WANT TO SEE MORE NASCAR?

Oh, don't lie. You know you do (especially you, Maria...hehehe). I've uploaded two videos to YouTube that we took at the Michigan Race. Just remember when you watch them to "crank it up"! ;)

Here's the video clips: number 1 and number 2. Enjoy!

(Alright. For those of you who I guess are sick of nascar, I promise my next post will have lots of little boy pictures in it. I'll have it up soon. :)

VACATION! PART 2: NASCAR

Sorry everyone, I know I said I would write this "tomorrow", but I didn't get around to it, then there was some other things I wanted to do. But, hey, here I am now. :)

First off, here's what we learned for the next time we go to a nascar race at Michigan International Speedway:

• We will leave to head to the track at the crack of dawn.
• We will bring rain gear.
• We will bring food and a grill and barbeque dinner in the parking lot.
• We will get a hotel closer to the track (remember, we were staying in Grand Rapids because we were supposed to visit family, but Grand Rapids is a two hour drive away from Brooklyn, where the track is located).

Now, don't get me wrong, the race was awesome. But we did have some disappointments. We decided to leave for the track at about 8:30; the track gates opened at 8:00 a.m. but we didn't think we needed to get there that early (especially with having the kids with us, and strollers are not allowed). We figured, two hour drive, get there about 10:30, and that would give us plenty of time to visit vendor row and do all the other pre-race stuff (driver introductions began at 1:15). But what we didn't realize were that the roads to the track were regular little 2-lane roads. R, auntie, the kids, and I got to the 2-lane road close to 10:30, and saw a sign that said "8 miles to MIS". And then it took us two hours to drive the 8 miles. Two. Hours. It was not a fun drive either. IJ was having trouble falling asleep for his nap because we were moving so slowly, so he screamed at the top of his lungs for part of it. Everyone had to pee, including C who was wearing underwear, but there was no way we were going to lose our spot in line. By the time we got parked at the track and visited the porta-potties (where C started peeing before he was positioned correctly, resulting in pee being shot all over the porta-potty), we had only enough time to get to our seats.

We had pretty freaking great seats, too. Right in between turns three and four, and high enough up to see the whole track. The only thing we couldn't see were the pits, since Michigan has a row of stands behind the pits which were blocking our view. Driver introductions began, and we cheered for Dale Jarrett as he came around the track in the back of a black pickup, waving to the fans. Well, C cheered for "Wiffle", aka Greg Biffle. Nana likes Biffle (because he drives the National Guard car) and has corrupted C with him. Oh well, I can still teach IJ the right person to root for. :) As much fun as it was to root for Jarrett, I think it was probably even more fun to boo Jeff Gordon. It felt just so good. :D I even yelled out a "Jeff Gordon sucks!" even though there were a bunch of Gordon fans around us. Hehehe :). The national anthem was sung (including the Canadian anthem), and the jets roared overhead. At first I thought they weren't going to have the flyover since I couldn't see or hear the planes, and then all of a sudden they appeared out of thin air directly behind us. It scared me a little which R found amusing.

And then of course it started to rain. Now, we knew about the high chances of rain for that Sunday, yet we neglected to bring any rain gear. I think it was because we were in denial that it was actually going to rain (who wants their first nascar race rained out?). A really wonderful couple sitting next to us (who had a one year old at home) had a big red tarp and let the boys scoot over next to them to sit under it. Thankfully the rain didn't last for too long and the freaking loud ass jet driers came out and had the track dried in no time (I swear I think the jet driers are even louder than the race cars!).

Finally the announcement came for the drivers to return to their cars, and the grandstands erupted in cheers. Adam Sandler was the grand marshal, and probably did the best "Gentlemen, start your engines!" that I have heard in a long time. And then came the rumble of forty three race engines; two lines of cars pulling out on the track behind the pace car. Everyone stood for the green flag, and the grandstands erupted as the cars came up to speed. Watching nascar on tv is nothing compared to seeing it in person. The deafening roar, the whoosh of the cars flying by, the vibration of your seat and your internal organs. Plus, you get to follow whatever car you want at all times, not just the leaders that they show on tv. The 8mile/2hour drive, the sitting in the rain, it was all worth it just to see this sport in person.

