1st place!

Nick got first place racing on Sunday! It was great! Of course the picture I took of him WITH his trophy is stuck on my phone, so here's a picture of the trophy. He's been working very hard on his racing, and it finally paid off. He was able to beat one of his biggest competitors (who happens to be a girl - #1 in the district) and got a first place. He now has a total of 6 Intermediate wins - 19 more to go until he turns expert. We were so proud of him! 

Happy Mother's Day!

What a great weekend! Beautiful weather, good racing, great friends, and a wonderful Mother's Day.

Well, the racing didn't start out all that well, but it improved by the end of the weekend. On Friday Nick had a really bad crash during practice that fortunately I didn't see. Apparently he most have caught some air on a jump and ended up landing face first on the ground. He got a mouth full of dirt, cracked his helmet visor in multiple places and the mouthguard of his helmet. Plus he got a bloody mouth and bloody gums around his front teeth. Not to worry, he's fine now but biting down was a little difficult for a couple of days. He also banged his knee up a bit and he complained his ribs were sore, but no permanent damage was done. We took Saturday off from racing and went out to the track on Sunday for Mother's Day. He ended up placing 2nd which was great. Gabi qualified for her main event - had a class of 5 riders. She ended up 4th, just out of the trophies.

Saturday we had a chance to use our firepit we got for Christmas for the first time. We invited some of our BMX friends over for dinner Saturday night and set the firepit up in the backyard to roast marshmallows after dinner. That was a lot of fun. I can see a lot more lazy summer nights hanging out around the fire pit in our near future. It's so nice to have a completed backyard we can actually use and enjoy!

Mother's Day was a great day for me too. Gabi made breakfast for me. She cooked link sausages and made Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. She did an excellent job and I think I'm going to put her in charge of breakfast a little more often now! She wants to make muffins next weekend. More power to her! The boys were going to BBQ hamburgers for me for dinner, but we ended up going to the Wood Stone Steakhouse in Oregon City instead. It was a delicious dinner, and I got a rose from the restaurant too! My Mother's Day present was awesome too! I got a smoker! I have been wanting one since we had the amazing smoked ribs we are lucky enough to enjoy when we go camping with our friends Larry & Peggy. Their son Brandon makes the best ribs in their smoker! And since my last attempt at BBQ'ing ribs didn't go so well, apparently my family decided a smoker was a good idea! Can't wait to get it all set up and start using it. We have some Turkey breast I think I will try first. Now I need to find a good smoker recipe book! I see our summers filled with lots of friends, smoked meats and s'mores. Can't wait for summer!

What a great weekend!

What an amazing weekend we had. The weather couldn't have been better! It really did the body and soul good to have some lovely sunny weather for a while. I was able to air the house out, finish up planting the pots in the front yard, and even found and planted some peonies in the front yard. My favorite flower ever! I now have 6 of them, and a couple of them already have buds on them! There are 2 light pink, 2 hot pink and 2 white ones. They will make some gorgeous cut flower bouquets. Can't wait! I'll post pictures of the front yard tomorrow, left the camera at home this morning.

Sunday was such a great day. Highs in the UPPER 70's with not a cloud in the sky. I puttered in the kitchen in the morning cutting up meat & marinating it for steak K-bobs for dinner last night, made some Rice Krispie Treats and made a killer chicken salad to pack for lunch for the day at the track. Then we loaded up early and headed out to Molalla for the day of racing. There were lots of people there and all our BMX friends. What a great day that was. It was fun to just hang out with everyone. Let the kids play with their friends and ride, the parents got to relax and socialize with everyone. It was just a great day. Nick had a bigger class of 5 people and also decided to race without his clip pedals so it was a new challenge for him. He has been struggling with his pedals recently so we made the switch back to the standard pedals and he actually raced better than he has in a while! Ended up with a 3rd place finish which was great for him. Gabi also got 3rd but she was in a "total points" race and only had 3 people in her class. She had a better time hanging out with her friends and socializing than she did racing I think. 

Today we are hoping for highs in the mid 80's. I told Bryan he should take the motorcycle out for a ride today so we'll see if he actually does it or not. He thought it was a great idea though. Our good weather is supposed to last most of the week so I have planned lots of BBQ dinners. One of my favorite time of the year!

