A rite of passage.....

What 8 year old boys life could possibly be complete without the Pinewood Derby?? Wait, did I say that right? I do believe that it is as much for the young scout as it is for the dad of that young scout. This last Saturday, after about 2 1/2 weeks of blood, sweat and tears (not really) our ward had it's Pinewood Derby.

This would usually come and go without much to mention, but this one has a story behind it. My boys, (and Ella) were really excited to participate in the race this year. It was Jensens first time, and Drew and J.D. thought it would be fun to build a car also....knowing they could not race, but why not? (I say why??)

Anyway....they all spent a considerable amount of time sanding, painting, and re-painting their cars...adding decals, adding wheels, and adding the right amount of weight. The night before the race came and it was time to take the cars in for the official weigh-in. J.D. had to take the Deacons on an overnighter camping trip and I was put in charge of the cars...'the responsible one' - I was called. I do believe J.D. must have jinxed me with the title because within moments of being given thethat title I dropped the only car that mattered for the race on the garage floor while getting ready to take it to the neighbors for the weigh-in. The weights that were so carefully place in the bottom of the car popped out and the axel on one of the wheels was bent!! This could not be happening! Oh yes it did, and not only did I know about it, but so did Drew and Morgan who watched the whole thing happen (I most likely said a few choice words out loud because I know for a fact I thought them). J.D. was on his way with the boys for a camping trip that he wasn't exactly thrilled about so there was no way in the world I was going to add the pressure of a broken car to the mix. I begged Drew not to say anything, I begged the guy in my ward to give it a once over and do whatever he could to fix the car - explaining to the both of them that they were looking at a dead woman at this point....

Saturday comes, I can't go to the Pinewood Derby because of a baby shower, (and partially because if I wasn't there, maybe I couldn't be blamed for the car). I called J.D. and he was quick to inform me that someone must have dropped Jensens car because it didn't even make it down the track the first time....oh snap! I instantly had a stomach ache and could not relax at the shower. I had to get out of there, I had to come clean with both of my boys....it was their moms dumb fault that the car sucked!

To make a long story short, after a little TLC by the dad at the race and another try down the track my cutie Jensen came in 2nd place out of all the boys in the ward. He got an awesome trophy to prove it and a change to compete on a stake level later on that night.

Jensen was able to race his car with 28 other winners from the other wards. He came in 14th out of the 28 cars - not bad for what we had gone through to get it to that point.

Who knows, maybe the drop did the car some good - I like to tell myself that - we will never know. J.D. is sure he would have 'smoked' everyone else if it had been in it's original awesome state...

I am just the lucky mom that was able to have both my boys forgive me for making a mess of the Pinewood Derby car - maybe next time I won't get the job as the 'responsible one'...after the 24 hours that I spent stewing about it I would be happy to give that title to anyone else.