The Tony Stewart wreck happened right in front of us, which was awesome. Well, not for Tony, but seeing a wreck that close? Awesome. I saw it start happening; I was waiting for Jarrett to come around turn three and saw Tony go sideways and the smoke come up. Everybody stood up to watch the spin, so I didn't see a lot more after that (I had IJ in my lap so I couldn't just jump up like everyone else). Still: awesome. :)

The race went on and there were cautions here and there for rain sprinkles, but nothing too bad. The boys started getting tired, and C fell asleep first in R's lap. We layed him down under auntie's feet in the little aisle between the bleacher seats and there he slept the rest of the race. IJ drifted off in my lap soon after. We got lots of comments from the fans around us on the cuteness of it all. Both boys were wearing ear protection, but still, I think only my boys could sleep through the noise and excitement of a nascar race. :)

Eventually the race got past 100 laps, the halfway point were a race could be called complete if it started to rain heavily. It started to sprinkle again, and the race was put under caution. I decided I wanted to get up and walk around then, since I was the only one who hadn't yet. I handed sleeping IJ off to auntie, and R and I went down to see if we could find some souveniers. We got to a booth that mostly just had shirts and hats that said "Michigan International Speedway", when the rain started getting heavier. And heavier. Until it was pouring. We figured we had better get back up to the stands and save auntie, who was alone with both sleeping boys. R bought two rain ponchos, and we fought our way back up to our seats, like two fish swimming upstream. We made it back to auntie and the nice couple from earlier had their red tarp covering them all. Auntie put on one poncho and tucked the still sleeping IJ underneath, while I put on the other and we both covered the still spleeping C. The red tarp couple took off, and we sat in the pouring rain for a bit. Until we realized, that is, that the race had been called; Kasey Khane was the winner. We turned to auntie and asked her why the hell we were still sitting there. Her response? "I thought you guys knew!" No, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting in the grandstands in the pouring down rain! Sheesh. :) C got a rude awakening when R whisked him up to carry him and he started getting soaked. We splashed through the rain on the looong walk back to the Explorer. It was raining so hard, not even the ponchos were helping us. By the time we got to the car, the only person who wasn't soaked all the way through was IJ. My pants were drenched all the way up to my thighs, and I said screw it and took them off and sat in the car in my shirt and underwear. :) We were soaked and disappointed; after months and months of waiting for the race, we weren't going to get to see a green flag finish, the winner's burn-outs, or the victory celebration. But what can you do? You can't control the weather, unfortunately. :( The suckiest part was that after that downpour, it didn't rain again for the rest of the day. It makes you wonder if maybe they shouldn't have been so quick to call the race...

Then began the waiting game to leave the parking lot. R pulled out of our spot and we got up to the line of cars heading out, and then we sat. We have a dvd player in the Explorer, and the boys watched the entire movie "Robots" and the beginning of another movie before the line even started to move. Yeah. It was even worse trying to get out than it was trying to get in. We moved soooooooo slowly, even though both lanes of those little 2-lane roads were being utilized for outbound traffic. As we sat waiting for the line of cars to move, we saw all these other people staying put in the parking lots, breaking out their portable grills and grilling up some dinner. These people had the right idea. Wait until half the people leave, fill up your belly, and then make your exit. We were all starving even before we got close to the interstate or highway or whatever, and we still had a 2 hour drive after that back to Grand Rapids! (And remember, it wasn't like we could stop for dinner--we were all missing various articles of wet clothing, except auntie who just wore her wet clothes, and we didn't have extras with us. I was in my underwear, for cryin' out loud! :D)

But, you know, it was all so totally worth it. Just to see Dale Jarrett's #88 UPS Ford up close, and to boo the hell out of Jeff Gordon. So worth it. :)

And thus ends another really long ass post. :)