Great Northwest Nationals

The Big National Race was this last weekend in Redmond. What an experience that was! There were 205 motos on Saturday and 200 Motos on Sunday. 11 states were represented at the races, with some of the fastest racers in the country there. It was quite an experience for us! The kids were unbelievably fast, and there were so many people! Normally racing takes about an hour at our local track from when they start racing until it is all over. This weekend it took almost 4 hours to get through all the racing! 

Unfortunately Nick did not qualify in any of his races. He did learn some valuable lessons about riding with a full gate and having to jockey for position. They ride dirty at the National races which was a new experience to him. There was a lot of rubbing, intimidation, and trying to push riders up and out of the way. All legal, but different from what he is used to. He's used to having lots of space around him when he races at home. He now understands the purpose of practicing with a full gate and learning different strategies on passing people. Next year will be better! 

We were sitting by the first corner and saw so many crashes and jockeying for position Nothing too serious as far as injuries, but we learned how important position is in that first corner. Races are won and lost there. The last corner too. Nick missed qualifying on Saturday because he got cut off in the last corner. Live and learn.

It was fun routing for all the kids we knew and see race every weekend. Some did well and others struggled like Nick. But everyone had a great time. The hotel we stayed at had a pool which filled up in the evenings with all the kids. The kids were just glad to get some pool time in. 

Bryan managed to leave his bag of clothes at home which was a constant source of amusement. Especially since he was on everyone to make sure they packed warm clothes and didn't forget anything. Luckily there was a Super Wal-Mart right across the street from our hotel so he was able to pick up another swim suit and some underwear and socks. 

Nick coming off the gate on Sunday. He's in the middle. 

Nick leading into the last corner on Saturday. Unfortunately he went too high in the corner and got cut off coming out of the corner. 

They also had side car racing fun on Saturday. Bryan and I decided this is how we will race. One guy pedals the bike like crazy and the other guy pumps the hills and corners. 

What a weekend!

So what a weekend we had! This weekend was the first State Qualifier for the kids. It was at the indoor track in Eugene and Nick did pretty well considering he got sick on Friday. He missed most of the day of school on Friday with a sore throat, stomach ache and headache. No fever though which was a good thing. I think he ended up getting the cold I had the week before. He was determined to race though so we went down on Saturday to go racing. He was only at about 70% Saturday and still managed to get 4th place (out of 6 riders). Gabi did a good job racing as well, but ended up 4th which was last for her class. Gabi ended up staying down in Eugene at Grandma Sue's while Nick and I drove home for the evening so we could bring Bryan down with us for the race on Sunday. 

Sunday's race was crowded since it was a State Qualifier. They ended up with 46 or so motos, usually there are around 25 maybe. Nick's class ended up with 10 riders in it so they were taking 2 qualifiers from each round so he had a full gate of 8 riders in the main event. He ended up getting 5th place and avoided a big crash that happened right in front of him on the first turn. It was a great effort considering he was also not at 100%. Gabi ended up not qualifying for the main event in her class so she was pretty bummed out. Having just turned 12 she got bumped up to a new class so it was a little more of a challenge with the older, bigger and faster riders. We are looking forward to the National race in Redmond in 2 weeks. It will be the biggest event we've ever been to with over 200 motos! Riders from all over the country will be there, even the Olympic Medalists should be there! It'll be an experience and great for the kids to see what happens on a National level. We're just hoping to take it all in and make the main events. We're after the experience this time. Should be fun. 

On a sadder note, we found out Muscles had a stroke this weekend. The poor kitty (who's only 4 years old) was acting a little strange on Friday afternoon. The kids said he was meowing really strangely on Friday but we didn't think much of it. He's pretty weird and does some strange things sometime. Plus he seemed normal sleeping on the couch Friday night. He still hadn't moved off the couch Saturday once we got home from racing, which is not out of the norm for him. But when we moved him off the couch to the floor so I could sit down we noticed he couldn't walk. He looked like he was drunk. After further investigation it looked like he had no real control over his front or back paws on his right side. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and looks completely normal when he is just laying on the couch, but he clearly can't walk normally and his right back leg sticks straight out when you pick him up. He stayed on the couch all day Sunday too. Last night I was petting him and cuddling with him and he finally started purring. He looked like he wanted to get down so we put him on the floor and he did hobble across the floor to the food and water bowl. He didn't eat anything but did seem to be in better spirits so that looked good. This morning he was able to run across the floor when Nick scared him which also was a good sign. I researched cat strokes online last night and from what I could find out they say most cats recover from a stroke, sometimes it takes a few weeks to a couple of months but they end up able to lead a pretty normal life afterwards. The vet can't really do much for them except run a lot of expensive tests to confirm he had a stroke, but there isn't anything they can do to help the recovery, so we will just keep a close eye on him and wait and see. I'm optimistic he will be OK, he just might need help with the stairs from now on. Or maybe we'll install a kitty elevator for him.  Poor boy. He's so young to have had a stroke, but apparently it can happen at any age. We are hoping for the best though. I'll keep you posted.

