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Just finished our first Pinewood Derby. What a lot of fun, and a lot of work. Our car became a family effort, but those efforts paid off. We took third in the den and got the award for "Most Realistic Looking" car.
First Coats of Paint
Making Weight
On your mark. . .
My family has always subscribed to National Geographic and I remember how exciting it was to look at all the cool pictures from all over the world, and how far away all those places were. I am always amazed at how much we've seen over the years and how many of those "National Geographic moments" we've been able to experience, especially my little guy who isn't even five yet! World capitals, foreign treasures, fun tourist spots. Yesterday was one such day, we went to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. This was one article that I remember seeing when I was younger. How amazing it would be to go myself. Now I have!
We got an early start to the day; our bus picked us up at 4:15 AM. The trip was long, but lots of fun. Despite keeping track of the weather forecast the past few days and feeling good about it being warm and sunny, we were surprised with a snow storm. This was actually to our advantage I suppose in that the mountains were beautiful! It also made for a very wet walk--at least we were prepared with extra clothes and shoes. The walk to the monkeys was nearly an hour and the boys had a great time in the snow. We were all very much surprised when we turned a corner, and there they were. The boys were surprised that there were no fences and the monkeys were just walking around. The three of us took a ton of pictures and had a National Geographic Moment. Although being there lost some of the magic and mystery of the magazine, it was still a lot of fun.
The spring where many of the monkeys bathed.
