Burke's Second Pinewood Derby

In our ward, one family of boys -- license plate is "BOYS-R-US" -- has won the Pinewood Derby for the last six or seven years straight.  The dad is an Intel engineer and, obviously, he is a good one because no other boy has had a chance to win while he has had a Cub Scout-aged son.   

Burke's first year was last year and he took second place overall, losing to one of the sons of the aforementioned family.  That boy moved on, but now they have another son who had his first Derby tonight.  Different son, but same dad...

Well, same story this year.  Burke won all of three of his heats and so did this other boy from the super-pinewood-derby-family.  They had a run-off at the end to see who would take first and who would take second.  Burke lost the final race-off, unfortunately, but he tried to be a good sport.

Our first year, I applied some ancient Chinese secrets -- actually, I applied the tricks my dad, who is not Chinese, taught me -- so Burke burst on to the scene in his first year with second place.  This year, we improved on last year's car -- I looked up some tips on the Internet -- but it still wasn't enough.  We'll get another shot next year, but man they are tough to beat.  

I was obviously grumbling about losing again to the hyper-competitive, perpetually-first-place-winning-family while I am being hyper-competitive myself.  Here's the bottom line: the other family is always number one; we are always number two; so, I guess our Derbies are really just a competition about who gets to be third!  Enjoy the crumbs, boys...  ;-)  

Anyhow, here are some pictures and video.

Always, representin' the Cougs:

Yes, yes, your eyes do not deceive you.  Those really are sweet-lookin' flames!

Here is one of the races Burke won by a car-length:

This race was particularly exciting with a photo finish.  Notice how Burke's car is behind most of the way and then a few feet from the finish line the turbos kick-in -- nobody noticed the little remote-controlled nitro apparatus -- and he pulls off the victory!  It was pretty cool.  Felt a little bad for the boy who thought he was going to win and then didn't.

Getting Into the Christmas Mood at Sunriver

Juliana's parents have a partial ownership in a home in the resort community of Sunriver, OR and we joined them during one of their weeks. (We were there December 15th through the 19th.) Huge snowstorms dropped tons of snow a couple of days before we arrived and while we were there. It was also bitter cold with overnight lows reaching -7 degrees, without wind chill. We went skiing one day and the weather was cold and awful, but you know what they say: "The worst day of skiing is better than the best day at work."

Here are some pictures.

Peyton and Mom (the lady with the pink lobster claw):

Burke, waiting to start a snowball fight:

The brood all squished in and ready for the drive home. Burke, apparently, doesn't use seatbelts:


Brittan on her way to have some fun in the snow:
"You talkin' to me?":


The boys:


Lil' Finn:


The street just outside the house - A Winter Wonderland:


The house:

It was a fun trip. Ironically, we made it over Mt. Hood both ways without chains, but couldn't make it up our own hill to get home without them.