Saying Goodbye

Being a military family (and being students prior to that), we have had our share of goodbyes. Leaving is always hard. But this time, we were the ones being left. I think its almost harder.

We were lucky enough to have a wonderful family, the Durrants, as friends while here in Fayetteville. There family and ours go hand in hand. Jason and Josh are both dentists and are buddies, Liz and I get along very well, Brendan says Harrison is "his best friend ever",  Eva loves to play with Lily, James thinks that Darby is the bomb (and the reason he was okay with going to Sunbeams) and the babies were born within weeks of each other. We have loved getting to know them. Well, Josh was given the chance to be part of a practice in a ski town in Idaho. It would be a great move for their family and so they jumped at it. I am happy for them on their new adventure but sad for us. They moved away last week.

It was especially hard on Brendan as he doesn't make close friends that easily. He and Harrison were two peas in a pod and it would get me emotional when I would see how easy it was for Brendan to be with Harrison. Its a rare thing for him. Well, he has done remarkably well about it, despite being very sad. I am grateful for things like Facetime so that he and Harrison can geek out over Legos from afar. Maybe they will meet again someday. The world is smaller than we think.

Fireantz

Brendan and Eva came home from school with vouchers for free tickets to Kids Night for the local hockey team, the Fireantz. We thought it would be a fun family outing so we went.

Outside, there were a group dressed as Star Wars characters. Paigey wasn't so sure about this Stormtrooper guy.

We settled into our seats and listened to the "pumpin' up" music. Paige danced every time a song came on. She spent the night either dancing or climbing on the seats. Jason went to get snacks midway through the game and took her with him. He came back with this picture. Apparently she was very interested in Darth Maul and he, in turn, thought she was adorable. She gave him a high five. Of all the characters she was interested in the creepiest. Go figure.

Darby, however, didn't appreciate the loudness of it all, especially the introductions as the team came on the ice. I don't think she cared for our hockey experience much in general. In fact, when the snacks came, Darby put a piece of popcorn up her nose. Sigh. Through much huffing and puffing we got it out. What was she thinking??

During the break after the first period, a local business came out to launch T shirts into the audience. Surprise! One landed right at Eva's feet. She was so excited (and has worn it as a nightgown every night since). 

Brendan, who was our only kid who understood the basics of the game, was intently watching. He especially loved the snacks but was very concerned that our team was losing. Though he begged to stay, we left before the game was over since it was already 9pm.

I was pretty worn out when we got home (4 squirrelly kids in loud, cramped quarters after bedtime is no picnic) but I hope sometime I can see a full hockey game. I like how fast paced it is and how they can skate like that is impressive. Go Fireantz!

Our First Pinewood Derby

Brendan has been excited ever since he heard about the Pinewood Derby when he first joined Cub Scouts. The idea of making a car and racing it appeals to him. However, he is not the best at planning his time or following through on plans without a push, so he and Jason were a bit "down to the wire" while making their cars. I say THEIR cars because Jason made one too. It was an Elder's Quorum activity. The dads could make cars that did not have to conform to the regular scouting rules, and would race them after the boys were done. More on that later.

When Jason asked Brendan how he wanted his car to look, he told his dad that he wanted it to be a Minecraft Creeper. In case you don't know Minecraft too well, everything is made from blocks so his car was not terribly aerodynamic. But it looked like a creeper and he loved it. It was cut and painted and the wheels were nailed in, and that's about as much effort as went into it. Jason, on the other hand, purchased tools for this, researched strategies and design online and carefully cut out a realistic racecar. He did some special thing with the wheels (I don't rightly know what it was but he was very intent on it). It was painted red and black. He wanted a flame job but ran out of time. He knew it needed weight so he added a random dental tool to the top. I think it ruined the look but its appearance wasn't what was important, given that other elders were talking about showing up with nitrous and battery engines.

The night before I tried to frontload him about the things that might happen. I wanted to prepare him for losing and for being a good loser and a gracious winner. I knew either would be a real challenge for him. On Saturday we arrived, weighed Brendan's car and registered it. It was 3 ounces so he opted to take to the "pit stop" and add more weight.

The girls ate snacks, played with the toy cars in the corner and made crafts. A good time was had by all.

Here Brendan is with his creeper car. I think he's so cute though he is fast approaching an age when he hates it when I say that. :)

And here is father and son with their cars.

Well, let's just say that it was a good thing we took pictures before the races. Brendan's car did not do very well. He was crushed. He ran out of the room crying after the second heat. It was really hard for me to see how upset he was that his car was losing, even though I expected it. Moments like these are hard for a parent, as I am sure they are hard for the child.

Jason went after him to talk and his Cubmaster raced it for him in the third heat (where he actually got second in that one). I found them later in a side room and heard Jason give part of a life lesson talk about losing, winning, sportsmanship and learning from your mistakes. I added in that it was important that he stick with things. He pulled himself together and raced his car in the last heat. I was actually very impressed how he was able to calm down and handle it. That's not easy for him.

After awards were given and medals awarded, the others got to race their cars. Not as many showed up as hoped but those that did came with serious cars. There was one decked out with nitrous, one with an engine powered by kinetic energy and several little girl cars that were quite impressive too, given their ages.

Jason's car finished in third place. See the big red blur? It was pretty funny to watch how into it all these grown men were.

It was a fun time and a learning experience. I will be interested to see how things pan out next year.

Darbs the Florist

Darby loves, loves, loves flowers. And babies (more on that later).

When we go in, or leave, church she always stops and grabs flowers. And she pick the dandelions by the handfuls and leaves them around the house. Its cute, but it drives her to distraction and we are always having to pull her away.

She is kind of the same with babies. We were at a friends party celebrating their sealing (congrats again McNays!) and one of their friends, a total stranger, was holding a month old baby. Darbs was on this person like they were old friends while trying to see the little newcomer. It was funny and cute at the same time, but we had to reel her in a bit. She is like that with all babies.

For the record, no,  Darbs was not like that with Paige, whom she barely tolerated as the usurper of Mommy and Daddy's attention.

I think we have the makings of a real girly-girl here. Darby loves flowers, babies, clothes and the colors pink and purple.

Daddy Update

Yesterday I went to the temple with some friends. It was wonderful. I had the realization that while the world, by and large, is getting worse rapidly, the opposite is happening in the church. We are building temples, sending missionaries, and building the kingdom like never before. Its approaching a crescendo, I think and we are part of it. Exciting!

Anyways, I have been kicking around the idea of putting in writing some of my views on the political situation in case anyone wanted to know years down the road. I think I will just sum it up by saying I am socially and fiscally conservative, something of an environmentalist (I am not sold on global warming, but I am appalled at the way we treat the planet sometimes), borderline libertarian on some things, and very much opposed to big government (colossal waste in most everything). I will leave it at that.

Work has been good. We have a new assistant director, Major Dan Kersten most recently from Fort Campbell, KY. He is pleasantly picky and is making us all a little better. I like him very much and he is an absolute wealth of knowledge.

I bought a new ipad and am loving it. We also bought an ipad for my mom who is having a lot of sight issues and we figured she could put it to good use.