The lights are still up, and the snow is still there. Just.

A holiday means a long trip sometimes by car; a long car trip means McDonalds; therefore, holidays are fun.

At least, that’s F’s world view this weekend.

I’m just glad it’s a rare enough event to be _that_ exciting (McDonalds, not holidays).

No, not Timo Mäkinen.

Nothing quite beats Lego when it comes to a wet and rainy Saturday afternoon.

Here’s the finished car, it’s called Arsenal (someone made a mistake and called it “Arsenal Destroyer” on the official entry)

H got 2 first’s, I think 4 second’s, 1 third and 1 fourth. Each car raced four times, once in each lane, and the best sixteen went into the final. H got through to the top sixteen and came twelfth!

Here’s the stats thanks to www.rentmytrack.com

Car No.	Av. Time (s)	Max. Time (s)	Min. Time (s)	Scaled Speed (mph)
81	3.2055	3.224	3.182	202.07

[guest post by Harvey]

The paint job in progress.

H building a car for the Pinewood Derby, following the “measure twice cut thrice” method.

With the outline cut to shape and sanded, next step is painting.
(Any guesses on the colours?)

North up highway 9, hang left to Darrington and then into the deep dark forest until Tom Porters Cabin (1887) in Rockport for a Skagit rafting trip.

The crew were ready, as too was John, our superb river guide.
Sorry Jessica – John got first prize in the hat competition. Fay’s only managed a close second.

For added fun the flumps also joined our merry gang on the raft. Seen here with Dad: Pootle (striped hat) and  Perkin (black hat).

As ever when it’s not chucking it down, the scenery in this part of the work is awe-inspiring.

And the Eagles are pretty impressive too.

H ready for another game (almost). Colour coordinated too, although I thought ManU were the red devils…

This was a first, H in goal. He did well (a clean sheet) but it’s still not his favourite position to play in.

Yup, today we got to see that Ewok has eyes!

Before and after pictures below. Can you tell which is which?

[Ask the audience hint: look at his paws]
[Phone a friend hint: smell the conditioner!]
[50:50 hint: it’s one of the two]

Fay tells me it’s money well spent, but how would you know?
And I don’t think she was talking about the stylish cravat that he returned from the stylist(yes STYLIST!) wearing around his newly conditioned neck.

Ewok. He’s an Ewok after all.

Warning: do not microwave single malt scotch whisky

Not Finn.
Not stopping is also fun – at least he didn’t end up *in* the lake!

[Thanks Felix!!!!]
[We miss you!!!!!!!!!]
[That’s a plural “you”!!!!!!!!]
[and a plural “we”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

H & I had a swift ride along the Southern Traverse Trail before it got completely dark.
H, star that he is, managed to ride all the way up the big hill on 184th on the way home.

F: left over mac and cheese for pudding.

H: crunch bar for pudding

‘nuff said.

Where the trees go when they die.

Wet, rainy and windy new years eve walk along the Wallace River to the picnic shelter at the lower Wallace Falls.
[You can see the snow line at about 1,500ft if you look closely]

We were nearly the only ones on the trail.

Ewok got very, very, wet. It took hours for him to dry out.

No wonder the moss here grows thick and fast.