March Madness!

March had a lot of events, and a lot of cub scout stuff.  Here is a picture of our two scouts:

Luke and Steven

March was a busy month, from what I can remember of it...  We had swim meets (of course), including the Junior Olympics.  We also had a lot of big cub scout events, including the pinewood derby.  Mac was very busy with his local rotation in Fort Belvoir which involved a grueling and tedious and terrible commute of anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours daily.  The powers that be determined it was a local rotation even though it was so far away, but this way WE got to pay the gas and there was no reimbursement...  Back then, we thought the gas prices (around $3.50 per gallon) were terrrrrrible.  Those prices would be a bargain now, especially in California!!  But I digress... 

March was also a big month for Last Minute Getting The House Ready For The Market stuff, and so Mac, when not commuting and not taking call, was constantly doing various tasks around the house.  I was sorting through stuff, and getting rid of lots of things that we just didn't use anymore.  We were also preparing for our big spring break trip out to Yakima to visit family, but that will be covered in the April installment of the blog!  You will just have to wait...

So, first up:  The Pinewood Derby.  We have never been big fans of the parents making the cars for the kids, which means that our kids' cars are generally not the fastest or coolest looking.  That being said, Steven's car was so original that it was a HUGE hit at the races.  Of course, it failed to complete a single race, being too tall for the end gate, but no matter.  Luke's car was All Luke and it did very well!  Here are some pictures of the cars from the derby:

Steven went with a sports theme this year... 

The basketball toy was too tall for the clearance of the finish line, so during the races Steven's car would hit the top of the finish line box, then bounce back about halfway up the track.  The kids LOVED it.  Uproarious laughter.  Every stinking time.



Luke, hard at work on his masterpiece.

The car with the headlights is this year's car.  The other one is last year's winner.  You can see last year's was a bit more streamlined, but no worries.  Luke's car was All Luke!

At the starting line...

Grandma and Grandpa were in town for the Pinewood Derby again!  The organizers change the date on that event every year, so it's just LUCK that they've been able to see it almost every single year!

As mentioned, in March we had the Junior Olympics swim meet (or JO's for those *in the know*).  It was a long meet, with events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  To make things extra long, the brainless meet organizers decided to combine the largest age groups (11-12 year olds and 9-10 year olds) into ONE SESSION!!!  Making the meet SO crowded that the fire marshall was called in and threatened to shut down the whole meet because there were too many parents and swimmers in the facility!  Imagine five rows of bleachers completely packed, and three rows of parents standing behind the bleachers, with one row of people trying to elbow in between the standing people.  It was packed, but it was JO's and people just wanted to see their kids swim...  Anyway, eventually they kicked all the standing spectators out and worked out a system of allowing people in for their events only, but still.  It was an exceptionally poor decision of the meet organizers to combine age groups...

Anyway, Steven did several events and Isabel did the 50 yard fly.  Izzy just had started with competitive winter swim a few months before JO's, so it was pretty great that she made it! 

Two pools, one for girls and one for boys.  Lots of kids, and even more parents...

For fun, we went to a mall near the meet and the kids went on a carousel ride.  It's funny how I keep thinking "this might be their last carousel ride, they are getting so big..." but then it seems that there is ALWAYS another carousel ride, just around the corner. 

Isabel, wearing her new JO's sweatshirt.  She's no where NEAR too old for a carousel ride.



Steven is *thinking* about being too old for a carousel ride.

Luke is definitely looking a bit too old for a carousel ride.  But he will indulge his father.  Josie is really into it though!

We also had some fun with Grandma and Grandpa down by the Rio shopping center.  This is sometimes the high school kid hangout, but sometimes the family hangout.  Depends on the night.  We always had Kate check up on social media to make sure it was safe for families!  Sort of joking...  We didn't exactly have Kate check, but we knew if it was a "teenager" night because Kate would not go there with us if it was!  

Josie and Luke.  See why Josie nicknamed Luke "HuggyWuggy?"

Here is a picture of the kids and their FroYo-- Grandma treated them all to these gigantic make-your-own frozen yogurt treats after we had dinner and walked around the Rio center...



Josie, Luke, Isabel, Kate, and Steven

That's all the exciting stuff from March.  There was a ton of stuff going on, but of course I rarely had time or the presence of mind to take pictures!