Hello Sunshine!!

We have escaped the cold and snow once again and landed ourselves on the beach for 2 weeks... and by the sounds of it we had great timing as the snow seems to be never ending back home!  Our first day on the island was a wash out, lots of rain and cold, but as the week has gone on the weather has turned great!!  We have spent time hanging on the beach, fishing, building sand castles, eating, drinking, playing train dominoes and of course enjoying lots of laughs together!!  I have taken way too many pictures already so I will just share a few.... I will try to post a couple more times before we leave but most nights I am so tired from all the fresh air that I don't even have the energy to boot up my laptop!  I am Loving the Island Life!

Our First Pinewood Derby

Colton and Pop Pop have been working on their Pinewood Derby cars for past couple weeks.  The cub scouts each make a car and then family members are encourage to make their own cars to race as well just to make the event a little more fun (and competitive).  Of course when it comes to the races only the speeds of the Cub Scout cars actually matter!  So after a lot of hard work the cars were ready for race day! We woke up this morning full of energy and ready to do some racing. Colton's car weighed in at 4.75 ounces and Pop Pop's weighed in at 5 ounces exactly... anything over 5 ounces and you weren't allowed to race (seriously, they are pretty strict about all these rules, who knew)!!  The first heat that Colton's car was in he took 4th place... we were a little concerned that is was gonna be a long race day.  My dad's first heat he took second.  Things did get better - Colton's following heats he took 2nd, 1st and 1st!!  His fastest speed was 2.5888 seconds!  He was so excited each time his car raced.... it was so cute to watch him jump up and high five Pop Pop and the rest of us when he won the heat.  After 31 heats (4 cars per heat) the final results were in!  I believe they take all 4 of your times and average them out to figure out your average speed.  They award trophies for the 5 five fastest cars so drum roll please........ Colton took 3rd place!! He jumped out of his chair and ran up to collect his trophy and what is even more exciting is that he moves on to district to compete again (he was the youngest scout from our pack to advance).  If he does good at District he will get to move on to the State Competition (we aren't expecting this but it would be fun).  Now if his car posts speeds as fast as it did in his last race we feel he may actually have a chance to do quite well at District as the speed he posted in that last heat was the fastest speed of any car today!!  Anyways, here are couple pictures from Colton's big day.  District Races are not until April 13th but don't worry I will update how things do that day, wish him luck!!

 Colton's is the silver bullet with the dog on it (car 6-16 for his birthday)... my dad's car is covered in advertising for his business as all true race cars are covered in advertisements!!

 We are pretty sure it is the "Rocket Boosters" on the back of the cars that made them so fast!!

 Check out all those awesome cars!  Some people were quite creative.  The top two shelves are the Cub Scouts cars and the bottom two rows as the the cars in the open class (cars made by parents, siblings, grandparents of the scouts)!!

Mr Snowman

Colton and I couldn't pass up the chance to go outside and play in the freshly fallen snow this afternoon.  We built a pretty awesome snowman, had a snowball fight and made snow angels!  It was seriously the perfect Minnesota day to be outside enjoying winter!!

Fort Snelling Clean-up

Saturday morning Colton and I woke up early, we enjoyed breakfast together and then dressed in an many layers as we could because we were off to Fort Snelling with the Cub Scouts troop to clean up all those Christmas Wreaths from the headstones.  When we left the house it was a balmy 4 degrees but we didn't let that stand in the way of doing something to honor those who had given all to provide us with the freedom we have each and every day.  We arrived at Fort Snelling about 8:30, by 9:15am we were checked in and ready to getting working on our assigned section.  By 10:30 we had our section cleared of all wreaths and even helped the scouts in the sections next to us.  It was very humbling to read all those names of young soldiers who died serving their country and of soldiers who lived full lives after their time serving in the military.  Colton had all kinds of questions about the people laid to rest at Fort Snelling and I took full advantage of the opportunity to tell him about some of his great grandparents and great great grandparents who served in the military.  I even told him that he has a set of Great Great Grandparents laid to rest in Fort Snelling, he thought that was pretty cool.   Yesterday,  I received an email from the North Star Council with an update about the Fort Snelling clean up, there were 798 volunteers (Minnesota Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts and their families) and together we cleaned up 35,000 Christmas wreaths in just a couple hours.  Here are just a few pictures that I took with my phone while we were out there.  Colton even earned a patch for this community service which he was very proud of as this is the first patch he has earned!  I am very proud of my little Tiger Scout and looking forward to many more projects like this in our scouting future!

A Thomas the Train Birthday Party

After much searching for possible places to hold a birthday party for a large group of people (so much harder with Winter birthdays and owning a small house) we decided to hold Mason's Birthday Party at our house and keep the invite list small!  I am so glad we did as it was perfect.   Mason had a blast and everyone got to actually see him and play with him... unlike last year when his party was so big I dont think I even said Hello to everyone who made it to the party!  This year we were able to just hang out and enjoy snacks while talking and relaxing... perfect birthday party to me!   The theme for this years party was Thomas the Train... really was the only option, the kid LOVES trains!  I found a great Birthday Cake at Cub - perfect for his theme.  And then searched Pinterest for some other Thomas the Train birthday party ideas and found a couple cute things that didn't cost me any money being as we have all the train props we could ever need in our house!!  It was a great birthday party and Mason was more than thrilled with all his presents.  He received a train puzzle, some train books, some water painting books, Thomas the Train Jammies, Thomas the Train swim trucks and swim shirt, a Magna Doodle (perfect size for our upcoming road trip) and a Mickey Mouse blanket made by his Auntie Marissa!  He is such a lucky boy.  Thanks to everyone who came and made his 2nd Birthday a special one, we have the best family and friends, love you guys! 

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man.... looking forward to entering the awesome terrible two's with you!