VACATION! PART 1: GRAND RAPIDS

We're back from our vacation! Well, actually, we've been back since Tuesday, but I had things to catch up on, nice weather outside...I know, excuses excuses. :) R, auntie, the boys, and I were in Grand Rapids Friday and Saturday, and then on Sunday we drove down to Brooklyn to the Michigan International Speedway for the nascar race (I have a lot to say about the race so I'll write about that tomorrow). This trip marks the furthest I've ever been downstate, otherwise I've only been across the bridge a couple of times to Mackinaw City. For some reason I expected it to look a lot more different than the U.P. (trees trees and even more trees), but really until we got to the city it didn't. Well except we were driving on interstates and all that and the U.P. doesn't have that (thank god-I make R do all the driving when we visit cities), but it was still lots of trees and farmland. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe for all of it to be more city-like I guess? I dunno. :)

Our main reason for going on this vacation was to go to the race in Brooklyn, but we decided to stay in Grand Rapids because R has family living there (one of them his 98 year old great grandma!). We had planned on visiting with them, but plans change and they were all going to be attending a funeral--not a good time to visit. :(

Friday night after we arrived in Grand Rapids we went to a mini golf/family fun place. Mini golf is fun, but I wouldn't say I'm that great at it. Hehehe, but at least auntie was worse than me; it was very amusing watching her. ;D We started off trying to get C and IJ to take turns and follow the rules, but of course that didn't last long. Eventually we just let them do their thing at a hole, and then we would try to hit our balls around little boy feet. :) C was actually really good at hitting the ball with the club; he'd start at the beginning and keep hitting the ball until he got it in the hole. IJ gave up on using the club, and would just take his ball, walk it over to the hole, drop it in, and then celebrate. He thinks he's pretty awesome at golf. ;)

After golf, R and I took the boys to ride on the go-cart track. I told R to take IJ since I figured he would be the better driver and wouldn't hit anything, and would be more able to take it easy with him. I took C and actually drove a lot better than I thought I would and pretty fast, too. And yet R was driving even faster! So much for that idea. :) Both boys enjoyed it though; they like to go fast.

That night R and I left the boys in the hotel with auntie and had dinner at an awesome mexican restaurant which if I remember right was called The Cantina. I looooove mexican food, especially refried beens. I don't care what the hell they look like, they taste so good. :) This place also had probably the best strawberry margueritas I've ever had. That was an awesome dinner.

On Saturday we visited the John Ball Zoo, where IJ got to go on a camel ride with daddy. We had asked C first if he wanted to go and he said no, and as we were going to walk away IJ piped up with "Camel? Ride? Me?" So R took IJ and of course as soon as C saw that he wanted to go, too. Auntie and I reminded him that he had his chance, and he said no (he was being a little crabby because he wanted a snow cone and something out of every vending machine we passed, so I think that's why he said no to the ride). He threw a tantrum of course, but oh well.

I think the best part of the zoo were these two bears that I think understood they were "on display", because they were throwing poses left and right. It was crazy! They were like two big hairy supermodels. :) I took about ten pictures of these bears, but of course they did the best poses after I turned the camera off. Figures. :) I think the boys liked the indoor aquarium the best ("Mama! Fish! Mama! Fish!") and the zoo's wooden play train. I thought they would like the petting zoo a lot more, but IJ was kind of scared of the animals and wouldn't pet them, and C only petted a couple (although he asked me if he could pet one of the turkeys that roam around the zoo that was near the gate...um, I guess a sharp looking bird beak isn't scary to a preschooler...).

We finished off Saturday with a trip to everyone's favorite headache-inducing place, Chuck E. Cheese. Thankfully we don't have one anywhere near our house, so C only gets to go on special occasions. Once or twice a year of Mr. Cheese isn't too bad. :)

Here is the flickr set with all the Grand Rapids photos (I'll add the race photos tomorrow). I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of the Michigan race. :) (Holy hell this turned into a long ass post...)

