Pinewood Derby 2016

Ian was recently able to participate in his first ever Pinewood Derby.  This kid has been building derby cars with his dad ever since Tanner was eligible to enter 3 years ago... and FINALLY he is old enough to participate with a car (rocket) of his own.

When brainstorming ideas for this year's car, Ian tried to think of the fastest vehicle he could possibly imagine, so of course he came up with a NASA Space Shuttle, which he learned with his dad could move at 20,000 mph!!!  What other car could possibly beat that?!?

His dad even helped him build a stand for the rocket, so that it looked VERY intimidating lined up there with the other cars.

When it came time to test the shuttle's capabilities, it didn't disappoint.

 

Ian won most (though not all) of his heats, sometimes by a landslide, and sometimes by a hair.  He even had an exact tie at one point, which I have never seen happen before. 

Unfortunately, at the end of the afternoon, we found that there were two land cruisers that could in fact beat a NASA Space Shuttle and Ian took third.  He was given a cool medal and an award for "Out of this World Design"  AND he was chosen by the LDS Missionaries as their favorite car and received an extra toy car as an award.  All in all it was a great day, and even better than that, it has been a wonderful past couple of weeks working on that car with Dad and learning all about space shuttles.