A New Starting Gate

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. I could blame it on the season and we are way too busy to be blogging. That's partly true. Around here you need to enjoy the beautiful weather while it is here because it never seems to last long enough.

A couple of weeks ago the track operator at our local BMX track approached Bryan about building a new starting gate for the track. It has been on its last leg for a while and she wanted to get it replaced. She was asking if he knew anyone that could help, but of course he volunteered himself to make the gate. He wanted to make sure it was done right and well, he has amazing skills and know how to do the project. Afterall I think his first love is steel. DId I mention he has amazing skills? 

Anyway our days recently have been filled with making a new starting gate. From scratch. He drew up the plans, cleaned the garage (wish I had some before pictures of that!) then started cutting steel and building. He hasn't built anything like this for a while and while it was a TON of work, I think he really enjoyed building again. So here are some construction pictures of the build:

The first cut for the new frame.

The starting gate frame taking shape.

Just about finished and ready for paint.

Wait. Are we building a gate or a bridge? Actually he is straightening out the bend. It's very important the gate be perfectly straight so it drops correctly and doesn't put too much stress on the joints. 

Straight as can be. Now a little paint and it's ready to be installed.

Cutting out the old gate. While we were in the middle of construction of the new gate the old one died. It finally broke pretty much all its hinges off in the middle of gate practice. Now racing is totally stopped until the gate is finished. Lucky for them Bryan is a quick worker!

Attaching the new gate. The frame is 4 inches taller than what was there so they had to pour a new concrete pad. The old one had settled so much and was so uneven that Gate 8 was 5 inches lower than gate 1. No wonder the old gate was so crooked! Pouring a new pad would help insure it would be level and function properly.

Look how dirty my hubby is! He had lots of help getting the gate installed. Even though there was a big state race going on at another track, and it was 92 degrees that day. They spent 8 hours getting that all installed. And Nick worked right along with the rest of them. In fact he was telling the guys how to build the forms for the concrete and they were following his directions. Guess Bryan's handiness is rubbing off on those kids. They know more about construction and building than a lot of people.

The gate is straight. The dirt is not. You can see how much lower the left hand side is than the right hand side. They will need to bring more dirt in to level the starting hill out.

Freshly poured concrete and brand new gate. Looks amazing and should outlast us! He did such an amazing job and has helping out more than he will ever know. I am so lucky to have such an amazing husband. About 40 hours of labor at home, and 2 days at the track leads to years more of great BMX racing. So many families and racers will benefit from the new gate. 

 That track is a dirty place! This is the dirt line on Nick's leg from the day at the track. Both boys came home so dirty they weren't allowed to touch anything until they had taken a shower. It was pretty disgusting. But we are so grateful for the hard work they did. Can't wait to race on Sunday with the new gate. Should be a great time!

Now that the gate project is completed we can get back to finishing some projects around the house. And racing more. And bike riding. And maybe get out on the river again for some water fun. Lets hope the weather continues to stay warm!

July vacation

So sorry it has taken me a while to post about our vacation, but summer is such a busy time! The weather in the Pacific Northwest has finally turned and we are enjoying summer temperatures and the sun! It's been a long time coming, but we are spending as much time outside in it as we can before it decides to disappear again.

We took our annual 4th of July camping/riding trip a few weeks ago. 10 days at the Oregon coast doing one of the things we love most as a family. Riding our quads and hanging out with some of our besties. The weather was amazing for our whole trip, and except for some barking dogs camping right behind us our trip was pretty good. And the riding was amazing. Since I don't have a lot of time, I'll just post all the pictures of our vacation.

See the sandy trail in the middle of the photo? That's the trail to the beach. We actually saw people walking all the way to the beach from behind where this photo is taken. It's a good 2+ miles one way I'd say. We just ride our ATVs and get there in no time!

Some of our play area. You can see our tracks in the sand, plus other people playing at the bottom of the dune.

Here's most of our group for the week. Plus Nick's friend's Dad on my quad. He brought Riley down a couple days after we got here, and we just had to take him out on a ride with us!

