What do you get...

when you bring an accountant, mechanical engineer, and school teacher together?

Well, you get a killer cardboard sled of course.

This Saturday is the famous cardboard sled and duct tape derby! We loved participating in 2009, had to sit out in 2010 to protect my unborn Caden, but we are ready to roll again in 2011. This time our spouses feel they are a bit too busy working at the cinic and studying to help build the sled - so the girls are taking over.

This year we found out the prize for the fastest sled is $500! So we are taking the building process a little more seriously this time around. Today we decided we needed to test run a few of our designs. So at about 6:30 tonight we headed out in the dark night to the hilly golf course. The thermostat on my car said 4 degrees. On Monday we had a lot of rain and it has been super freezing the rest of the week, so our testing hill was basically a sheet of ice!

My first run was on the one-ply-no-duct-tape-sled...it was a no go. My second run was on the two-ply-duct-tape-wonder-sled! Oh my, it exceeded all expectations! I flew down the hill, screaming the whole way down. In the dark it was quite terrifying.

All I can say to the rest of Des Moines is be afraid, be very afraid...our team is bringing it! Woot-woot!

Tonight brought back lots of memories from my old glory days of riding mattresses down the stairs at the old nunnery when I did a semester in Nauvoo, or midnight trash can races at Rock Canyon park my freshman year in Provo. Just like old times, except for the baby staying warm in the car, and the 2 year old holding a little flashlight cheering on his old mom from the top of the hill!