FIRST HAIRCUT

IJ got his first haircut today. He looks like such a big boy now (and a lot more like his brother)!! He's not a little baby anymore...

before

after

FATHER'S DAY A LITTLE EARLY

Tuesday at playgroup C and IJ made daddy and papa Father's Day presents. They made can insulaters with puffy sports stickers, letters and numbers. C put just about every number he could find on daddy's. He threw a huge tantrum though (yippee, a tantrum at playgroup:( ) because he wanted to put the letters for daddy's name on his way, while mommy was trying to show him how to make the word. After he calmed down, we got those letters on there. :)

presents for daddy: IJ's is the blue one, C's the red one

the back of daddy's; see all the numbers on C's?

presents for papa: C's on the left, IJ's on the right

the back of papa's

R and papa got their presents on tuesday instead of waiting until Sunday because Sunday we'll be on vacation! Woo hoo! :) Father's Day Sunday we'll be downstate in Brooklyn, MI at the nascar race! This is the first race that R and I have ever been to, and the first for the boys, too. Auntie's going too. That's going to be R's big Father's Day present. :) We leave early Friday morning, so if you don't hear from me, you'll know where I'll be. :)

CIRCLES

IJ's got drawing circles down! He's 21 months old. (The little octopus looking thing was drawn by me because he asked for an octopus. I know-I'm not an artist. ;D )

Here's a larger size of his circles here.

CARS!

Friday night R and I took the boys to see the movie Cars. It was actually a last minute thing; R had wanted to camp out in the yard with the boys (as a practice for a camping trip we want to take) but that night it was going to be too cold (we had freeze warnings). R still wanted to do something with C and IJ, so we decided on the movie, since we both kind of wanted to see it too (hey, we're nascar fans, remember? ;) .

The movie was cute and pretty funny (not as hilariously funny as you might expect with Larry the Cable Guy as part of it, but still pretty funny). There were a some jokes only adults would get, but lots of funny stuff for the kids. And some nascar things that you have to be a nascar fan to understand (which I enjoyed--I love catching those little hidden things that not everyone will get). The best parts of the movie? This line: "He's won three Piston Cups!" "He did what in his cup?" And the tractor tipping. Oh my god, the tractor tipping. I don't want to give too much away, but that had to be one of the most hilarious things I've seen in a while.

C and IJ were pretty good during the movie. C sat in his seat the majority of the time (he had popcorn. He looooves popcorn.) and made a trip to the potty (woo hoo! No peein' the pants!). He had a good time yelling for "the red car" during the race scenes. IJ was a little more of a handful, but not too bad. When we went to see Curious George, he fell asleep, but for this one he stayed awake the whole time. He stayed in my lap for a while until he got full on popcorn, and then he wanted to wander. IJ stayed near us, though; the only really bad things that he did was trying to bug a little girl that was sitting near us, and taking the top off of my pop, sticking both hands in it, and then spilling some of it on my pants (hey, I was distracted by the movie :). Not too bad at all, they could've been far, far worse. :)

I'd recommend Cars to everyone; it's a kids movie that's fun for adults, too. :)

NEED A YES?

Nana was having a talk with C about his "no" attitude after he threw a tantrum (C has been very grumpy the past few days, saying no to everything he's asked to do, whining and complaining, just being a bad little boy). They got on the topic of needing to say "yes" and not "no" when he's asked to do something. C figured out his own way of getting "yeses" to come out of his mouth. So if you need a yes to come out of your mouth sometime, here's how to get one, according to C:

"I open my head, I put my brain out, I put the yes in, I put my brain back in, and I put my head back on. Then a hundred yeses will come out of my mouth!!"

I FEEL PROTECTED...

Yep, I feel safer already having Sasha around. Yesterday morning she started barking, and I couldn't figure out what the heck she was barking at. I looked up at the tv where Nick Jr. was airing a segment from the show Blue's Clues, something to do with it being the 10th anniversary of the show. There was Steve on the tv doing his thing...and Sasha did. Not. Like. It. She would get up close to the tv, but then Steve would move and she'd go running back and start barking at him. Back and forth, back and forth. Bark bark bark!! This went on until the segment was over and a commercial came on. I've never seen a dog get so worked up about what was on the tv before.

Should I assume, then, that she prefers Joe? :)

PHOTOS BY C, 2

Mommy let me use her camera again, and this time I took lots and lots of pictures. I think I do a pretty good job. You can see the flickr set mommy made here (but be prepared, there are lots and lots of toilet pictures. I giggled and giggled sooooo much while mommy was looking at them :) .