Gabi loved jumping her quad. Look at that air she got! She wasn't so good on the hill climbs. Still needs some practice there, but she'll get it eventually.

Nick & our friend Larry trying to jump together. Great job guys!

Nick's friend Riley showing how NOT to land. Rear tires first bub! Luckily he stayed on his bike.

That's better!

Some silly person thought he could drive his 300M onto the sand to the beach. That's as far as he got. We found him sitting in his car waiting for a tow truck to pull him out. Not sure what he was thinking, but we had to snap some photos of it!

Nick & Riley wishing they could drive this and go pick up some girls. Never going to happen boys! Our friend's son & Fiance bought this just before the weekend and are so proud of their new toy. The only reason the boys got in there is because they happened to be gone at the time. And no, they didn't leave the keys behind!

The rightful owners of the Razer. It's a pretty cool toy. Goes anywhere our quads will, but sits 2 people. Fun fun fun!

So there are some highlights of our trip. It was a blast and we were so lucky to have great weather the entire trip. (minus 1 day) 10 days is a long time to be camping, but we just don't get a chance to get out and ride much anymore so we really enjoy the longer trips where we can relax and have some great family time. The kids are turning into such great riders and some of the skills they are learning should help them when they reach the driving age as well. As long as they don't try jumping my car we should be in good shape! LOL

Next post... The Wild Animal Park one of our favorite places on the Oregon Coast!

The quest for the cup - Part 1

Wow! What a weekend we had! It was a grueling weekend full of great BMX racing action. We had been looking forward to this weekend for months. Knowing it was pretty much the start of the summer racing season. We participated in the 29th annual Governor's Cup races and Bub was ready to make a run for the trophy.

Let me see if I can explain how the series works. The Governor's Cup series consists of 4 races at 4 different tracks in the state. The races to the north also happened to be State Qualifier races. And of the  2 races down south there was a qualifier for another series we aren't competing for this year, and a double points race. In order to qualify for the cup you have to race all 4 races. They then award cups to whoever has the highest number of points for each age and skill level. So there are a lot of cups handed out at the end. But it sure isn't easy to get one!

We started out at Newburg early Saturday morning. No sleeping in for us! The weather sucked at home, but luckily was dry at the track. In fact we ended up in shirt sleeves in no time that morning! There were so many people at the track it was great! There were 204 racers I think with 48 motos. That is huge and one of the largest counts I have ever seen at that track. It was great! People everywhere. Nick had an awesome race and ended up 3rd overall. He was flying! Very proud of his accomplishment. I also knew at this point he was guaranteed to win the cup since he was the only 11 intermediate registered. He ended up racing in the 12 intermediate class which was great. It's the boys he's going to be racing with all summer since he turns 12 in a couple of weeks. However we didn't tell Nick he was going to win the cup because we wanted him to work hard for it and see what he could do. Plus he could have figured it out himself, but he didn't.

The final stretch in the main at Newburg. Looks like he's in 1st here, but he's actually in 3rd place. Awesome finish!

We headed to Molalla that afternoon for the next race. This one also had a big turnout, just a little smaller than the last race. He Did OK here. Still qualified 1st round, but ended up 5th after having a bad gate in the main. He isn't used to racing with a full gate of people and got a little intimidated by the games some racers play. We need to work on that!
Here is a link to his qualifier in Molalla. They didn't get the main recorded. He's in the 2nd group that races. He starts in 1st place but ends up in 2nd. Molalla 1st round of Qualifiers There were 2 groups of 12 intermediates. Lots of kids!

Nick & Isaac sharing a chair during the main break.

So it was a long day of racing but we were very happy with how Nick raced all day. He looked good, was fast and beat his finished from the year before. He just has to learn how to deal with aggressive riders. Stay tuned for day 2...

Priceless....

$90 in race fees

330 miles over 2 days

12 motos at 4 tracks

Falling asleep completely exhausted on your way home with your first Governor's Cup..... PRICELESS!

