~~Rumble in the arena~~

Here in the Midwest there is a popular car racing event called figure 8 racing. Yes, the cars race around in a figure 8 and try not to crash or kill each other. This particular event was held inside a horse arena so there was NOT MUCH ROOM.  The only other times I had seen figure 8 racing it was on an actual dirt track and much much larger.  Even with the tight space they had up to 7 cars in a heat! A heat is a qualifying race to get into the final race where the $$$$ is paid out.

Let's go back to earlier in the evening...

The evening starts out that Ann had to babysit so the "boys" wanted to do something special. When I say boys, I mean my wonderful husband and my two boys. I was not at all interested in going out again as I had been running kids here and there and had been doing errands all day. I wanted to stay home, build a fire in the firepit and enjoy being home. Well as you see from this blog the boys won. They suggested doing something boring like go to a movie. I said no way, if I am going out we are doing something different. We are going to the races.

ALL 3 of them looked at me like I was from Pluto.

Really, these are supposedly men/boys with testosterone. Why wouldn't they like cars and crashes and loud engines with straight pipe exhaust????? I was stumped.  I had the oldest one (husband) even post to FaceBook what a stupid idea it was.  John was going to bring a book to read. Only Vern was mildly interested and open to the idea.  I am shaking my head in wonderment. How can I be the "girl" and be excited to be going? I had not been to the races since I was in high school and that was a longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg time ago!

After further investigation it was revealed none of them had ever been to a race like this before. I was surprised the husband had not as he grew up in the midwest. Maybe he just says he likes cars as he drove a tiny "Golf" when I met him...Oops, digressing.

So we get there, find our seats and settle in for the races. Here is a pre-race photo. They are pretending to be excited but John was bemoaning how he didn't fit in and only red-necks were there. I looked at them and said your mom is a redneck???? I hardly think so. They shut up.

Finally the first heat started. They brought out 7 cars and we each picked one to cheer for the win.  They went around the track once, had a huge crash and 4 of the 7 cars had to be hauled off the track with tractors! What a way to begin.  Those 3 remaining cars finished the race (10 laps) and the boys were hooked. Y-E-S!

Vern began chattering non-stop. The husband began naming all the kinds of cars coming out for the next heat and even John sat there interested, talking and asking questions.  I was smiling from ear to ear.  Here is a shot from one of the first heats in open class. Open class is where anyone with a car and the car set up correctly can enter the race.

Those cars raced around the track and tossed mud at us. Vern could not stop talking and asking questions and having a blast. I gave them all some $$ and sent them to the consession stand during a fix the track break and they came back with even bigger smiles. A little junk food goes a long way with boys. The husband brought me a beer so I was in heaven on earth - cold beer, loud rumbling engines, and my favorite men in the world around me.

After the open class was the official racing class. These cars had bigger engines that ran on racing fuel and their exhausts were straight pipes out of the engine. Here is a photo of this class.

The races were great and the evening fabulous except for one small thing. I found out too late that I could have entered the powder puff race after the main race!!!! The powder puff race is where girls get into the feature race cars and go around a few times for a small prize.  I so would have done it and fulfilled one of my bucket list items. Maybe next time...

Vern had such a great time he drempt about it that night and is still talking about them days later. He wants to go see a demolition derby next. He was looking those up on the internet to find out where they were.  I'm glad my men do have testosterone even if I have to drag it out of them. :-)

Game 1

Dear Football Fans,

I know you have all been waiting for this post. It was game one of the season. I do have pitures of Vern playing this game but his heart was not in it. We had a pep talk about this so we shall see if this week is better. 

The team lost 6-26. I was pleased with a score though.  Here is a photo of him during warm up.  He is #55 again this year.  He wasn't big enough to even be a striper so technically he can carry and touch the ball if he wants to. The coaches have him as center as he has experience at that from last year. I hope they move him around a bit.

Can we say HOTTER THAN HADES?
My gawd, it was hot, humid, only an occasional slight breeze and lots of nats to bother us. I roasted and yes caught me a good sun burn.

Here is one of the coaches giving a pre-kickoff pep talk.

Vern had to put up with some hard, illegal hitting. The kids are not supposed to lead with their helmet but Vern got it in the stomach multiple times.  He never could give coach a shirt number so the kid never got in trouble. I think that pretty much took the wind out of his sails the rest of the game as Vern didn't have any big plays.

Here he is lined up on defense.

Vern played virtually the entire game except when he got hit hard once and the coaches put on a neck brace for a while. He was one tired, sweaty boy when finished.

Here he is lined up on special teams for a kick-off.

See you next week,

DA Mom.

Hawaii - Day 7 - The end of the ride

Now we arrive at Friday - our last day on the island. We took the time to sleep in and relax.  They had a strict check-out time of noon so about 11am we packed up the car and headed out.

Good bye lava field with palm trees in the middle.

Good bye condo in paradise.

Do we have to go? As Vern pleads for just one more day!

After checking out we head out for some swimming and beach time for a few hours.  Here we have our little (well not so little anymore who am I kidding) stair-step kids. Funny how unconsciously they always line up this way.

Here we just have a shot of Vern swimming.

