Pinewood Derby 2012

March 31, 2012

Our Wolves Den was in charge of hosting the Pinewood Derby car races this year.  Our parents all worked together so well and we had a great event!

The trophies and the race track!

We had pizza for lunch.

Logan went with a Cub Scout blue and gold design for his car.

Ethan chose a more Disneyland approach and went with "Star Tours"!

And Ryan fashioned a "Mean Green Machine" for his ride!

Racing!

Ethan won 2nd Place for his den.

Logan took 1st Place for his den!

Ryan took 2nd for the sibling race.

Chris loves helping the boys build their cars.  It was a fun day and great racing by all!

Kartchner Caverns

Over spring break we decided to take a little overnight trip to Tuscon to visit Kartchner Caverns.  We headed down on Friday after lunch.  We arrived in Tuscon and checked into the hotel.  We drove around the city for awhile and finally ended up near the U of A campus.  We walked around the campus for a bit and then had dinner at a restaurant called Gentle Ben's Brewery.  They had great pizza and wings!  We headed back to the hotel to swim and get to bed for our early arrival at the caverns.

Saturday morning we had a tour for 8:00am so we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed out. 

This is the mountain that houses the Kartchner caverns underneath.

Unfortunately they do not allow ANY photography inside the caverns.  They don't even let you carry anything in.  It is extremely well preserved and they do not want anything to be dropped or left behind.  To get inside the caves, they have a series of 4 different doors and chambers.  They work very hard to keep the humidity levels and lighting as natural as possible so the cave will stay alive and growing.

The caverns were AMAZING!  We did a guided tour of the Rotunda and Throne Room and saw the amazing soda straws, "bacon" formations, and the Khubla Khan rock formations.  It was absolutely one of the neatest things I have ever seen.   Here are some picture I found off the Internet:

After our tour we visited the Discovery Center.  Here are some examples of the size of tunnels that the original men went through to find the Caverns.

This is a miniature plastic version of the Khubla Khan formation.

Here are some bones found in the Cavern of an extinct sloth.

We had a great time visiting here and I am so glad we got to see this neat piece of Arizona.

Welcome Baby! Madison Koban Sterne...March 18, 2012

Kim and Bill called around 10:00 pm to tell us that Kim was in labor and they were bringing Kinley over to stay with us while they went to have the new baby.  I was at work (of course!) and so Chris was on his own!  Kinley arrived and was wide awake and excited.  She had a hard time going back to sleep and was up until about 1:00 AM.  She finally went to sleep and when I got home in the morning they were all up.

William called around 6:00AM to let us know that we had a new baby GIRL cousin!  They named her Madison Koban Sterne.  She was born at 5:28 AM on March 18, 2012.  She weighed in at 7lb, 15oz and was 20.5 inches long.  So sweet!

Here is Kinley waiting to go meet her new baby sister

It was a freak cold, rainy day.  We even had some hail!

I slept for a few hours and then we headed up to the hospital to meet  Baby Madison

I am so proud of Kim!  She had a completely natural, med-free delivery!  She is such a trooper! 

I wasn't feeling very good and had a sore throat, so I kept my distance and didn't hold her. The boys were not allowed to go onto the unit, and they had to wait in the waiting room. We took turns sitting with them.

A quick peek at the new baby!

We took Kinley home with us and she stayed the night again.  The next day Bill and Kim came to pick her up and the boys were finally able to hold the new baby.

Lovin' us some Baby Madison!

Kinley and her new baby "Cupcake"