It's Pinewood Derby Time! (Sept. 11th)

I figured that I would hurry and get a few of the September highlights in and one of those was Zach's first Pinewood Derby. Zach joined scouts in June and loves it! He doesn't like to miss and enjoys all of the activities. He was really excited to have his first pinewood derby too. We bought the kit at the beginning of the summer, but like most people, procrastinated a little until about two weeks until the event. Ryan got out his "special secret" pinewood derby building book and got to work (when he could find the time). Zach was also able to help when he could. Besides a few paint job glitches, Zach and his dad were able to finish with time to spare. Here's the finished project:


They had to "weigh" in the car on the 10th and leave it overnight. They were a little nervous because they couldn't touch the car after that. (No adding that last bit of graphite!) The big race came and they had the whole track sectioned off and it was set up to be pretty official. Here are all of the cars - ready to race:


Each car would take a run in each lane (there were 4) and the car with the fastest times would win. They ran all of the cars quickly and in no particular order, so it was a little chaotic. Here's the cars on the track and the kids watching:





After all of the cars had a chance to race all of the lanes, the officials and leaders took a few minutes to see the results on the computer (I can't believe it's computerized and so official now - it's come such a long way). The last part of the night was spent giving out awards. They awarded lots of different awards from the best looking to the best paint job, etc., then they gave a first, second and third place medal to three people in each den. Zach ended up getting first in his den! The last awards they gave out were to the fastest overall - out of all of the dens. We knew Zach had a chance, but we weren't prepared to get ... first overall! I'm so proud of Zach and his dad! Here's Zach getting his trophy: Good job boys!!

1st day of school

So I finally figured out how to blog (somewhat) and got all excited and went crazy and made my blog and now I'm having a hard time keeping up with it. Since I talked about our August trip to Logan in September, I'm going to go in order of events since then, even if they were last month. Then I can hopefully catch up and get used to keeping things updated!


Here goes...As soon as we got back from Logan, Zach and Kaitlyn started school (we got back on Thursday, had open house on Friday and started school on Monday!) Here's a pic of Zach and Kaitlyn on the 1st day. I can't believe how big they are both getting! Sometimes I can't believe I'm old enough to have kids this big. I'm getting so old!







Zach is in third grade now and ended up in GATE also. He's pretty excited to be getting back into school - he loves learning. Zach also started piano this summer. He is doing great and loves to play all of the time (you can ask his dad about this one). He practices his songs for the lesson, then plays around for a while. He has made up quite a few of his own songs. It's fun to see him doing well






Kaitlyn is in 1st grade now and goes all day! I was a little sad thinking that my great helper would be gone all day now. She had a hard time at first because she got so tired after school, but she soon got used to it and is doing great. While she likes learning too, she is definitely more social and loves that part of being in school. She knows so much about all of the kids in her class already.

My first Blog!

Ok. Now I am officially a blogger! It's been a long time coming, but it's finally happening. I am really excited about keeping track of the great events and people in my life. I also hope it's a way to keep in touch with everyone.

Here is just a little about our family. We currently reside in Las Vegas, NV with our family of 6. Zach is the oldest at 8 years old, then Kaitlyn is 6 years old, William is 3 and Caleb is almost one. Right now Zach and Kaitlyn are enjoying 1st and 3rd grade and Ryan is almost done getting his Bachelor's Degree (he should graduate next May). William, Caleb and I get to stay at home and hang out together.

We enjoy traveling to visit friends, hiking together, riding bikes and playing sports together. Zach is currently enjoying Roller Hockey and Kaitlyn will start something real soon (either Basketball or some kind of Karate class). Ryan is getting into photography and you can catch all of his latest shots at: www.ryantanderson.com. He really enjoys doing it and wishes he had more time to spend doing it. He has also designed some websites that you can see at: www.pristinewebdesign.com. If he had more time in the day, I'm sure he'd do more with these hobbies.

I am just starting to pick up a few hobbies. I want to train for and do a triathlon soon and I enjoy the new bikes we got to start practicing. I spend most of my time with the kids and I can't believe how busy it can be. Oh well.

I'm adding a few pictures from Logan that Ryan and his friend took when we went there in July. We had a great time and hope to be able to start traveling more now that Caleb is getting older!














I'm sure you'll get to know us well through the rest of our blog, so goodbye for now...