These cute little crabs were right at the tide line in the debris. They would hide in holes and if you stood quiet and watched they would dart out of the hole and find some tidbit and then woosh quick as can be back in the hole and be once again invisible. They were all sizes and fun to watch but very skittish. I would not have seen them at all but Superman pointed them out to me.

Here we have a lava field shot after swimming. We drove down to Kona for a while just to see a bit more of the town.  The airport was actually out in the middle of all this. You had to drive 15 miles or so to Kona south or the a bit farther north to where we stayed which wasn't actually a town but just multiple resorts.

Then we started the 20 hour flight home at 9pm Kona time.  We thought we could sleep on the flight... There was NO sleeping, maybe just some napping. It was very uncomfortable.  We evenually did arrive home safely but extremely tired.  We loved the trip and it really was a once in a lifetime journey!



Vernism

Vern on having big arms.

"I guess I am just too muscular for my age."

Hawaii - Day 6

Thursday - We are winding down our week.  Speaking of winding...

We A-G-A-I-N traveled long winding SLOW roads. You sure wouldn't want to get anywhere fast on this island as it would be impossible.  We ended up circling the entire island this day.  We started out from our condo heading south. At the southern tip of the island we hit the Black Sand Beach Park.  The kids are so good about taking photos of the signs where we stopped. I never thought to do this but makes a LOT of sense when sorting through thousands of photos to help remember where you were when. KUDOS to the kids!

This is the only close-up shot I had of the black sand. It is blurry but Vern's hand holding the sand. It was illegal to take any of the sand as it errodes quickly and eventually there will be no black sand beach.

Here we have a unique self portrait of Vern kissing 'you'.

Finally, here is a shot of the beach. As you can see (look at trees), the wind is blowing like crazy.

Next we were off to Volcanos National Park. This is where the active volcano is on the Big Island.  There were just steam plumes as evidenced by the photo below.  The plumes contained sulfuric acid and boy it was hard on my lungs.  Part of the road around the crater has been closed for years as the plumes blow that direction a lot. If you inhale to much of this stuff it will kill you. There are warnings all over the place.  In the visitors center there were also a lot of seismographs to show all the earthquake activity. Luckily I didn't feel any or I would have freaked out!

Here is a photo of the family at the Thurson Lava tubes. This is a cave that once was a lava tube flowing a LOT of molten rock. It was HUGE inside.

Next we have Vern being silly. He wasn't listening (hmmmm not unusual...) so we started to take off without him.  He thought he would run and jump on the hood and ride that way. He wasn't going to be left there. What a goof!

This next shot is looking down upon one of the lava flows from the past. I can't remember why I included this shot in the blog but it is still a nice shot.

This next shot makes me laugh every time I see it.  If you know me at all you will appreciate this photo. It is me waiting to get into the bathroom!  Come on after all that wine tasting I had to go!!!!  Yes, we did purchase a bottle of wine and brought it home with us.

Here is Vern and myself relaxing on our balcony. It was so nice to be in a climate were I wasn't boiling hot or freezing cold no matter where we went. I hope heaven is just like this and I make it there. :-)

And to finish off Day 6, a flower photo. You were always surrounded by such beauty that it was hard not to take pictures of everything and anything.

Vacation at Grandpa's Farm

Well one thing we can all say about this summer. IT IS HOT!  There was no exception to this while Vern was at Grandpa's farm. It was a scorcher, enough so that Vern even had to have some down-time as he got a bit sick from the heat.


There were many fun things Vern did while at Grandpa's farm. First was playing with the dog Miley. She is a big strong dog and Vern got a fat lip from her jumping and trying to play with him. Here are a couple shots of her.

Next there was the horse back riding. This next shot is a photo Vern took of the horse he got to ride. He got mad at this horse because it kept stopping to eat and wouldn't GO! I guess he eventually got it to gallop and thought it was a blast.

The pictures really begin to fall off now. Vern told me he forgot to take the camera when he went and did things. We did manage to get some "self-portrait" shots which always makes me roll my eyes!

On another day he was able to visit a neighbor and spent part of the day working with a farmer and his crew. On this day he went for a ride in an 18 wheeler to the shop to be repaired. He did many other things as he didn't get home until near dinner time but I was not privy to all the chores they did that day. Vern was one tired boy though!

Vern also spent some time 4 wheelin on an ATV. HE LOVES THIS!

He practiced shooting bb guns. Both Vern and Grandpa talked about how good he was at hitting the cans in the same spot. Grandpa even fired off his rifle for Vern to see.  They also took some time to set out traps in hopes of catching some vermin... They had no luck as the "marshmallows must have been to old". Maybe next time.

Grandma was not going to be left out of this fun so one night they went into town for pizza, pop, and shopping.  Vern got some new summer tank tops and has been wearing the heck out of them! With this heat it is all he is wearing!

 

 

Grandpa's phone updates. These made me smile just from the excitement in his voice. He would call and tell me how Vern did this or that. He was happy, you could hear it in his voice. THAT is a good thing as he has been battling cancer and needed some boy time with his grandson. Vern sure fit that bill with his little sayings and hugs to make things better. Here is a shot of those two when I picked him up.

 

The other day while eating sweetcorn Vern looks up from his cob of corn and asks: "Is it harvest time yet? Grandpa said I could come back to help harvest."

I think he is ready to have more farm time ,don't you?