We’ve been keeping awfully in busy in Omaha this week, with barely any time to recover after our party before having a Pinewood Derby race, a birthday party, and a Super Bowl over the weekend, along with numerous other activities during the week. I told Vivian I was looking forward to going back to work on Monday so I could rest up.
We’ve had some lovely February weather this week, with highs in the fifties that would make for perfect biking weather if the city hadn’t decided to tear up the Keystone Trail in three different places. I’ve been taking some lovely walks during my lunch breaks, but on Wednesday I had a nice bike ride for the first time this year by physically driving my bike to a part of the trail that wasn’t being demolished. It felt good to be out again on the trail once again, and I almost didn’t even need a jacket.
Aaron’s been having fun with his friends at Royal Rangers in the meantime, and he introduced me to a game they play called Gaga Ball on Wednesday, as well as playing a few rounds of Connect Four before his troop met. I also caught up on some reading, going through more of The American Story and hoping to finish it before the year is out.
Hannah’s been keeping busy this week with a number of things as well. On Wednesday, she went to Clarkson Tower at the Nebraska Medical Center with her AHG troop. She got to learn some first aid there, doing pulmonary resuscitation on a dummy and practicing giving abdominal thrusts to some baby dolls.
Then on Friday, she visited Scatter Joy Acres at their new location out in Mead with her classmates from school. Hannah got to see a variety of animals including a donkey, camel, and some horses, working to clean up after them and also painting a few decorative signs.
Aaron and I have been having some quality father/son time putting together his first Pinewood Derby racing car with the Royal Rangers. Aaron did the basic design for the car, opting for a “rocket” design with little “wings” on the side, a tapered nose, and a tail fin. I cut the pieces out and glued them together, and I even recruited my dad to help with the wide axel, which we had to use on the front end. Then I had Aaron pick out the colors and help attach some of the decals as I did the paint job on our little racecar together. Finally, I added some tungsten weights to the back end, putting the weight right up to the limit of 5.5 ounces.
The day oft he big race came on Saturday, which we all attended as a family. We got Aaron’s car weighed in, and I added a bit of extra graphite to the axels to help them spin. The Ranger Kids had their race first, and Aaron’s little car managed to come in first! I was very happy. They had other races for Discovery, Adventure and Expedition, and our friends the Mills had representation in each round, between August, Gabe, and Jake. After that came the “Outlaw” class and Commanders, during which time Aaron played with a few of his friends and got in a couple rounds of “Carpet Ball.” Then came the finals, with each of the winners of the four classes racing together. Aaron managed to take the bronze in the winner’s circle at the very end, which was a very cool moment, considering it was our first-ever time doing a Derby like this together.
We had only a short time to recover afterward before heading right out again for a birthday party. Gabe and Jake were celebrating joint birthdays today down at the Comfort Suites La Vista. Our kids got to make use of the swimming pool (and hot tub) for an hour or two along with a handful of friends, including Lily and Jonah and another boy named Finn.
After that, Nate brought out some pulled pork and taco meat for dinner, which we ate together in the dining area. Donna had made Gabe a Minecraft cake with Minecraft animals on top. It which was very cute, particularly with details such as the cow’s pink cube for an udder. Our gift for Gabe was a painting set, since he apparently is getting into some fine art, and the kids even got paint together for a bit with actual brushes and paints before we called it a night.
Then the next day, we had the whole family over to watch the Super Bowl. I did some tidying up in the afternoon as Vivian made three sets of chicken wings (along with some taquitos). Jack and Donna came by as well, along with my parents and Uncles Nathan Jonathan, bringing along baked brie rolls, shrimp, ham roll-ups, and trays of other things. Even Cheryl sent along some Korean noodles and some strawberry pie for dessert, which was quite nice. We spent a couple hours getting stuffed together while watching a fairly exciting game, with the score tied up toward the end and won with a last-second field goal by the Chiefs. Even my dad said it was the most exciting Super Bowl game he’d ever seen.
We’ve got Valentine’s Day coming up next along with a few more fun activities this week. Mostly, however, I’m looking forward to recovering from all this fun and perhaps getting back into some spring cleaning as we kick off the Lenten season. Hopefully by May we may have enough done to have a long-awaited garage sale.
