop down for the occasional quarter that is just sitting there on the road? If you have answered no to these questions, here is some advice from us…take the time to pick it up and put it in a jar and turn it into a special fund. For us, every time we pick up a penny off the ground it goes to our Ice Cream fund!!

Instead of using a jar for the coins we have this quirky looking little piggy bank thing we got as a freebie item from a company. Ironically the piggy bank has the logo of a bank in Colorado that went under just last year. Anyways we put an amazing hand drawn picture of an ice cream cone over the business logo to remind us of the importance of building this fund. It is a lot of fun. Every time we find a dirty penny as we’re walking into the grocery store or do some deep cleaning and come across a nickel or a dime we smile and put it into the ice cream fund. Over the winter months it tends to build up a bit as we prepare for the summer time. We have found that this money is best allocated towards buying ice cream at the grocery store because the ice cream can be enjoyed for longer than one day…like our last post and disappointing experience with the parable of the VERY small ice cream cone. Anyways, just this last week we opened up the ice cream fund and counted our earnings…and WOW it had grown a little! So we went out and got some ice cream at the store. We picked up some other items while we were there, but we even made sure to make two separate purchases, so we could use the money specifically for the ice cream.

The Andrew and Brianna Ice Cream Fund was established around 2007 and has been going strong ever since. If you would like to make a contribution to the Andrew and Brianna Ice Cream Fund, please drop it on the sidewalk in front of our house or in the gutter next to our car. We prefer small coins no larger than a quarter to help conserve space in our piggy bank.

A Tale of Two Cones

On Saturday, I (Andrew) had an all day event for work and Brianna got to come too. By the time we left, it was late afternoon and we were tired and ready to head home; but we had an hour and a half to drive. I figured a nice way to say thank you to Brianna for spending all day at this event with me would be to go out and get some ice cream. This was going to be a treat because usually if we buy ice cream we buy a half gallon at the grocery store, so we can have it a lot longer instead of just one time.

We both got small cones; I got vanilla and Brianna got chocolate. I stood, waiting at the counter for them to bring out the ice cream. Two different employees ended up making the ice cream cones, and apparently, they had very different opinions about the size of a small cone. They handed me the cones, but something was wrong! Brianna’s cone was three times the size of mine! The cones cost the same amount, but there was a very noticeable difference in the size, so I stood there, holding the cones out in front of me, and said, “Really?” The employee who made Brianna’s cone looked shocked, and said to the other employee, “You must have been making a kid cone.” He looked pretty annoyed, took the cone, and went back to the ice cream machine to add another blob to make it a little bigger.

Even though Brianna’s small cone was still bigger than my small cone, I figured it was as big as it was going to get. We sat down, smiled, and ate ice cream. Brianna was nice enough to share some of her chocolate ice cream with me. The moral of the story is, the next time we want ice cream, we will just go to the grocery store to buy a half gallon there. Things will probably work out better that way.

Bowling and Airplanes

Andrew and I get to work with the young single adult group at church and we have had some fun activities! A few weeks ago, we went bowling on the dollar night. After the leagues are done at 9:30, it starts, and it is only $1 for shoes and $1 for every game. We haven't been bowling very often; this was only our second time in the last year and a half. But, in high school, I was able to take a PE class where we went bowling for a few months, and although I wasn't good, I definitely improved. Unfortunately, the other night was only a reminder that I didn't improve enough.

Look at that swing!

I set what I thought was a realistic goal of getting at least 100 for my score. That seemed very realistic because you can get a total of 300 points. If this was a test and I got 100 out of 300, it would be failing. Fortunately, it wasn't a test, just a game of bowling! We played two games, and in the first I got a 90. The second game, I got a 94. Andrew started the night with a 119 and in the second game he got a 92. If you notice from the scores below (second one), he got a lot of spares. Unfortunately, he didn't get a strike all night!

If you will notice my score (bottom one), and look in the last two frames, you will see that I got a strike...followed by two gutter balls. What a way to end the game!

Even though we didn’t do great, it was a great night! We had a lot of fun with those who are able to come.

Last week, we decided to make paper airplanes and do airplane golf. Basically, it is just like frisbee golf, but we did it inside, made our own targets, and threw airplanes instead of frisbees. We had done this a week or so before with our Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) group and it was a lot of fun! I made a beautiful plane called "The Arrow." This plane deserved a name; it was long and straight and I was hoping it would fly straight as well. I probably should have given it another name, because although it flew beautifully, it rarely flew straight at the target. My score was almost higher than my bowling score!

Andrew is a master airplane architect, and even though we had books that showed different airplanes, usually his normal one flew the best. This is the airplane he has been making pretty much his whole life. His dad used to make paper airplanes for them, so all through school, whenever he needed a plane to fly, this is the one he made. After the activity, we kept flying them around the gym, trying to get them to do loops or really go the distance.

Here are some more fun pictures from the night. We have a sports setting on our camera that takes picture after picture and works well when you are moving around. But my favorite pictures in these are the ones right after we let go of the plane.

Even though it looks like I am dancing to "Staying Alive," I promise I was flying planes too.

Then again...maybe not!

Andrew makes a great statue!

I think we must like paper airplanes a lot because this is not the first time we've done them. When we were first dating, Andrew planned up a paper airplane flying date and it was one of my favorites! We went to the Tanner Building at BYU to make them and fly them. This building is kind of weird; it is a big rectangle, and all of the classrooms and offices are on the outer part of the rectangle. Then, there is a big open atrium in the middle (see photo below). When you walk in on one side, you are on the fourth floor, and then you can go all the way down through the atrium, and walk out the other side on the first floor. If you go at night, when there aren't students there studying, it is a great place to fly paper airplanes because they glide forever! Just watch out for the reflection pool at the bottom!

Picture courtesy of BYU Marriott School Photo File