Well the kids start their long Spring Break this week. They have 2 days of school this week then it's parent/teacher conferences Wednesday & Thursday and then Grading day on Friday. Then all next week is Spring Break. Wish I had gotten a week and a half off of school when I was their age! 

Success at the races!

The kids had a great weekend at the indoor track on Sunday in Eugene! They raced in the big Redline Cup Qualifier race which was the first qualifier for the regional Redline Cup, held at the end of the year. This was their first major race as a team, and I have to say the team did very well. We didn't finish in the top 3, but had a 1st, 2nd & 3rd as a team which was great! I still don't know what the final standings were for the team, but I know that Nick got 2nd and Gabi got 3rd in their races. 

Nick had some difficulties in his race due to his special clip shoes and pedals not working correctly so we ended up having to get him new shoes and pedals so his next race will be even better! Poor kid told us after the race he had to curl his toes up in his shoes because they are too small! That would have been some helpful information to know BEFORE the race so we could have fixed the problem. Oh well. Live and learn! 

He had some problems with his placement after the race too that he did a great job handling himself. He finished 3rd in the final race, but 2nd overall and they tried to give him the 3rd place trophy since that was how he finished the 3rd race. He knew that was wrong though so he had to go to the finish line scorekeeper to resolve the issue and well, to make a long story short, he got it handled and received the right trophy. I was very proud of him for taking care of the problem on his own. A good learning experience for him.

Now we take a couple of weeks off since next Saturday is Valentine's Day and the following one they are closed. Looks like we will be back to racing on the 28th, so in the meantime lots of training!

In other news from the day, Gabi was able to sell her entire bag of Pepperoni sticks AND sell a tub of Cookie Dough at the races. Gotta love those supportive parents! We then had dinner after the races with Grandma Sue at Kabukis on West 11th. It's one of those Japanese places where they cook in front of you, like Shojis or Benihanas. The BEST food we have had at those places in a long time, and also the best show! He was quite entertaining and really knew how to throw those knives! He tossed rice for both the kids to try and catch in their mouths. Gabi's landed on her glasses (his aim was off) but Nick caught his in his mouth. It was pretty fun.  The chef's name is Josh and he also said they are putting a video together to send to the Food Network to complete on one of their shows. We wish him luck because he was truly amazing! 

Fun at the Track

The kids had a great time racing this weekend! Nick ended up with a 2nd place finish in a class of 6 and Gabi ended up with a 4th place finish in a class of 5. She made her main event which was her goal she said. They both took part in the training clinic after the race as well which should really help and was a good refresher for them at the start of the season.

The indoor track in Eugene is pretty fast and both kids really enjoyed racing on it. Next Sunday is a Redline Qualifier race in Eugene so we will be heading down once again for that race. The Redline Cup is a regional championship that we are going to take part in this year so we have to hit a couple of qualifiers to make it to the finals. 

It was a lot of fun to see all our racing friends again after a little break and we are really looking forward to a great year of racing. Should be a lot of fun!

    

On The Road Again...

It's Race time again! We are starting to have some racing withdrawals so we are heading to Eugene tomorrow for some racing action! The kids will be racing at the indoor track in Eugene at the fairgrounds. Registration starts at 11 so the racing action should begin somewhere around noon or a little after that. Then I think I'll sign them up for the clinic right after racing which is from 2-4. That leaves me time to play for a couple of hours!

The kids did very well last year with their racing. Nick was 79th in the district. Gabi ended up 11th. Can't wait for another great year of racing! Way to go kids!