Palmer's 1st Pinewood Derby

 Palmer has been excited for the Pinewood Derby for years now.  Last year Josh made pinewood derby cars with the boys just for fun.  It got a lot more interesting when it was a real car however.

 Josh wasn't sure what to do so they just started working on it together.

 It ended up being so cool, but not being heavy enough, so Josh took off one of the plastic bracelets that Palmer likes to wear and stuffed it inside the derby car.  Yep, pretty professional :)

 I think they were just happy that it was done and Josh was happy that Palmer liked it.

 Little did they know that Palmer's car would set the record for the fastest time and keep the record the whole time!!

 Pretty neat huh?

 I had to keep laughing that Palmer's car kept winning because I knew about the bracelet.  Josh said later that he was surprised that it didn't fall off right on the track!

 There were some seriously cool cars there.

 They had a really cool digital track and the times and races flashed on a screen.  You can see Palmer's record down at the bottom.

 A little nervous.

 It was pretty hard to keep the boys away from the track.  McKay was really interested in it.

 At the end they had sundaes and McKay got right in line by himself and got himself some ice cream.

 It ended up being a little messy (this is after I cleaned up the pool of ice cream  he left).

 I have to say we have the best scout committee!  they made cute pit passes and certificates for all of the boys.  They all had so much fun!

 Much to Palmer's disappointment they didn't really announce the winners, so he wrote first place on his certificate himself.

 His "Pit Pass".

He was so happy with his 1st experience with the Pinewood Derby.

Palmer's Field Trip

 I always love it when I can go on a field trip with one of my boys.  It is hard to leave McKay with someone all day so I try not to go too crazy with them.  I got to go on this one with Palmer a few weeks ago.  We went to a nature reserve by our house and they learned some good things.

 Can't you just see all of the learning going on?

 There were a couple of HUGE pelicans on the pond that day it is was really neat.  I don't think I had ever seen a pelican close up before.

 They did some really fun activities including a scavenger hunt.

 This is Palmer's awesome teacher.  We stuck pretty close to her on the nature walk and learned some really interesting things.

 Cloud watching.

 They drew very detailed pictures of something that they had seen that day.  I didn't get a picture, but Palmer's was so good!  He has been very into drawing lately.

 Love to get to hang out with my boys one on one.

 After the nature preserve we headed to a farm.

 There were tons of baby animals and it was fun for the kids to see them close up.

 How adorable are these chickies!!??

 This was our little field trip group.

Loved being with my cute boy!

Hill Air Force Base Air Show

We sure love the air show at Hill Air Force Base.  The pilots are just amazing and we are always left in awe and with a greater appreciation for our military.  The last time we went to it was a long time ago.  You will have to forgive the pictures as I didn't want to get my good camera out in the rain so they are all courtesy of Instagram (follow me at emily7n).

 This year we were so excited to go with the boys and this morning when we left it was a bit cold.  All of the boys were wearing shorts and I debated even bring a jacket...

...well, it ended up POURING on us.  I was teasing my MIL and Josh because they had "over packed" for the day, and it turns out that if they hadn't we would have been drenched like crazy.  Turns out my MIL brought an awning for us and so we stayed mostly dry, even though it was FREEZING. 

As the rain poured and poured, most of the crowd left.  We sat under the awning and tried to hold it down from the wind blowing it away.  We sat like that for a long time.  I don't know if it was because we were determined to see the air show (which had been postponed until the weather cleared up) or because it was too we to try and get us all back to the car.  But we ended up shivering and trying to snuggle up to stay warm.

 After 3 1/2 hours of wet, cold and wind, the air show resumed and by then we had scooted our awning up to the FRONT.  We were so excited to see things "up close."

It was amazing as always and we were constantly in awe (this was taken at the beginning of the day...most of these people had left).

 The Thunderbirds are so worth watching.  We all waved to them as the taxied by in their planes.

The show was so LOUD that McKay kept saying "is too loud."  It really was the cutest.

He, and the rest of us ended up loving it all and glad that we had stayed (even though we were so soggy!)

Palmer is dying to be a photographer and has finally shown interest in this camera he got for his birthday long ago.  He has already asked for a "real" one for his birthday.  He took A LOT of pictures.

McKay was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day and thanks to the sun coming out he was cozy in the stroller as he slept all the way back to the car.  We ended the day snuggled in our pjs watching the new Muppet movie.  I think the boys fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

 Here is yet another thing we have done, that I never got around to posting. 

 It snowed for a bit one day weeks and weeks ago and I gave each of the boys a spray bottle filled with food coloring and water to go and "write" in the snow with.

 I didn't really get any great pictures of what they did because...I didn't want to go outside...yep I stink, but they had fun.

 I will have you note that Hunter is in shorts and mismatched boots.

 I guess whatever works right?  For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Palmer...

 Our fun neighbors had this beautiful baby bird in a nest in one of their trees.  It was so fun to see the new sweet little bird.

And here is just a cute picture of McKay eating some of Josh's amazing chocolate chip cookies.  Have I mentioned how good Josh is at baking?  Consider it mentioned :)