More details to come later, trying to catch up after our busy exhausting weekend! So proud of the boy though!

Construction update

Sorry I meant to post this earlier in the week, but it's been a tough week in the Geddis household, and needless to say it just didn't happen. But here is where the greatly anticipated pantry is at. Drywall finished, texture sprayed, and primed. Now waiting for time to paint the inside then and some shelves and fill 'er up! The wall will remain primed until we do the rest of the kitchen which will be soon? Maybe. But we have a bust couple of weeks coming up. Vacation is just a week away now and this weekend is filled with big state races so we are otherwise occupied and the construction will just have to wait! So close yet so far away. All in good time though.

BMX Weekend

What a great weekend we had! The sun finally decided to come out and play for the entire weekend. It was gorgeous on Saturday with the temps i the low 80's. We spent the entire day out at the BMX tracks getting some much needed racing in. Nick had such a great weekend and looks so ready for the big state qualifiers next weekend. The rest of us, well we look like little lobsters because we forgot the sunscreen on Saturday. Too long without having to worry about sun I guess. At least we remembered for Sunday!

We raced at 2 tracks on Saturday and he got a 4th in Newburg where he raced 4 experts and a couple of novices. Of the 4 experts (a class above his) he beat one of them to finish up 4th. He held hs own very well against some of the fastest boys in the state!

We then headed down to Salem to race there in the afternoon. He ended up racing against another expert & a novice who was a year older and twice as big.
Here is a video link to those races: Nick's races at Capital City BMX
He ended up 2nd after some pretty tricky maneuvering in the final race. Almost went down, but managed to stay up and pass the guy. It was great.

Sunday we headed out to our home track in Molalla from some more great racing. They had been working on the track all weekend for the big races coming up next weekend so the track wasn't in tip top shape, but it didn't seem to bother Nick much at all! Here are some photos from his race on Sunday.

Here is the start of the race Nick is pulling ahead! (Photo by James Thrash)

Halfway through:

While this photo makes him look like he was all alone on the track,

This photo shows the same place from a different angle. Our friend & fellow teammate James Thrash took this photo.

Another great photo by Thrash.

On the final stretch, he has quite a lead here.

Success! 1st place trophy! Great reward for all that hard work!

It was a great weekend with some great racing action and time spent with our BMX family. How we love those fellow racers! This week will also be filled with more BMX action while we get ready for the big races next weekend. The 29th annual Governor's Cup series is Father's Day weekend so we will be spending it out at the tracks. 2 tracks on Saturday followed by 2 more races on Sunday. We can't wait!

Here is the video of his 1st place finish at Molalla. He's only in the 1st and last race because he qualified in moto #1 and didn't have to race the other 2 qualifiers. Nick's Molalla Race 6.13.10

And tomorrow I'll post about the other exciting thing that is close to completion at the house! The pantry!

Summer is finally here!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy around here. School is out the end of the week which means there are last minute parties and homework assignments to wrap up. Not to mention Nick's 6th Grade send-off tomorrow morning! No more elementary school for us! Yeah!
They were supposed to be out of school on the 16th, but because of the ever present budget shortfalls they cut 3 days off the schedule. Fine with me, I thought they were in school a little later than usual anyway. The kids are looking forward to a summer full of sleeping in and no homework. I'm looking forward to a cleaner house since their chore lists are doubling since they will be the ones home and able to clean the house!

Our summer weather should actually be starting this weekend as well which is something we are really looking forward to. Hasn't really felt like summer around here with all the rain we have had. We should actually hit the 80's for the first time this year. The weatherman said that is a record of latest showing of the 80 degree temperatures. I'm looking forward to cleaning up the outdoor table and being able to eat outside on the deck. Having BBQs with friends, making s'mores while hanging around the fire pit in the late summer evenings. My favorite time of year is finally here!

We plan on doing lots of this:

 

And some of this:

And I'm sure some of this as well:

As long as I have time to do this:

I'll be good.