Here's some of my best ones:

here's cheyenne

there's daddy and his Dr. Pepper

mommy!

mommy and daddy were watching NASCAR and they waived the checkered flag

my groceries in my shopping cart

hehehe...toilet!!! :)

I hope mommy lets me play with the camera again sometime. I've been really careful not to break it (cause daddy says if mommy breaks another camera she won't get a new one.) ;)

THESE FEET WERE MADE FOR WALKING

Just now C and I were standing on the deck letting the dogs out so they could go potty. C started to walk off the deck, and I told him "No, stay on the deck, you don't have any shoes on."

His response?

"It's okay mommy. I have feet, so I can walk."

:)

YARD SALE EXTRAVAGANZA

Hoo boy, do I love a good yard sale. Sure, you have to pick through a lot of junk to find the good stuff, but when you do it's always cheap. I love finding good stuff for not a lot of money. Which is why I had been looking forward to Saturday for a while. Saturday was our area's annual yard sale day, where there are tons of sales at the same time. And they make a whole huge deal of it, with lots of places selling refreshments and food, and a sale headquarters with maps and the addresses of all the sales including what they were selling. Saturday morning nana and I packed up the boys and headed off to find some bargains.

And boy did we ever. We spent hardly any money and brought home a crapload of stuff. The deal of the day went to the roller skates for IJ that we found--for 5 cents. Yes, you read that right. 5 cents. I had been hoping to find a pair of skates for IJ because he has been showing interest when C is skating. They are the exact same kind as C's, the Fisher-Price adjustable ones. I got C's last year at the yard sales for $5(which I thought was a great deal), so I figured that the people meant dollars and accidentally wrote cents. I checked the skates out before I bought them and everything worked fine. I bring them up to the lady--5 cents. I just couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it! 5 cents!! :D

We also met some really nice people along the way. At one sale I found these cute Dr. Pepper baby bottles (R pretty much only drinks Dr. Pepper). I was just going to buy one since IJ is getting close to being off bottles (but we do want to have another child). I went up to pay for the bottle and was telling the lady about R's Dr. Pepper obsession, when she told me just to go ahead and take them all (there were four). I thought that was pretty nice. Then at another sale, IJ found this Buzz Lightyear action figure that he really liked. The only problem was that there was only one, and IJ didn't want to share with C. C started getting mad, and we tried to get him to pick out another toy but he wouldn't have it; he wanted Buzz Lightyear too. All of a sudden the lady running this sale asked, "Are you going to buy that Buzz Lightyear?" I answered yes, and then out of thin air this lady produced a HUGE talking Buzz Lightyear action figure and said we could have them both for the price of one. This lady saved the day! :) Nana and I also met a 7 months pregnant woman having her first child, and I think we scared her with IJ's 11 lb 2 oz birth story. :) She exclaimed to her husband: "Can you believe this woman birthed that baby?!"

The only dissapointment of the day was missing out on buying two little boys bikes complete with training wheels because they had already been sold. This was at the pregnant woman's place (I think they were selling their nephew's old stuff). What made it even worse, though, was that this lady actually just lives a street over from me, but I didn't recognize the street name until I looked at where it was on the map. As a result, that was one of the last sales we went to, when we could have gone there first and probably would have gotten those bikes. Oh well, you can't win them all I guess. :)

Some of our yard sale finds (including the 5 cent roller skates!)

Doctor scrubs! :)

SCREW YOU HEAD START

I finally got the letter about preschool in the mail today, and if you couldn't tell by the title, we were put on the waiting list. It says we should probably look into other programs. Lovely. They can't make my life easy, can they? So now I've got to make calls and hope the other preschools in our area haven't filled up yet, I have no idea if they've had their "screening days" or whatever yet, and hopefully the one we get into won't be too expensive. Please tell me preschool's not that expensive.

Damnit.

I'd like to know why in the hell they don't just ask for your income level first (Ha! Like we're rolling in the dough...) and then compare everyone's and call in the people that have an actual chance of getting in to do the screening. Because now basically that was just a big waste of time for us, and I wouldn't have had to fill out The Form From Hell. I could've easily done without that. And without C thinking that the Head Start building will be his school.

Damnit!!

Excuse me while I go and beat my head against a wall.

(And if I get C into another preschool and they call me in August to tell me he got in Head Start, I'm gonna be seriously pissed.)